Chances were at a premium but the best of them fell to Inter whose Nigerian striker Obafemi Martins wasted two excellent opportunities in the second half.

Lazio, though, will have felt aggrieved not to have been a goal up at the break after Goran Pandev saw his close range effort harshly disallowed.

A point for Inter, only their second from the last nine, left them in fourth place on 20 points, seven behind leaders Juventus who play Livorno on Sunday.

Lazio, who have struggled themselves after a solid start to the season, are still unbeaten at home but are without a win in their last four matches.

Inter, whose 2-1 win over Porto on Tuesday took them to the brink of a place in the Champions League's knockout stages, have not won away to Lazio in the league since March 3, 1996.

Fernando Orsi, standing in for the suspended Inter coach Mancini, insisted his team deserved victory.

"It's two points lost, we should have won," he moaned.

"We dominated the second half and there was only one team in it. It's a lot of effort for little reward."

Mancini, a former Lazio player and coach, was unable to take his place in the dugout at the Olympic stadium having been banned for two matches for abusing the referee in the 3-2 defeat to Roma last month.

Inter's troubled striker Adriano, who has suffered with poor form and disciplinary problems this season, showed what he can do when he's in the mood, his early shot curling inches over the crossbar.

Lazio were happy to play on the counter-attack and their tactic almost paid off when Cesar's goalbound shot was tipped over by Julio Cesar.

The home side did have the ball in the net in the 21st minute only to see what looked a perfectly good goal ruled out.

Cesar's towering header at the back post found Pandev who swept the ball home from a yard out only for his celebrations to be curtailed by the referee who said Cesar had climbed over his marker.

Inter were then left to rue two gilt-edged chances that Martins didn't take.

First he took too long over his shot when one-on-one with Julio Cesar and allowed the Lazio defence to rob him of the ball.

And then moments later he slipped just as he was about to pull the trigger after leaving the home defence in his slipstream.

In Saturday's early match, Empoli beat Reggina 3-0.

The Tuscan side's victory lifted them up to sixth ahead of Sunday's matches, while an eighth defeat for Reggina left the Calabrians sixth from bottom on nine points.