Published>Thu, Apr 01 10 11:03 PM
Midfielder Thiago Motta scored twice to help suspension-hit Inter Milan maintain their slim lead in Serie A with a 3-0 win over Bologna on Saturday.
The Brazilian midfielder's goals were separated by a 52nd minute effort by 19-year-old forward Mario Balotelli, who returned to action after being frozen out of the team for a month following a row with coach Jose Mourinho.
Second-placed AS Roma, who stayed in the hunt by beating Inter last week, remain one point behind thanks to a 1-0 victory at Bari.
AC Milan remained third after snapping a three match winless streak with a 3-2 victory at Cagliari.
With six matches to go, Inter have 66 points, Roma are on 65 while Milan stayed in contention with 63. Fourth placed Palermo, who face Catania later on Saturday (1700 GMT) lag far behind on 51.
Inter, without suspended quartet Samuel Eto'o, Lucio, Maicon and captain Javier Zanetti, enjoyed possession from the start with Bologna's only real chance coming early on when Adailton hit the post with a freekick.
But, as in Wednesday's 1-0 win over CSKA Moscow in the Champions League quarter-final first leg, they wasted many chances before Motta broke the deadlock with a diagonal shot just before the half hour.
Balotelli, who was included in the team after apologising to Mourinho, sidefooted home to double the lead before Motta sealed it with a crisp shot five minutes from time.
Roma remained hot on Inter's heels after Mirko Vucinic sprinted on to a Luca Toni pass and produced a cool finish for their winner in the 19th.
In Sardinia Marco Borriello drove into the bottom corner after a one-two with Clarence Seedorf to put Milan in front in the seventh minute.
Daniele Ragatzu took advantage of some sloppy defending to equalise 10 minutes later but Klaas-Jan Huntelaar responded almost immediately with a splendid long distance left-footed strike.
Alessandro Matri fired Cagliari level again only for defender Davide Astori to hand the advantage back to Milan with an 38th minute own goal.
Sampdoria boosted their bid for Italy's final Champions League place when they beat Chievo Verona 2-1 away to pull level with fourth-placed Palermo.
But sixth placed Napoli's European drive slowed when they were held 1-1 at Lazio.
Juventus, who are three points behind Palermo and Sampdoria and one behind Napoli, meet relegation-threatened Udinese away in the late game.
Third-from-bottom Atalanta lifted their survival hopes by winning the relegation dogfight against Siena 2-0.
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