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Juventus win with two wrong offside calls, Catania allege player influence on linesman

Dubious offside calls weren't limited to Everton's draw against Liverpool and Man United's win against Chelsea on Sunday, they also extended to Italy, where Juventus beat Catania 1-0 with some help form the linesmen. In a match that included eight yellow cards and a sending off for Catania's Giovanni Marchese in the 67th minute, the Sicilian side had a perfectly good goal ruled offside (image above) in the 25th minute while league-leading Juve got a 57th minute winner from Arturo Vidal, though teammate Nicklas Bendtner actually was offside (image below).

Catania's goal getting disallowed angered club president Antonino Pulvirenti so much that he ended up getting sent away from the bench. After the match, he wasn't much calmer. From Goal.com:

"This is the third incident against us. It happened with Parma, then Inter, and now here today," Pulvirenti told Sky Sport Italia.

"The linesman had given Bergessio's goal, then disallowed it after the protests from the Juventus bench. This is more than mere psychological sublimation to bigger clubs, it is something more.

"It is shameful that the players who were warming up like Simone Pepe and Emanuele Giaccherini got the goal chalked off by harassing the linesman."

Of course, this being Serie A there will also be questions as to whether there was some kind of collusion at play here. It's just a shame Bearded Pirlo has to get caught in the middle of this.