Delneri slams referee after Juve draw

Juventus boss Luigi Delneri was left fuming after his side threw away a 2-0 lead to draw 2-2 at home against Catania on Saturday.

Two first-half goals from Alessandro Del Piero put Juventus comfortably ahead at the break, but Catania fought back with strikes from Alejandro Gomez and Lodi – from a free kick on the stroke of full-time – to secure a crucial point in their battle to avoid the drop.

Delneri, whose side are in seventh place and three points short of a Europa League berth with four games to play, was furious by the performance of his men and referee Mauro Bergonzi, who allowed five minutes of stoppage time.

“I am angry with everything, not just with Juventus’ performance, but also with the serious mistakes we made in the second half and the mistakes in the game’s finale due to high tension and due to errors from the referee,” Delneri said.

“At the end he did so many things he (Bergonzi) shouldn’t have done.”

“There was a series of quite complicated factors – the injury time, their free kick from (Felipe) Melo’s foul that wasn’t a foul, because it would have been impossible not to use that arm.”

“A more serious foul by (Pablo Martin) Ledesma was not seen from a Del Piero free kick, so to tell the truth I think he made quite strange decisions.”

“I’m not saying he did that on purpose, but if you are a referee you should behave as a referee otherwise it would be better to change profession. You should have a logic in what you see.”