DEFENDING champion Juventus and AC Milan both played to draws Saturday, as two of the favorites for this season’s Serie A title suffered their first blemishes of the new season.

　　Juventus striker Alessandro Del Piero’s goal five minutes into extra time salvaged a 2-2 draw for Juventus against Parma in Turin and Milan tied Lazio 1-1 in Rome.

　　Milan went ahead in the seventh minute on a goal by veteran defender Paolo Maldini and Lazio’s Argentine striker Claudio Lopez scored the equalizer in the 51st.

　　In Turin, Del Piero’s fifth goal in three league matches came after a flurry of last gasp attempts by Juve to draw even once Parma’s French midfielder Sabri Lamouchi had been given a red card in the 89th minute.

　　Juve, coming off a 5-0 thrashing of Dynamo Kiev in the Champions League Tuesday, seemed a bit sluggish for most of the evening and didn’t score until the 87th minute, when it trailed Parma 2-0.

　　Croatian defender Igor Tudor scored Juve’s first goal on a header off a corner kick.

　　Del Piero scored by controlling a high pass inside the area, dribbling around Parma’s French goalkeeper Sebastien Frey and then firing into an empty net.

　　Parma players and television replays suggested Del Piero might have touched the ball with his hand when he controlled the high pass.

　　“He clearly made a hand foul,” said Parma’s 23-year-old Romanian striker Adrian Mutu. “But at least we demonstrated that we can play with them, even if we are such a young team.”

　　Most of Parma’s best players over the past few seasons are now with Juventus, including national team goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, French defender Lilian Thuram and striker Marco Di Vaio.

　　Nevertheless, Parma controlled most of the match.

　　Japanese midfielder Hidetoshi Nakata’s 66th-minute goal gave Parma the lead and 20-year-old Brazilian striker Adriano made it 2-0 in the 81st.

　　In Rome, Maldini, who is not known as a scorer, notched his second goal in two weeks. The 34-year-old Milan captain headed in a free kick from his new Brazilian teammate Rivaldo.

　　Lazio nearly drew even in the 17th minute, but Dutch defender Jaap Stam’s shot ricocheted off the post across the goal without going in.

　　(SD-Agencies)