Genoa handed Serie A leaders and titleholders Juventus a dramatic first league defeat of the season when Luca Antonini scored in the fourth minute of stoppage-time to give the Rossoblu a 1-0 win on Wednesday.
Genoa goalkeeper Mattia Perin kept Juve at bay, with his repertoire of saves including two brilliant stops from Alvaro Morata. Angelo Ogbonna then hit the crossbar for the visitors, before Antonini scored with what was almost the last kick of the game.
Meanwhile, SSC Napoli continued on their erratic way as they threw away chances in a 1-1 draw at Atalanta BC, where Jose Callejon fired over an open goal and Gonzalo Higuain scored a late equalizer, only to miss a stoppage-time penalty.
Photo: Reuters
Napoli, who beat Hellas Verona 6-2 on Sunday with a Higuain hat-trick, found life much tougher at Atalanta and fell behind when Germany’s Denis scored with a diving header against his former club just before the hour — only Atalanta’s fourth goal of the season.
Callejon should have leveled five minutes later, but managed to fire his effort over from almost underneath the crossbar.
Atalanta had Luca Cigarini sent off for a second offense before Higuain scored on the turn with four minutes to go, but the Argentine turned villain when his penalty was saved by Marco Sportiello in the second minute of stoppage-time, leaving his side joint sixth with SS Lazio, Inter and Genoa on 15 points.
Photo: EPA
Inter won their Wednesday match 1-0 with a controversial penalty for the second straight game, this time against previously unbeaten UC Sampdoria, when Mauro Icardi converted in the 89th minute amid angry protests from the visitors.
Under-pressure Inter produced another scrappy performance and were preparing for a crescendo of jeers at the San Siro until Alessio Romagnoli was judged to have pushed over Zdravko Kuzmanovic and Icardi converted from the spot, as he did against Cesena on Sunday.
Sampdoria coach Sinisa Mihajlovic pushed away his players as they remonstrated with match officials at the end.
Photo: Reuters
Mattia Destro and Daniele de Rossi gave AS Roma a 2-0 win over promoted AC Cesena as they pulled level with Juve. Both have 22 points from nine games, six ahead of AC Milan, Sampdoria and Udinese.
Elsewhere in Serie A, Juan Cuadrado set up two goals, the first finished by Khouma Babacar and the second by Borja Valero, in a 3-0 win for ACF Fiorentina over Udinese. Senegal’s Babacar also opened the scoring when he tapped in from a rebound just before halftime.
In the day’s other games, Cagliari and AC Milan drew 1-1, with Victor Ibarbo opening the scoring before Milan’s Giacomo Bonaventura eqaulized, while Palermo beat AC Chievo Verona 1-0 and Matteo Darmian’s early goal gave Torino a 1-0 win over Roberto Donadoni’s Parma, who are bottom after losing eight of their nine games.
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