A goal from Raffaele Palladino with two minutes left to play put a serious dent in the title hopes of Juventus as Genoa knocked off Claudio Ranieri’s side 3-2 on Saturday night in Genova.
Thiago Motta scored twice in the first half for Genoa, with Juve getting on the scoreboard through a penalty kick from Alessandro Del Piero. Midfielder Mauro Camoranesi was sent off for Juve in the 65th minute, but it didn’t prevent them from tying the match 2-2 with six minutes to play as Italy striker Vincenzo Iaquinta found the back of the net. However, the home team was not done and Marco Rossi beat the offsides trap on the right wing, dribbled into the penalty box and passed the ball to a wide open Palladino, who slid it into the empty net to give his team all three points.
Juve entered the game with a chance to close the gap between themselves and leaders Inter Milan to seven points after Inter was held to a 2-2 draw by Palermo earlier in the day. Juve’s loss leaves them 10 points adrift with only seven games to play.
“Genoa’s win was totally deserved,” Ranieri told reporters after the game. “They played better than us, missed less passes than us and were overall better than us.”
Palermo, who was down 2-0 against reigning champion Inter, played in their away white kits, but usually wear all pink. The team has worn pink as their main color since 1907 after count Giuseppe Airoldi, a prominent founding member of the club, said the color was a mix of “sadness and sweetness” — akin to the club’s up and down fortunes. The Sicilians were down — and then up — on Saturday, putting together a rally in the second period that had opened a temporary glimmer of hope for Juve and their fans ahead of their match at Genoa.
“The first half was one of the best we’ve played at the San Siro, we could have scored more,” Inter coach Jose Mourinho told Sky Italia. “The second was completely different. Maybe we mistakenly thought the game was over.”
For a post-Easter treat, Inter and Juventus play each other in Turn next Sunday in a game that will decide the Serie A title. A Juve loss or tie would certainly spell the end for them and pave the way for a fourth straight Inter title. The game was known as the “Italian Derby” up until three years ago since both had never been relegated before. That changed after Juve was forced to play in Serie B following the 2005-06 season after the club was stripped of its league title and demoted following a match-fixing scandal.
In the day’s other games, AC Milan was able to narrowly get past Chievo Verona 1-0 as Dutch midfielder Clarence Seedorf scored early in the second half, while Roma fell further behind the top four as they lost a 4-2 thriller to city rivals Lazio in the Rome derby at a packed Olympic Stadium.
Before the start of each game this weekend, players and fans observed a minute of silence in remembrance of the 290 victims of Monday’s earthquake in central Italy. The players also wore black armbands in a sign of respect.
