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Catania celebrated their first victory in four months, but did so with a controversial penalty against eight-man Udinese.
The Sicilians were without a win since February and knew another failure here would see them sucked back into the relegation battle. Quite a turnaround considering they were in the top four in Week 21. Davide Baiocco and Lorenzo Stovini were suspended, joining Mattia Biso, Giuseppe Colucci, Fausto Rossini and Takayuki Morimoto in the stands. Udinese had Sulley Ali Muntari and Giampiero Pinzi banned, while Christian Obodo is out for six months following surgery.
Catania really should've taken the lead after 90 seconds when Gionatha Spinesi ran into the area and shook off a challenge to cut back for Giuseppe Mascara, but he fired wide of an open goal from six yards.
Armando Pantanelli did well to fingertip an Antonio Di Natale right-foot strike out from under the crossbar.
Udinese were incredibly unlucky on 26 minutes, as Vincenzo Iaquinta ran forward on the counter-attack and curled a low drive round the goalkeeper, but it dribbled slowly on to the inside of the upright and back out!
Di Natale did well to spin round on the edge of the area and drill just wide with his left foot, then former Udinese defender Andrea Sottil performed a crucial tackle to stop Di Natale as he rushed into the box.
Straight after the restart Andrea Coda allowed Mascara to spring the counter-attack and Marco Motta brought him down. The red card was understandable, but the contact appeared to be outside the area, yet Spinesi converted a penalty to give Catania the lead.
Udinese went down to nine men moments later, with Di Natale punished for his sarcastic dissent towards referee Marelli.
Despite this situation, the Friulani fought back as Tomas Sivok's left-foot strike stung Pantanelli's gloves.
Incredibly, Udinese were left in eight men as Dossena became the third player to be sent off with a horrible high tackle, aiming straight for Mark Edusei's knee.
Paulo Barreto curled a free kick off target and Mascara's lob was just over with Morgan De Sanctis caught off his line.
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