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Palermo's European hopes took a beating as they lost 3-2 away to already relegated Ascoli.
Although the home side had nothing left to play for after last week's relegation, the Rosanero still needed points to secure their UEFA Cup status. When these sides met in Week 17, Ascoli were hammered 4-0, but now their injury list included Sasa Bjelanovic, Luigi Di Biagio, Michele Fini, Valentin Nastase, Riccardo Corallo and Andrea Foglio. Palermo were without Aimo Diana and Edison Cavani, so Radislaw Matusiak got his first start.
Ascoli lost Gigi Di Biagio almost immediately to a muscular problem and it was downhill from there on.
Mark Bresciano sprung the offside trap down the right flank and rolled a low cross towards Fabio Simplicio to side-foot home from six yards and give Palermo the lead 10 minutes in.
Dimitrios Eleftheropoulos rushed out to close down Matusiak and at the other end Ascoli finally threatened with Federico Agliardi parrying a Sasa Bjelanovic snapshot.
Palermo made the mistake of thinking their work was done and sat back, allowing Ascoli to equalise with a fierce Boudianski free kick that took a deflection off the defensive wall.
Polish hitman Matusiak scored his first ever Serie A goal. Eleftheropoulos did not hold a Simplicio strike and Matusiak pounced on the loose ball from a couple of yards.
Eleftheropoulos pushed away a Cristian Zaccardo strike set up by David Di Michele and Bresciano was halted by a debatable offside position.
Palermo didn't quite wake up after the half-time break and Ascoli equalised within 60 seconds of the restart. Agliardi only parried an Andrea Soncin screamer from 25 metres and Michele Paolucci was quickest to react.
Ascoli managed to take the lead 3-2 on 61 minutes, as another Boudianski free kick split the defensive wall and beat Agliardi low at the near post.
It could so easily have been a four-goal cushion, as an embarrassingly sluggish Palermo saw Massimo Bonanni's set-piece thump the bar.
The Rosanero went down to 10 men as Fabio Simplicio reacted angrily to a Zanetti foul and was dismissed. Agliardi turned a Paolucci counter round the post.
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