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Livorno fought back to give new Coach Fernando Orsi a victory on his debut with Cristiano Lucarelli's hat-trick.
Nando Orsi made his debut on the Livorno bench - and in Serie A - after Daniele Arrigoni was sacked. Orsi's career had until now been as Roberto Mancini's assistant manager at Lazio and Inter, but hoped to revive a team that had won just once in 16 games. Catania were in dire straits too, without a victory in over two months, and had Giuseppe Colucci out for the rest of the season. Pasquale Marino switched to a five-man defence.
The Amaranto had a strong start, as within the opening three minutes Antonio Filippini's header had brought a great one-handed save out of Armando Pantanelli and Cristiano Lucarelli hit the woodwork, although he was offside.
It was Catania who broke through, though, with their first real scoring opportunity after 14 minutes. A corner kick was floated in and found Andrea Sottil totally clear for a free header from eight yards. The defender did not even need to jump and could angle it into the far top corner undisturbed.
Livorno fought back immediately with Pantanelli tipping a Pasquale stinger over the bar.
It was one-way traffic and captain Lucarelli grabbed a deserved equaliser when he spun round between two defenders in the D and smashed a powerful right-foot strike past a surprised Pantanelli.
David Balleri clattered into goalkeeper Manitta and both were stretchered off, forcing play to be halted for several minutes. The Livorno defender got the worst of it.
Lucarelli combined with Filippini and the striker drilled just wide, but Stefano Fiore let Livorno go into the break 2-1 up. He spun round Lorenzo Stovini with his right foot and nutmegged the goalkeeper from the byline with his left.
Catania did not give in and Giorgio Corona rattled the crossbar when it might have been easier to score from Davide Baiocco's intelligent through ball.
Pantanelli needed a reaction save to parry Lucarelli's point-blank deflection from a free kick.
The Sicilians' hopes of a fightback were further hit when Baiocco picked up his second yellow card, maintaining Catania's appalling disciplinary record this season.
Nonetheless, Giuseppe Mascara hit the back of the net with a volley, albeit when he was offside so it did not count.
Stefano Morrone swung wide from distance, but 10-man Catania almost snatched a point at the Stadio Picchi. Corona's effort was turned on to the post by a fortunate Manitta, standing in for the injured Marco Amelia.
In the final minutes Lucarelli's attempt was closed down by Sottil's arm and the referee did not hesitate in pointing to the spot. Lucarelli converted despite Pantanelli guessing the right side and celebrated his 100th Serie A goal.
The captain concluded the match in stoppages with a hat-trick, pouncing on a defensive error to blast home a right-foot effort.
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