Roma's chances of challenging for the Serie A title took a minor blow this evening as they were held to a 1-1 draw against Fiorentina at the Stadio Artemio Franchi.

The visitors were thankful to a second-half goal from Adem Ljajic, who cancelled out an opener from Mario Gomez, but Rudi Garcia's side now find themselves seven points behind league leaders Juventus.

The home side could have gone in front after 14 minutes had been played when Gonzalo Rodriguez put the ball past an on-rushing Morgan De Sanctis, leaving Daniele De Rossi to get back in time to clear off the line.

It took 16 minutes for Roma to carve out an opening as Kevin Strootman latched on to Francesco Totti's cross, but the midfielder could only head wide of the target.

Fiorentina managed to grab the contest's opening goal, and it came with their first real chance when David Pizarro picked out Gomez, who lashed home into the bottom-right corner.

Ljajic did his best to muster an equaliser on two separate occasions, only for Radja Nainggolan and De Rossi to skew headers wide without troubling Ciprian Tatarusanu as the hosts went into the interval ahead.

Roma started the second period the brightest and they soon found a route back into the game when Juan Iturbe picked out Ljajic, who tucked adroitly into the bottom corner to draw the visitors level.

Iturbe was wasteful not too long after as he shot straight at Tatarusanu following an enterprising through-ball from the impressive Totti.

Ljajic was soon back in the thick of the action and he almost carved out a goal to put his side ahead, although he leant just a little too far back as his shot flew over the bar.

Fiorentina might have stolen all three points in the last minute of the encounter through Nenad Tomovic, but Sanctis moved remarkably well to keep out the shot at his bottom-right corner, leaving both sides to claim a point.