Edmundo puts Fiorentina back on top

It was Fiorentina’s first away win since September and could not have come at a better time.

Earlier, Lazio had briefly taken over at the top on goal difference after registering their seventh consecutive league win with a 4-1 rout of Piacenza at the Olympic Stadium.

After 18 matches Fiorentina have 38 points, ahead of Lazio on 35 with Parma, held 0-0 at Vicenza, tied for third on 33 with AC Milan who won 3-2 at Bologna thanks to a 90th minute free-kick from French defender Bruno N’Gotty.

Roberto Baggio scored twice and laid on three other goals as Inter Milan, without the injured Ronaldo, recoveredfrom Roberto Muzzi’s third minute opener to thrash 10-man Cagliari 5-1.

The win, two weeks after Inter beat Venezia 6-3 also at home, allowed Mirceau Lucescu’s side to take over sixth place from AS Roma who crashed 2-1 at lowly Salernitana.

Sinisa Mihajlovic had put Lazio in front in the 10th minute with a superb free-kick — the Yugoslav’s sixth goal of the season and his fifth from a deadball situation.

But the ghosts of last season looked like haunting Lazio when former player Renato Buso levelled the scores in the 52nd.

Lazio’s reply was instant, Christian Vieri crossing for Salas to chest down and volley impressively past Sergio Marcon.

Lazio’s talented strikers ran riot in the closing minutes, Giuseppe Pancaro setting up Dejan Stankovic for a third and Roberto Mancini adding his 155th Serie A goal in the 81st.

When former Lazio player Giuseppe Signori’s 13th minute free-kick put Bologna one up Milan’s miserable away record — no victory since October — looked like continuing.

ArgentineAndres Guglieminpietro levelled the scores in the 20th minute, flicking in Leonardo’s cross-shot for his second goal in two matches, but Signori restored Bologna’s lead with superb volley on the stroke of halftime.

However, Milan, protecting a six-match unbeaten run, equalised when Bologna substitute Oscar Magoni deflected Domenico Morfeo’s cross into his own net, the unfortunate Magoni’s last act before a transfer to Napoli.

A draw looked certain until N’Gotty stepped forward to take an injury time free-kick and give Milan only their third away win.