Rome - Struggling giants Roma late Sunday lightly improved their position in the Serie A by beating Lazio 1-0 in a tense city derby at Rome's Stadio Olimpico. Brazilian Julio Baptista nodded home the winner early in the second half to help Roma move on to 11 points, a meagre point tally they can further improve through a game in hand against Sampdoria.
Champions Inter Milan, who Saturday beat Palermo 2-0 win for a tally of 27 points from 12 games, remain in the lead one point ahead of AC Milan.
The early part of the game delighted the Rome crowd as both sides produced hammering attacks with Roma being the first to seriously threaten when Mirko Vucinic on 20 minutes nodded by the closest post forcing a prodigious save from Juan Carrizo.
Mauro Zarate replied for Lazio two minutes later, but the young Argentinian saw his header go wide after bouncing off the ground.
An effort from Tommaso Rocchi went begging on 37 minutes as the Lazio captain attempted a spectacular volley off a deep feed from Macedonia's Goran Pandev, but sent the ball high above the bar.
A dogged attacking phase from Roma was rewarded on 50 minutes with a deft header from Brazilian Julio Baptista, who nodded by the far post a cross by captain Francesco Totti to improve the indifferent game he had played up to that moment.
One minute later, Zarate almost equalized nodding home a loose ball after a poor clearance, but Alexander Doni literally flew to slap his effort out of bounds.
Lazio's pressing brought Pandev to fire a nasty right-footer that flew a few centimetres wide on 65 minutes, but the game became an uphill struggle for Lazio after the dismissal of Argentinian Cristian Ledesma one minute later for a second yellow card.
There were risks for Roma despite Lazio's deficit, with 70 Rocchi missing by a hairsbreadth, De Rossi 72 saved, 74 and Pandev firing centrally before.
French midfielder Jeremy Menez failed to secure Roma's win botching a counter attack shortly after coming on for Totti, but Roma still managed to close the game without conceding goals despite their frequent ditherings and the late dismissal of Simone Perrotta.
