Rome: Juventus squandered a three-goal lead and drew 3-3 with Siena at home, missing out on a chance to move back into the Champions League places.
Alessandro Del Piero scored the 300th and 301st goals of his career and Antonio Candreva also found the target for Juventus in the first 10 minutes yesterday before Massimo Maccarone hit back for Siena and Abdel Ghezzal scored twice to equalize.
“I don’t remember ever seeing a game like that,” Juventus coach Alberto Zaccheroni said. “Our approach to the game was perfect. There was the risk of underestimating the last-place team but we scored three goals in 10 minutes.
“Then we committed a mistake and mistakes hurt. We’re a great team when our head is in the game. But once the focus is off anything can happen.”
AS Roma was also held to a 3-3 draw at Livorno, with Livorno captain Cristiano Lucarelli scoring a hat trick and Roma midfielder David Pizarro missing a penalty.
Palermo lost 3-2 at Udinese, which got two goals from Antonio Floro Flores.
Inter Milan was beat 3-1 by Catania on Friday but still leads with 59 points. AC Milan is next with 55 points and had a chance to cut the lead to one point when it hosted Chievo Verona later.
Roma is third with 53 points, Palermo is next with 46 and Juventus is fifth with 45.
Also on Sunday, it was: Bologna 1, Sampdoria 1; Genoa 5, Cagliari 3; Lazio 0, Bari 2; and Parma 1, Atalanta 0.
Juventus beat Fiorentina last weekend and downed Fulham 3-1 in the first leg of the Europa League’s last 16 on Thursday. The Turin power looked like it was on course for another victory when Del Piero struck twice in the opening seven minutes.
The Juventus captain scored his first goal into an empty net after Candreva carried the ball into the area two minutes in and a shot from Mohamed Sissoko was blocked. Del Piero then connected on a volley from the center of the area five minutes later.
Candreva, a recent Italy call-up, found the target in the 10th with a shot from 30 meters (yards).
Maccarone pulled one back for Siena in the 16th with a shot from the edge of the area and the Frenchman Ghezzal knocked in a rebound of a Maccarone shot that hit the post in the 46th.
Ghezzal then converted a penalty for the equalizer in the 74th after Maccarone was tripped by Zdenek Grygera.
Juventus used its third-choice goalkeeper, Antonio Chimenti, with Gianluigi Buffon and Alex Manninger unavailable.
In Livorno, Lucarelli was the first to score, knocking in the 200th goal of his career nine minutes in after beating the offside trap.
Simone Perrotta equalized for Roma less than a minute later following a heel pass from Rodrigo Taddei, and Luca Toni put Roma up 2-1 in the 19th with a header following a free kick.
Lucarelli again beat the offside trap in the 26th and dribbled around Roma goalkeeper Julio Sergio to make it 2-2. Just two minutes later, Pizarro restored Roma’s lead with a shot from the center of the area.
French forward Jeremy Menez earned Roma a penalty in the 39th but Pizarro’s shot hit the post. Still, Roma had the lead until Brazil defender Juan stuck his hand up to block a cross from Lucarelli in the 70th, resulting in a penalty that Lucarelli converted for the final equaliser.
“His arms were open. That’s a penalty that can be called or not called,” Roma coach Claudio Ranieri said. “We’re still lacking something if we want to compete with Inter and Milan, a bit of luck.”
Bureau Report
First Published: Monday, March 15, 2010, 10:49