Lopez late show stuns Roma in Torino draw

Maxi Lopez struck from the penalty spot to earn a last-gasp share of the spoils for Torino in a 1-1 draw with Roma that heaped further pressure on Rudi Garcia's title challengers.

Roma looked to have wrapped up their first league win in three outings when a fortuitous Miralem Pjanic free-kick beat Daniele Padelli in the Torino goal seven minutes from time.

But when Kostas Manolas barged into Andrea Belotti from behind in the area, the referee pointed to the spot and Lopez stepped up to beat on-loan Arsenal goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny low down at the right post.

Roma's fourth draw of the campaign left them in fourth place and in danger of dropping six points behind leaders Napoli, who travel to Bologna on Sunday.

Inter, one point adrift of Napoli, will look to take top spot when they host Genoa later on Saturday.

"We made mistakes and we have to learn from them, we can't just blame the referee," Garcia told Sky Sport.

"It's our fault as well. We should have scored the second goal as soon as possible and we could have done better on the penalty situation."

Torino remain in eighth place, nine points behind Napoli but Lopez admitted: "It's an important point for the team. We did well to keep faith and not just resign ourselves to the defeat.

"In the end it was the right result."

Garcia had recalled Szczesny after dropping the Pole last week but the Frenchman's hopes of seeing Gervinho boost his flagging side dipped after just 20 minutes when the Ivory Coast striker was forced off with a recurrence of the muscle problem that kept him sidelined for the past two weeks.

Garcia will be hoping Gervinho recovers in time for Wednesday's Champions League group decider at home to BATE Borisov and added: "Gervinho was supposed to play one half, that's all. We'll see tomorrow how he is, but there's no regrets about playing him."

After this display, Roma's hopes of reaching the competition's last 16 must be on a knife-edge.

Szczesny was forced to parry Belotti's effort from point-blank range with his leg early on and after Bruno Peres' drive took a huge deflection to loop just over, Belotti blasted over following a promising four-on-two attack just before the interval.

The loss of Gervinho and the continued absence of Egyptian winger Mohamed Salah looked conspicuous as Roma finished the half without a clear chance on goal.

Torino resumed in positive fashion and Peres outran Radja Nainggolan on the right flank before dipping past two other Roma players and firing in a cross that was easily collected by Szczesny.

But when Garcia replaced Nainggolan with William Vainqueur after the Belgian collected a yellow card for a cynical foul on Belotti, Roma began to inch closer to the opener.

An Edin Dzeko header spun wide of the target from Florenzi's cross but the visitors found the breakthrough when Pjanic's free-kick from outside the area dipped over the Torino defence and was misjudged by Padelli before bouncing into the net.

With seven goals this season, Pjanic is now Roma's top scorer.

Torino continued to press and when Baselli turned and fired a half-volley from a dangerous position Szczesny was alert to the danger.

At the other end Dzeko muscled his way past two Torino players to force Padelli out of his goal and the 'keeper did well to get a hand to the Bosnian's attempted chip.

Dzeko's miss would prove costly in the final minute of added-on time when Manolas barged into Belotti as the striker chased a loose ball in the area and Lopez made no mistake from the spot.
Source: AFP