Early Borini strike steers Roma past Palermo
Reuters - Saturday 10 March 2012, 21:46
AS Roma's Fabio Borini
scored the winner after only three minutes as they moved back to
sixth place in Serie A with a nervy 1-0 win at Palermo on
Saturday.
The striker latched on to a clever through ball from Erik
Lamela and coolly slotted home from 10 metres.
The visitors squandered several chances to increase their
lead and ended up hanging on to claim the points with a
resilient defensive display.
Roma move up to 41 points, one ahead of Inter Milan who
briefly went above them in the table with a 2-0 win at Chievo
Verona on Friday.
After taking the lead, Roma continued to turn the screw and
pegged Palermo back as they dominated possession in an open
first half.
Lamela spurned the best opportunity to double their lead
when he blasted straight at Palermo goalkeeper Emiliano Viviano
after turning his marker inside out in the penalty area.
Borini could have put the match to bed midway through the
second half but shot narrowly wide after slaloming into the
Palermo penalty area.
The hosts found their feet as the second half wore on
although they could not find a way past Roma goalkeeper Bogdan
Lobont who pulled off an acrobatic save to deny Ezequiel Munoz
with five minutes remaining.