Football news (Calcio news): Livorno 1-1 Bari
Allegretti 24 (B), Tavano 85 (L)
Stadio Picchi
Livorno are still propping up the table, but at least fought back to earn a late point with Francesco Tavano’s snooker-shot.
The Amaranto were in crisis and Coach Serse Cosmi apologised for “betraying” the trust that the fans put in him. They had slipped to the bottom of the table thanks to one point from five rounds and had to do without Romano Perticone, Andrea Esposito and Leonardo Miglionico. Bari were also promoted in the summer, but sitting pretty in ninth place despite missing Paulo Barreto, Andrea Ranocchia, Antonio Langella, Daniele De Vezze, Vitali Kutuzov, Mariano Donda and Sergio Almiron.
Francesco Tavano had a fantastic opportunity after 18 minutes when he unleashed a right-foot rocket on the bounce from the edge of the area that forced Jean-Francois Gillet into a flying save.
Moments later Cristiano Lucarelli went one-on-one, but Leonardo Bonucci made up for his error by blocking him off with a crucial sliding tackle.
Bari broke the deadlock with a frankly bizarre goal. Riccardo Meggiorini had a hopeful long-range snapshot that took two deflections off Livorno defender Nelson Rivas and Riccardo Allegretti to send Rubinho the wrong way.
Antonio Filippini went off with an injury and Bari wasted the opportunity to make it 2-0 before half-time. Rubinho’s poor clearance fell straight to Jose ‘Nacho’ Castillo, who hesitated and allowed the defence to close him down.
After the restart Bari went very close again, as Rivas almost scored an own goal with his wayward defensive header thumping the crossbar.
Tavano felt he deserved a penalty on 54 minutes, but instead had the free kick given against him. Rubinho fumbled an Edgar Alvarez shot and almost let it bobble into his own net.
Cristiano Lucarelli failed to get the right contact as Fabio Galante knocked on a corner.
Play was halted for a couple of minutes when Livorno fans threw flares on to the pitch, but the situation soon calmed down.
Livorno equalised in the final minutes. Lucarelli knocked on a long ball and Tavano did very well to spin round, nutmegging a defender with a snooker shot into the far bottom corner.