Juve title hopes dented amid racist chants

Rock bottom Catania won 2-1 away at Juventus on Sunday to inflict a third straight defeat on the title hopefuls as Juve’s Serie A chances took a severe hit.

Substitute Mariano Izco escaped three minutes from time to hammer the final nail in Juve’s coffin on a dreadful day for Ciro Ferrara’s team in which their fans chanted racist slogans that are sure to land the club in more hot water.

If champions and league leaders Inter Milan beat Lazio at home in Sunday’s late match, they will open up a nine-point lead over Juve heading into the winter break.

Ferrara’s side came into this match with four defeats from their last five games in all competitions and with goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon and defensive rock Giorgio Chiellini both out injured they looked visibly short of confidence.

They survived an early penalty scare as Japanese forward Takayuki Morimoto went down in the box under a challenge from Nicola Legrottaglie.

However, Tiago then needlessly did give away a penalty as he tugged Nicolas Spolli’s shirt in the box — almost pulling it clean off — right under the referee’s nose.

Jorge Martinez made the hosts pay as he stroked home the penalty despite having to retake it.

Even that failed to spark much life into Juve, although David Trezeguet did poke Fabio Cannavaro’s bicycle kick just wide on 29 minutes, albeit from an offside position.

Ferrara had seen enough and hauled off 20-million-euro Brazilian flop Felipe Melo on 32 minutes, throwing on Bosnian veteran Hasan Salihamidzic in his place.

Another expensive new signing who has failed to live up to his billing, Diego wasted a glorious opportunity to level on 52 minutes as he skied his shot from Martin Caceres’s pull-back.

Just past the hour mark Amauri got clear on the right but shot straight at goalkeeper Mariano Andujar while moments later Salihamidzic shot just wide of the far post from an identical position.

However, the Bosnian drew Juve level on 66 minutes when a delightful ball over the top from Diego found him free behind a static defence and he turned smartly to shoot under Andujar.

With a quarter of an hour left Trezeguet should have found the winner as he was played in behind the Sicilians’ defence but Andujar spread himself well to block.

And as Juve pilled on the pressure, Catania hit them with a rapier counter-attack, with Gianvito Plasmati releasing Izco to beat Alex Manniger and move Catania off the bottom on goal difference.

Worse may be yet to come for Juve as some Ultras chanted “there are no black Italians” during the first half — the same chant that saw Juve forced to play a game behind closed doors last season.

In other games Napoli beat Chievo 2-0 at home to extend their unbeaten run to 11 games since coach Walter Mazzarri replaced former Italy boss Roberto Donadoni in early October.

Roma leapfrogged Parma to go fourth after beating the newly-promoted side 2-0 in the capital.

There were protests at lowly Livorno against the club’s owners and the game was held up for two minutes due to smoke bombs before the hosts beat free-falling Sampdoria 3-1.