Miroslav Klose opened the scoring as Lazio secured a precious 3-1 away win at Cagliari to keep the pressure on city rivals Roma on Saturday as they battle for Serie A's second automatic Champions League qualifying spot.

Roma had earlier ended a four-month wait for victory at the Stadio Olimpico when Miralem Pjanic struck in the 25th minute to seal a 1-0 win for Rudi Garcia's men over Napoli in the 'Derby del Sole'.

The win closed the gap on leaders Juventus to 11 points but while it stretched their lead to four points over Lazio, Stefano Pioli's men soon brought it back to a point with their seventh victory on the trot.

Lazio broke the deadlock on the half hour after some great work by Felipe Anderson allowed an unmarked Klose to tap in at the back post.

Cagliari pulled level after the restart when Marco Sau fired a deflected half-volley over 'keeper Federico Marchetti.

Keita Balde came off the bench for Lazio and his first touch earned a penalty, with Lucas Biglia stepping up to beat Zeljko Brkic.

Keita won another penalty when he was brought down by Modibo Diakite, who saw red for the foul, but this time Biglia ballooned over.

Marco Parolo made sure of the points with a piledriver of a free kick in extra-time that left Brkic rooted to the spot.

Elsewhere, AC Milan kept in the Europa League qualifying hunt with a precious 2-1 win at Palermo thanks to a fine late winner from French forward Jeremy Menez.

Paulo Dybala levelled Alessio Cerci's scrappy opener, the Italian's first goal for the club, from the spot but Menez ran half the length of the park and held off several players before chipping Stefano Sorrentino in the 87th minute.

Milan remain eighth but are now six points off fifth-placed Napoli in the second and last league spot for the Europa League.

City rivals Inter Milan, meanwhile, remain winless after five games.

Coach Roberto Mancini and Inter were booed by an unhappy San Siro crowd following a disappointing 1-1 draw with crisis-hit Parma, who had Andi Lila to thank for levelling Fredy Guarin's deflected 25th minute strike.

Inter sit in 10th place, three points behind Milan, with nine games remaining this season.

Cesena, meanwhile, boosted their bid to stave off relegation by securing a point in a stunning 3-3 draw at Verona after the hosts had raced to a three-goal lead.

Evergreen striker Luca Toni opened the scoring after just three minutes at the Bentegodi stadium and after Juan Gomez doubled the hosts lead on the half hour Toni completed his brace to take his league tally to the season to 15.

Cesena's fightback was launched by Carlos Carbonero on 70 minutes and was truly on when Franco Brienza hit a stunning free kick on 75 minutes.

Verona were then left stunned nine minutes from time when Davide Succi got to a through ball into the area to poke the ball past Francesco Benussi.

Roma's first home win since a 4-2 defeat of Inter on November 30 was welcomed by the Stadio Olimpico crowd, and Garcia told Sky Sport: "Hats off to the lads, although we should have sewn it up by scoring a second goal early on.

"Now we're nine points ahead of Napoli and we'll be waiting for the rest of the results although the crucial thing for us was to win a second consecutive game."

Napoli have now suffered three defeats in a five-game winless run that has severely dented their chances of Champions League football.

Benitez refused to point the finger of blame but admitted their bid to seize the league's second automatic qualifying place was now "difficult".

"With nine points (deficit) it's now looking difficult, but we still have nine games to play," said the Spaniard.

"If we play as we did today then I expect us to win many of those games."