AS Roma's Serie A title challenge all but fizzled out Sunday when it lost 3-1 to arch-rival Lazio despite being awarded a hugely controversial penalty which overshadowed the game. Referee Daniele Orsato pointed to the spot after Kevin Strootman went down in the Lazio penalty area but replays showed that the Dutchman was not touched by any Lazio player. Strootman touched the ball once, turned and then went down in the penalty area although it was not clear whether it was a deliberate dive or he was just trying to get out of the way of a tackle from Lazio's Wallace. Daniele De Rossi converted the spot kick in the 45th minute to cancel out Keita Balde Diao's 12th-minute opener for Lazio amid furious protests. Fourth-placed Lazio restored what it saw as justice when Dusan Basta scored with a deflected shot five minutes after the restart and Keita finished off a deadly counter-attack to complete the win with his second goal of the game. Second-placed Roma's defeat left it nine points behind leader Juventus with four matches left to play. Juve has 84 points with Roma on 75, Napoli on 71 and Lazio, virtually assured a place in the Europa League, 67. It was Lazio's first league win over Roma since November 2012, a run of seven matches. Roma brought on 40-year-old Francesco Totti for the final 20 minutes for what could be stalwart's last derby, if he does not renew his contract at the end of the season. Relegation-threatened Palermo, which would have gone down if it had lost to Fiorentina, instead earned itself a stay of execution with a 2-0 win over the Violets. Palermo, one place off the bottom and on their fifth coach of the season, has 19 points, although it is still 10 adrift of Empoli and safety. Empoli, which is 17th, remained in danger when they lost 3-1 at home to Sassuolo, leaving it only four points ahead of Crotone which held AC Milan to a 1-1 draw. Chievo won 2-1 at Genoa, Bologna beat Udinese 4-0 and Cagliari beat relegated Pescara 1-0. Hoffenheim jumps to third A 90th-minute goal from Benjamin Huebner gave Hoffenheim a last-gasp 1-0 victory over Eintracht Frankfurt Sunday and moved it up into third place with three matches left in the season. The top three teams win an automatic Champions League group-stage spot with the fourth going into the competition's qualifying rounds. Bayern Munich secured its fifth successive league title Saturday after crushing VfL Wolfsburg 6-0 to leave it 10 points clear with three games left as RB Leipzig, in second place on 63, drew 0-0 against Ingolstadt. The win sent Hoffenheim into third, one point ahead of Borussia Dortmund, which drew 0-0 against Cologne Saturday. Hoffenheim and Dortmund meet next week. Veteran Halil Altintop scored twice as Augsburg crushed Hamburg SV 4-0 in their relegation derby to climb out of the drop zone. — Agencies
