Pepe's goal helps Juventus sink Lazio

Rome, Italy – Juventus returned to the Serie A summit on half goal was enough to give the Old Lady a 0 win at Lazio.

Both sides entered the match on 22 points, with Lazio unbeaten in nine games and Juventus having yet to taste defeat this season.

It was Juve that created the better chances in the first half and the visitors should have gone in front from Andrea Pirlo's free kick, which was parried into the path of Stephan Lichtsteiner by Lazio goalkeeper Federico Marchetti, only for the Juve man to fire wide from close range.

Alessandro Matri helped put Juve in front in the 34th minute when he picked out an unmarked Pepe inside the penalty area, with the striker beating Marchetti from 10 yards.

Lazio almost answered on the hour mark as a shot from Hernanes beat goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon but crashed off the post.

Matri had a chance to double the lead for Juve with seven minutes to play, but he too was denied by the woodwork, although Lazio was unable to produce an equalizer.

Atalanta 1, Napoli 1

Bergamo, Italy - Edinson Cavani's stoppage-time goal allowed Napoli to claim a 1-1 draw at Atalanta on Saturday, helping the visitors salvage a point from their trip to the Atleti Azzurri d'Italia.

Former Napoli striker German Denis appeared to have won the game for Atalanta with his goal in the 64th minute, but Cavani's late heroics prevented Atalanta from moving into the top half of the table.

Denis had a shot strike the underside of the crossbar early in the second half before he netted his league-leading 10th goal of the season.

But just when Atalanta looked set to wrap up three points, Cavani redirected Ezequiel Lavezzi's shot past goalkeeper Andrea Consigli to snatch a point for his team.

Catania 1, Lecce 0

Lecce, Italy - Lecce's poor run of form continued on Saturday as Pablo Barrientos scored a last-gasp goal to give Catania a 1-0 win over Lecce.

Lecce has claimed just one of a possible 18 points at home this season, and despite giving away more of the scoring chances during the match, the home side was still in position to claim a point as the game neared stoppage time.

However, Maxi Lopez set up Barrientos for the winning goal in the dying moments, snapping a two-game losing skid for Catania.

Novara 2, Parma 1

Novara, Italy - Novara climbed out of the relegation zone on Saturday with two goals in the final 20 minutes of a 2-1 win over Parma.

Matteo Centurioni's own goal just before the half-hour mark put Parma ahead, but the equalizer came in the 70th minute through Raffaele Rubino for Novara.

The home side went in front eight minutes later when Marco Rigoni headed his team into the lead, although there was a scare shortly after as Parma's Sebastian Giovinco struck the post from a free kick.

Novara was reduced to 10 men in the 87th minute as Giuseppe Gemiti was shown a red card, but the hosts held out for their second win of the campaign.