Roma 1-0 Catania

Mirko Vucinic struck in the first half to hand Roma a narrow win over Catania and boost their Serie A title hopes.

The Montenegrin scored in the 18th minute as the Giallorossi prevailed for the seventh straight time in Serie A and pulled to within five points of Inter Milan.

Jose Mourinho's Inter were held to a scoreless draw by Sampdoria yesterday.

The hosts created a hatful of chances and would have had a more decisive victory this afternoon at the Stadio Olimpico had Catania goalkeeper Mariano Andujar not pulled off some fine saves in each half.

Roma went into the game on the back of a 3-2 midweek Europa League defeat at Panathinaikos, and they were without the services of injured strikers Francesco Totti and Luca Toni.

Roma coach Claudio Ranieri had spoken before the game of the need for his players to be fully concentrated for 90 minutes after they had conceded two goals in the last six minutes of their game in Greece, and his team looked focused from start to finish against Catania.

Neither side had a shot on goal in the opening 17 minutes and Roma took a surprise lead with their first purposeful attack.

Jeremy Menez's cross from a corner found Vucinic inside the box, and the striker hit it past Andujar from close range.

Catania should have pulled level midway through the first half but when Cristian Llama fed Nicolas Spolli, his close-range header went over the bar.

Roma twice had a chance to double their lead before the half-hour mark.

Menez's pass towards Alessio Cerci cut Catania's defence wide open but the Roma forward was unable to deliver the finishing touch.

Shortly after, Cerci acted as provider and served Vucinic inside the area. The Montenegrin forward did well to get past Andujar but Catania's defence cleared the ball out of danger.

At the other end, Mariano Izco found Pablo Alvarez inside the area and his powerful left-foot strike was saved by Roma goalkeeper Doni.

Before the break, Andujar made a fine save from Daniele De Rossi's close-range strike towards the near post.

Catania showed more determination after the restart but struggled to put a good move together.

Llama's dangerous cross towards the area failed to find a team-mate while at the other end, De Rossi tested Andujar with a stinging drive from 30 yards which the goalkeeper saved.

Shortly after the hour mark, Menez got past his marker and he fired high from the edge of the area.

In the 71st minute, Izco's bullet strike went just wide of the near post.

With 15 minutes remaining, Menez's low shot from 20 yards went just wide of the far post as Roma kept the pressure on.

Roma defended deep in the last stages of the game, leaving the Sicilians with not much space to manoeuvre.

Rodrigo Taddei should have put the game beyond the visitors' reach with three minutes remaining but struck wide from the six-yard box after being fed by substitute Julio Baptista's assist.