Sampdoria frustrate Juve as title slipping away

Second-placed Juventus’s Serie A title hopes were dealt yet another blow as they were held to a 1-1 home draw by Sampdoria on Sunday.

The draw cut Inter Milan’s lead at the top to six points but means Juve have now won just one of their last four matches and that only courtesy of an injury time winner from Denmark midfielder Christian Poulsen at Catania last weekend.

If Inter win Sunday night’s eagerly-anticipated derby against AC Milan, the champions would open up a nine-point gap to their nearest rivals.

Juve never recovered from Giampaolo Pazzini’s 10th minute opener for Sampdoria following a pass from reported Juve target Antonio Cassano.

The hosts dominated the match thereafter but could only muster a single goal from Brazilian Amauri’s header from Sebastian Giovinco’s cross on 62 minutes.

Three times they hit the woodwork as the frame twice denied Czech veteran Pavel Nedved as well as an Alessandro Del Piero free-kick.

Following defeats to Udinese and Cagliari prior to the last-gasp Catania victory, Juve are worryingly losing form at a crucial juncture in their season with a Champions League second round first leg clash against Chelsea only 10 days away.

In other matches, Fiorentina held on to fourth spot and the final Champions League qualifying position as they came back from 3-0 down at Genoa to snatch a 3-3 draw with Romania captain Adrian Mutu’s equaliser deep into injury time.

Genoa moved up to fifth despite squandering their lead which they held from Thiago Motta’s 12th minute opener.

They were reduced to 10 men on the half hour when Giuseppe Biava saw red but still added goals from Raffaele Palladino and a Diego Milito penalty.

Mutu started the fight-back on the hour with a penalty of his own and then went on to complete a hat-trick with two strikes in the last 10 minutes to give Fiorentina an unlikely share of the spoils.

AS Roma, who had won 10 of their previous 13 matches, fell 3-0 to Atalanta and drop to sixth as goals from Dabiele Capelli and a Cristiano Doni brace continued the Bergamo team’s impressive home record, which includes a 3-1 victory over Inter.

The surprise packge of the season Cagliari thrust themselves into European qualification contention with a 2-0 home win over Lecce.

Since losing their first five matches of the season and looking like relegation certainties, they have rebounded impressively and now trail Fiorentina by only five points.