Champions Juventus stayed top of the Serie A after a 2-0 win over Lecce yesterday, but there was joy too for Ronaldo, who ended his goal drought with a match-winner for Inter Milan.

However, Ronaldo's goal was not the only bad news for Juventus yesterday - their defensive lynchpin Ciro Ferrara broke his leg in a 21st minute tackle at Lecce and will miss the rest of the season.

The man who replaced him, Mark Iuliano, gave Juventus the lead in first-half injury-time, and Alessandro Del Piero's shot put the result beyond doubt in the dying minutes.

But despite keeping his side a point ahead of Inter, Juventus coach Marcello Lippi had little to celebrate last night.

"You've no heart for talking about points won, goals scored or places in the table on a day like this, when you lose a player as important as Ciro for such a long time," he said. "I feel very, very sorry about it all."

There was relief, meanwhile, for Inter coach Gigi Simoni, who saw his men earn three points and watched Ronaldo end a near two-month goal drought.

Ronaldo, who had two efforts cleared off the line, made no mistake in the 74th minute with a rare headed goal, nodding into an empty net after Uruguayan Alvaro Recoba chipped the ball over the goalkeeper.

Third-placed Udinese's 10match unbeaten run finally came to an end in Florence, where they went down 1-0 to Fiorentina. Udinese coach Alberto Zaccheroni admitted it hadn't been a day to remember.

Brazilian-turned-Belgian Luis Oliveira scored Fiorentina winner from two yards, while Dino Baggio did the same for Parma from eight yards to earn them a precious 1-0 victory over Bari.

Lazio had to settle for a meagre point, though, at bottom club Napoli in the night match.

The 0-0 draw earned Napoli only their seventh point of the season, after Lazio's Pierluigi Casiraghi twice beat the goalkeeper but both times saw his shot hit the post and bounce out.

Argentine Abel Balbo, who hadn't scored in five matches, bagged a hat-trick at the Olympic stadium in AS Roma's thrilling 43 win over Empoli - which saw three goals in the last five minutes.

AC Milan substitute Filippo Maniero celebrated his debut by scoring a 90th minute winner as they beat Piacenza 1-0 at San Siro. Sampdoria drew 1-1 at Italian Cup holders Vicenza, while there were no winners either in Bologna's 0-0 home draw with Atalanta.