Rome - An own goal in a 1-0 win over Udinese Sunday allowed Inter Milan to leave Juventus nine points behind with eight games left to the end of the Serie A season.

Juve earlier Sunday stumbled in a 3-3 home draw with minnows Chievo allowing Sergio Pellissier to top a hat-trick with an injury-time equalizer.

In Udine, two wide drives from Ghana's Sulley Muntari were the only first-half efforts from a lacklustre Inter, who had some problems in defence as Udinese pressed on the flanks to provide feeds for Fabio Quagliarella.

The striker, who played without the usual support from the injured international Antonio Di Natale, tried a couple of uneventful drives and on 34 minutes complained for a seeming flooring suffered from Inter's Brazilian goalkeeper Julio Cesar.

Quagliarella tried to break away after halftime, but was stopped by the fast comeback of Ramiro Cordoba before his midfield team mate Gokhan Inler fired wide.

A first attempt from Swede league top striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic, lying level with Marco Di Vaio on 19 goals, went begging on 58 minutes as his drive was too central to worry Emanuele Belardi.

Julio Cesar made a far more difficult save to slap a nasty shot from Quagliarella before Belardi blocked a close-range flick by Serb midfielder Dejan Stankovic.

A break from the just-fielded Frenchman Patrick Vieira off an Ibra feed gave Inter the lead on 77 minutes, largely thanks to an unlucky deflection from Chilean Mauricio Isla.

In the race to claim a place in next season's Champions League, Genoa won 1-0 at bottom side Reggina to hold the fourth available berth ahead of Fiorentina, who earlier Sunday rallied to clinch a 2-1 win away to 10-man Atalanta.

Francesco Totti scored a brace as Roma beat Bologna 2-1, Cagliari edged Catania 1-0, Palermo 1-0 Torino, Siena won 2-0 over Lazio and Sampdoria had Angelo Palombo twice on target as they drew 2-2 with Napoli.

Third-placed AC Milan were due to host Lecce to close the 30th round of the Serie A season. dpa