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Juventus need to pray that tomorrow night's clash between Inter and Roma ends in a draw as the Bianconeri fell at Parma on Sunday night, and could see their gap from the top of the table extended to four points if one of the two Serie A leaders triumphs in the San Siro.

Juventus were punished by a late Sabri Lamouchi goal that gave struggling Parma the deserved win following an impressive second half display of football on their behalf.

The opening moments of the match were extremely entertaining as both sides maintained an extremely offensive attitude dictated by the need both teams had of grabbing the three points.

After a 7th minute shot by Junior skimmed the crossbar of the Juve net, the Bianconeri took control of the field led by an extremely impressive Pavel Nedved, who skimmed the post on 14 minutes with a fantastic volley from the edge of the box.

Just three minutes later the ball caressed the other post of the net presided by Claudio Taffarel following a nice solo-play by Nicola Amoruso.

The game's pace began to slow down around the middle of the first half as the referee Bertini began to make some awful decisions that made the flow stutter, and the next real emotions arrived on the other side of the break when Juve began to take enormous risks in order to achieve their much needed win.

Their tactic was about to payoff in the 66th minute when Pavel Nedved struck the ball from the edge of the box only to see it ricochet off the woodwork thanks to a crucial Taffarel deflection.

Seeing his team in difficulty, Gedeone Carmigniani decided to replace Almeyda and Bonazzoli with Appiah and Hakan Sukur respectively.

The moves by the Parma boss worked miracles as from the moment the Ghana midfielder and the Turkish striker made their way onto the pitch, the match totally belonged to the Emiliani.

Juve's over-offensive stance allowed the yellow and blues to easily hit on the break, and only a repeated show of final pass errors by the red hot Marco Di Vaio, Hidetoshi Nakata, and Hakan Sukur saved Buffon from capitulation.

The referee also helped Juve to keep their lead intact as when less than six minutes were left to be played he overlooked a clear Buffon foul on Nakata that occurred right inside the Bianconero box.

But two minutes later nothing more could stand in the way of a Parma triumph, as Lamouchi was able to hit the back of the net with a precise and powerful drive that sent the Stadio Tardini into a mystical euphoria.

The Emiliani now stand four points clear of the relegation zone on 34 points, while Juve are one point behind Roma and Inter, who end the Serie A's 28th matchday on Sunday evening.