Two goals in the last five minutes earned Juventus a point against Bologna, and they still extended their lead at the top of Serie A.

Bologna stormed into a two goal lead with goals from Cruz and Locatelli but a deflected goal from from Zambrotta and a last gasp strike from Camoranesi salvaged a point.

After the game, Juve coach Marcello Lippi was full of praise for his battling side.

“Juve never give up, it’s our strength” he said. “We have also been lucky, I can’t deny it, we could have lost and we probably deserved to. We made several mistakes, especially on Bologna’s first goal, but my players reacted promptly and created plenty of opportunities.

‘This draw is a major boost, both for the ranking and for the morale,” Lippi added.

Juve extended their lead because of Milan’s 1-0 win in the Milan derby on Saturday.

A goal from Filippo Inzaghi was enough to earn all three points, but victory came at a cost, when captain Paolo Maldini broke his nose in a clash with Christian Vieri. Maldini wil require surgery.

“Against the big teams we have always made excellent performances, I think also we deserved the victory” said the goalscorer Inzaghi

“We even wasted more than once in the box the chance to add a second goal. However, now we must keep hopes alive and wait for a Juventus slip-up.”

The shock of the weekend came when European chasing Chievo lost 2-1 at strugglers Empoli despite taking the lead through Sasa Bjelanovic.Goals from Busce and Lucchini gave Empoli a much needed win.

Parma are still only four points off a Champions League spot despite losing 2-1 to Roma at the Stadio Olimpico. This is because Lazio could only draw 0-0 at Modena.

At the bottom of the table, four of the bottom six played each other. Piacenza beat Torino 3-1 and Reggina drew 1-1 at Atalanta.

The results mean that Torino are 11 points adrift of safety and look set for relegation together with Como who drew 1-1 with Perugia but still 10 points off fourteenth place.