The Biancocelesti had the first chance to break the deadlock when Bernardo Corradi just failed to make contact with an intelligent Claudio Lopez centre.

Parma welcomed Adriano back from a thigh injury, but it was Sabri Lamouchi who had their best opportunity early on with a powerful drive saved by Angelo Peruzzi.

Lazio had a perfect opportunity to break the deadlock when Adriano - back defending a corner kick - naively handled the ball in the box. However, after seeing his spot-kick saved in the Rome derby Sinisa Mihajlovic drilled this penalty onto the upright.

Tellingly, the home fans and Parma players reassured Mihajlovic after this latest miss.

Parma hit back and defender Matteo Ferrari clipped the crossbar with his header, while Sebastien Frey had problems punching out a curling Mihajlovic corner kick.

There was controversy just before the break when Fabio Liverani saw red for dissent. The Lazio midfielder stupidly threw the ball straight at Ferrari's face from close range after he conceded a free kick and the sending off was inevitable.

Moments later Lazio really should have been left in nine men for Paolo Negro's extremely high and very dangerous challenge on Adrian Mutu, but the referee opted only to book the defender.

Both sides had good chances early in the second half as after Lopez's header was parried, Adriano ballooned over the bar from a promising position.

On 72 minutes Peruzzi bravely dived onto Mutu's feet as a low cross came in, but the goalkeeper got the worst of it as the Romanian's knee struck him in the face. Both sides had chances to win it, but it ends goalless.