Roberto Mancini`s side had won 25 and drawn four of their 29 games going into the clash at the Stadio Oreste Granillo, scoring 63 goals in the process, but could not find a way past a Reggina team fighting to save their Serie A lives.

Roma took a small chunk out of Internazionale's huge lead at the top of Serie A with a smash-and-grab 2-0 win over luckless Catania.

Goals in either half from Francesco Tavano and Mirko Vucinic - who scored the winner against Manchester United in their midweek Champions League quarter-final - were enough to seal a win on neutral soil at Lecce, which cut Inter's lead to 18 points.

Lazio extended their winning run to eight games with a hard-fought 1-0 win over Messina at the Stadio Olimpico thanks to Guglielmo Stendardo goal.

A dominant Fiorentina shrugged off Serie A's bottom club Ascoli with a 4-0 win, the goals coming from Reginaldo Ferreira, Riccardo Montolivo, Luca Toni and former Everton defender Per Kroldrup.

Sampdoria returned to winning ways with a 1-0 triumph over Torino at the Luigi Ferraris Stadium, Emiliano Bonazzoli the man on target.

Torino ended the game with 10 men when Roberto Muzzi was sent off late on.

Nine-man Chievo missed the chance to steal a march on their relegation rivals when they went down to a 1-0 defeat at Atalanta while Parma's hopes of avoiding relegation were given a real shot in the arm as on-loan striker Giuseppe Rossi scored a last-gasp winner for a 1-0 triumph against Livorno, who had Cesar sent off.

Siena overturned a two-goal deficit to claim a crucial point in their battle against relegation with a 2-2 draw at home to Udinese, former Middlesbrough striker Massimo Maccarone scoring one of Siena's goals.

Cagliari piled the misery on misfiring Palermo with a 3-1 win in Sicily, while AC Milan leapfrogged surprise packages Empoli with a 3-1 win at the San Siro thanks to goals from Ronaldo, Alberto Gilardino and Giuseppe Favalli.