Perugia are riding high after claiming their third straight Serie B scalp with a 1-0 thriller on the strength of a Diego Falcinelli header to down Catania at the Stadio Renato Curi in front of raucous crowd of 12,000.
Perugia completely dominated the Sicilians on the afternoon pinning back the visitors and forcing Catania’s Alberto Frison to make some tremendous saves in order to keep the Elefanti in the contest.
Minutes after Rodrigo Taddei slammed a shot off the post, the hosts were gifted a penalty 20 minutes from time on a controversial handball and Taddei stepped up to the spot but his penalty kick was poor and Frison made the initial save and stuffed the subsequent rebound as well.
Buoyed on by their tifosi the Grifoni finally found their deserved winner 10 minutes later when right back Lorenzo Del Prete served a cross to Falcinelli who out-jumped his marker from the penalty spot and his looping header barely grazed the inside of Frison’s post to insure Perugia’s perfect record through the season’s first three matches.
Meanwhile, a fighting Trapani side came back to claim a deserved 2-1 victory against Cittadella to secure second place and introduce on-loan Lazio striker Cristiano Lombardi to the big stage.
Citta started brightly and were rewarded when Claudio Coralli fell in the box but still managed to chest a cross into the net to put the visitors on top.
Trapani then took the match to visitors and five minutes from the first half whistle, Matteo Mancosu received a pass in the box, turned beautifully and hit a left-footed shot which angled into the far corner to level the match.
After the goal the hosts created another pair of chances in the closing minutes of the half and went on to carry this momentum throughout the afternoon.
The second half belonged to Trapani who hit a post and blazed shots at Citta’s net but were unable to come away with the winner until 10 minutes from time when Filippo Falco fought through a pair of challenges and played a beautiful cross which was expertly volleyed by the 19-year old Lombardi to send the Sicilian crowd home happy.
Elsewhere, it was Carpi rescuing a 1-1 draw in the match’s final moment against Crotone to secure third place as Fabrizio Poli’s header assured the Biancorossi’s third straight positive result to land the visitors in third place.
Crotone got on the board when Camillo Ciano’s free kick from the tightest of angles propelled the Calabrese club to the lead, a side desperate for points having lost their first two matches.
The hosts had a golden chance to double their lead when Steve Beleck walked in on goal but was too slow to pull the trigger and Carpi surged from that moment to take control of the match.
The visitors were rewarded in the dying moments when the squad had a free kick and played head tennis around the Crotone defense hitting four straight without the ball touching the ground until it settled into the Crotone net off Poli’s final header.
Lanciano looked to put last week’s bitter 4-2 loss to Carpi behind them and Gaetano Vastola’s diving header inside of five minutes was the perfect tonic for the Frentani.
However, Varese fought back to draw 1-1 helped by Mame Thiam’s red card in the first half giving the hosts a man advantage for the majority of the match and captain Neto Pereira dribbled his way through the area and scored to level the match at 1-1 where it ended.
