This is often a tense encounter and both teams have had their fair share of controversy in the last week. Adriano and Sabri Lamouchi were suspended for the Gialloblu after their difficult 2-2 draw at Juventus last week, so there were some tactical changes enforced by Cesare Prandelli.

Perugia had two good early chances with Fabrizio Miccoli and Grosso counter-attacks, but Sebastien Frey was equal to the task.

However, an inspired Adrian Mutu fired Parma into the lead on 19 minutes. The Romanian dragged the ball back to skip past Di Loreto and then drilled an angled drive past the helpless Sebastiano Rossi.

The Grifoni goalkeeper prevented a second soon after when he palmed out Mutu's powerful header.

Parma thought they had made the points safe at the dawn of the second half when Massimo Donati gathered a Matteo Brighi assist and his daisy-cutter slotted in by the near post.

Perugia re-opened the game on 64 minutes when a trademark Miccoli run set up Giovanni Tedesco's fierce drive. Just nine minutes later the captain completed an extraordinary comeback. Frey could only parry a close-range Obodo header and Tedesco turned in with a bicycle-kick practically on the line.

Miccoli and Mark Bresciano went close with set-pieces, but there were no more goals.