Juventus chief Beppe Marotta denies conspiracy claims after Catania clash

Tempers frayed after controversial decisions at Catania

Juventus director general Beppe Marotta has denied conspiracy claims after Sunday's controversial win at Catania.

Catania saw a legitimate Gonzalo Bergessio goal disallowed before Arturo Vidal scored a second-half winner from an offside position to extend Juve's unbeaten run to 48 matches.

Pictures of Bergessio's goal showing he was not offside were splashed on the front of both Gazzetta dello Sport and Corriere dello Sport, Italy's biggest sports dailies.

But Marotta tried to defuse conspiracy talk on Monday by saying: "I agree that there was a refereeing mistake yesterday but there have been other mistakes in previous matches and last year Juve was on the receiving end.

"But we categorically reject any idea of a conspiracy, that Juve somehow affected the result yesterday."

Furious Catania president Antonino Pulvirenti was ordered off the bench and later complained that protests from the Juve bench had influence the officials' decision to disallow the goal.

Aggrieved

Meanwhile in Florence, Lazio also complained after they finished their 2-0 defeat at Fiorentina with nine men, having also seen a Stefano Mauri equaliser wrongly ruled out for offside.

Lazio coach Vladmir Petkovic praised Fiorentina but felt aggrieved by the referee's decision not to award Mauri's goal.

"The goal was clearly not offside," he told Sky Italia. "I also failed to understand some of the cautions we had, but overall we should have done better."

The incidents have raised questions over the standard and professionalism of refereeing in Italy, prompting a reaction from the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) president Gianni Petrucci.

"The referees are working hard and mistakes sometimes happen," said Petrucci, who praised Petkovic's reaction as an example of fair play.

"People should stop getting carried away and look at how Petkovic showed a good example of fair play."

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