Milan: Daniele De Rossi marked his 500th game for Roma with a goal as he helped the capital side beat Empoli 3-1 in Serie A on Saturday, while AC Milan's miserable season continued with a 1-1 draw at Torino.
Two set pieces in three second-half minutes undid Empoli as Miralem Pjanic scored with a free kick before sending in a corner for De Rossi to double Roma's lead.
Mohamed Salah sealed the result 10 minutes later. Marcel Buchel netted a consolation for Empoli with his first goal for the club.
"It was undeniably a great night," De Rossi said. "When you win it's always a perfect one and then, if I score, which I don't do very often, I am even happier."
Roma, which has now scored 12 goals in its last three league matches, moved provisionally second ahead of Sunday's Derby d'Italia between Inter Milan and Juventus.
"It's true that we are really motivated to do better after two second places, but we have to do more to win," De Rossi added when asked about Roma's title chances. "It's my dream and that of the city, it's now the time to get that satisfaction. So many years have passed since our last title, but it will be on the pitch where we will see if now is the time or not."
Empoli remained 16th, three points clear of the drop zone ahead of the rest of the weekend's fixtures.
Roma was looking for a third successive league win ahead of its Champions League trip to Bayer Leverkusen — a must-win match following defeat to BATE Borisov.
Gervinho had the ball in the back of the net within 90 seconds but it was ruled out for offside.
Roma eventually broke the deadlock shortly before the hour when Pjanic curled a trademark free kick into the top right corner.
Empoli barely had time to recover from going a goal down before it found itself two goals behind when De Rossi sent Pjanic's corner across into the far side of the net with a glancing header.
Roma extended its advantage in the 70th minute as Gervinho ran onto a Radja Nainggolan through ball and pulled back from the byline for Salah to fire into the middle of the goal from close range.
Empoli pulled one back with 15 minutes remaining. Buchel's low drive toward the far corner appeared to be comfortable enough for Wojciech Szczesny to save but it slipped under the Roma goalkeeper's outstretched hand.
Torino hadn't beaten Milan since 2001 but Sinisa Mihajlovic's side was coming off the back of two successive defeats.
After a poor first half with just four attempts on goal in total from both sides, Milan took the lead shortly after the hour.
Giacomo Bonaventura cut the ball back to a completely unmarked Carlos Bacca, who had plenty of time to control and pick out his spot. The Colombia forward had only come off the bench seven minutes earlier for Luiz Adriano.
Bacca almost had a second moments later when he beat the offside trap but was denied by a Kamil Glik goalline clearance.
It took Torino until the 70th minute for its first shot but it levelled three minutes later when substitute Andrea Belotti, who had only just come on, chested a Fabio Quagliarella ball down with his first touch for Daniele Baselli to smash past Diego Lopez at the near post.
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