Giuseppe Rossi continued his remarkable comeback with a 15-minute hat-trick as Fiorentina recovered from two goals down to defeat previously unbeaten title-holders Juventus 4-2 in Serie A yesterday.
The US-born Italy striker, back this season after successive knee injuries effectively sidelined him for two years, took his tally to eight goals in as many games while Juventus coach Antonio Conte was left visibly seething by his team’s collapse.
There was plenty of other drama with a total of nine penalties being awarded in yesterday’s seven games and a first top-flight win for Serie A debutants Sassuolo who beat Bologna 2-1.
Sampdoria converted two penalties, the second in the sixth minute of stoppage time, for a 2-1 win at Livorno while Jorginho scored two penalties for Verona as they came from behind to beat Parma 3-2.
“We suffered a 10-minute nightmare,” Conte told reporters.
“I thought it was all over bar the shouting. We dominated the game for long periods and it all went down the drain in 10 minutes.”
Juventus had dropped only two points all season in the league and appeared to be cruising when a controversial Carlos Tevez penalty and a Paul Pogba goal gave them a 2-0 half-time lead.
Tevez collapsed dramatically after minimal contact from Gonzalo Rodriguez before dusting himself down to fire home a penalty in the 37th minute.
Three minutes later, Fiorentina’s Juan Cuadrado slid in and sent an attempted clearance looping across the face of his own goal, where it landed at the feet of Pogba who tapped in the ball.
Fiorentina’s fightback began with another controversial penalty in the 66th minute when Matias Fernandez was bundled over and Rossi scored from the spot.
Juventus then collapsed, conceding three goals in five minutes.
Rossi levelled in the 76th minute when he collected the ball on the edge of the area, beat two defenders and fired past Gianluigi Buffon.
Two minutes after that, the Juventus defence left Joaquin Sanchez all alone and the Spaniard swept home to make it 3-2. Then Colombian international Cuadrado led a counter-attack and slipped the ball to Rossi who drove home his third.
Juventus were left in third place with 19 points, behind Napoli on goal difference and five points adrift of Roma.
Fiorentina are sixth, level on 15 points with Inter who conceded a last-minute equaliser last night in a 3-3 draw at Torino which saw them play for 85 minutes with 10 men.
Samir Handanovic was given a red card after just five minutes with Alexander Farnerud putting Torino ahead (21) only for Fredy Guarin to level on the stroke of half-time.
Ciro Immobile restored the hosts' lead after 53 minutes but that lasted just two minutes before Rodrigo Palacio scored the first of his two goals.
Palacio struck again after 71 minutes and that looked sufficient for victory until Nicola Bellomo's intervention for Torino in the last minute.
Substitute Nicola Pozzi’s stoppage-time penalty handed Sampdoria their first Serie A win of the campaign.
Livorno looked to have earned a point after substitute Luca Siligardi had cancelled out Citadin Eder’s opener with one minute remaining.
However, they then shot themselves in the foot after Andrea Luci brought down substitute Vasco Regini in the area and the referee pointed to the spot.
Pozzi made no mistake and beat Livorno goalkeeper Francesco Bardi to hand his team three vital points.
Serie A
Atalanta 2
Cigarini 41; Denis 84;
Lazio 1
Perea 53;
HT: 1-0. Att: 12,127.
Fiorentina 4
Rossi 66p, 76, 81; Joaquin 78;
Juventus 2
Tevez 37 pen.; Pogba 40;
HT: 0-2. Att: 26,000.
Genoa 2
Gilardino 22, 50;
Chievo 1
Bentivoglio 48;
HT: 1-0. Att: 19,000.
Verona 3
Cacciatore 9; Jorginho 61p, 88p;
Parma 2
Parolo 19; Cassano 25;
HT: 1-2. Att: 20,000.
Livorno 1
Siligardi 90;
Sampdoria 2
Eder 19 pen.; Pozzi 90+ pen.;
HT: 0-1. Att: 9,471.
Sassuolo 2
Berardi 12 pen.; Floro Flores 17;
Bologna 1
Diamanti 34 pen.;
HT: 2-1. Att: 12,100.
Torino 3
Farnerud 21; Immobile 53; Bellomo 90;
Inter 3
Guarin 45; Palacio 55, 71;
HT: 1-1. Att: 20,881.
Missed penalty: Cerci (T) 7.
Red card: Handanovic (I) 5.
| P | W | D | L | F | A | Pts | |
| Roma | 8 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 22 | 1 | 24 |
| Napoli | 8 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 18 | 6 | 19 |
| Juventus | 8 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 16 | 10 | 19 |
| Verona | 8 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 16 | 12 | 16 |
| Inter | 8 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 19 | 9 | 15 |
| Fiorentina | 8 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 17 | 10 | 15 |
| Atalanta | 8 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 11 | 11 | 12 |
| Milan | 8 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 14 | 13 | 11 |
| Lazio | 8 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 12 | 12 | 11 |
| Torino | 8 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 13 | 13 | 10 |
| Udinese | 8 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 9 | 9 | 10 |
| Cagliari | 8 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 10 | 12 | 10 |
| Parma | 8 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 13 | 15 | 9 |
| Livorno | 8 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 9 | 12 | 8 |
| Genoa | 8 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 8 | 12 | 8 |
| Sampdoria | 8 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 8 | 14 | 6 |
| Catania | 8 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 6 | 13 | 5 |
| Sassuolo | 8 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 7 | 22 | 5 |
| Chievo | 8 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 6 | 15 | 4 |
| Bologna | 8 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 9 | 22 | 3 |
Top scorers
8 goals: Rossi (Fiorentina).
6 goals: Cerci (Torino).
5 goals: Hamsik (Napoli), Jorginho (Verona), Palacio (Inter).
Next fixtures
Saturday: 18.00 Sampdoria vs Atalanta. 20.45 Inter vs Verona.
Sunday: 12.30 Napoli vs Torino. 15.00 Catania vs Sassuolo; Juve vs Genoa; Parma vs Milan; Udinese vs Roma; Bologna vs Livorno; Chievo vs Fiorentina. 20.45 Lazio vs Cagliari.
Prima Divisione ‘A’
San Marino vs Savona - 1-1
Carrarese vs Venezia - 0-1
SudTidol vs Entella - 1-2
Como vs Pro Vercelli - 0-0
Pavia vs FeralpiSalo - 1-1
Cremonese vs Lumezzane - 2-1
Vicenza vs Pro Patria - 1-1
Leading standings: Entella 17; Cre-monese, Pro Vercelli 15; Venezia 13; Reggiana, AlbinoLeffe, Savona, Como 10.
Prima Divisione ‘B’
Catanzaro vs Ascoli - 1-1
Lecce vs Gubbio - 1-1
Barletta vs L’Aquila - 2-2
Frosinone vs Pontedera - 5-0
Salernitana vs Viareggio - 1-1
Pisa vs Paganese - 3-0
Benevento vs Perugia - 1-1
Prato vs Nocerina - 4-1
Leading standings: Frosinone, Pisa, Pontedera, L’Aquila 17; Prato 14; Catanzaro 13; Benevento 12; Saler-nitana, Perugia 9.