Ronaldo on song, Napoli rage at referee

– Cristiano Ronaldo (right) converted a 96th-minute penalty as Juventus beat Genoa 2-1 to reclaim top spot in Serie A on Wednesday, while Napoli were seething after conceding a disputed late equaliser against Atalanta.

Ronaldo sat out the 1-1 draw at Lecce over the weekend but Juve looked set to drop more points in Turin as Christian Kouame’s fluke equaliser cancelled out a header from Leonardo Bonucci.

The Portuguese forward saw a stoppage-time strike ruled out by VAR for offside before he won a last-gasp penalty after he was fouled by Toni Sanabria.

Ronaldo drilled the spot-kick low beyond Ionut Radu for his fifth league goal of the season to send Maurizio Sarri’s Juve back above Inter Milan at the summit.

Genoa played most of the second half with 10 men after Francesco Cassata was sent off, while Juve substitute Adrien Rabiot was dismissed late on for two bookable offences.

Atalanta twice fought back from a goal behind to hold Napoli to a 2-2 draw at the San Paolo, where a fiery ending resulted in red cards for Carlo Ancelotti and his assistant.

Josip Ilicic struck a contentious 86th-minute equaliser that was upheld following a lengthy VAR review, as Napoli appealed for a penalty.

Napoli forward Fernando Llorente tumbled to the ground after jostling with Simon Kjaer in the area before the visitors countered and scored through Ilicic.

A five-minute interruption followed before the referee awarded the goal without reviewing the incident on the touchline monitor.

“I consider this an attack on my professionalism, my players and my club,” Ancelotti said.

Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis was livid.

“If there is VAR it’s pointless creating eight minutes of additional time because all that happens is pushing and shouting,” he told Sky Sport Italia.

“And what is this buffoonery from the referee who kicks out a gentleman like Ancelotti?

“We’re fed up. Without us the referees would be peeling potatoes. We’re tired of paying for this standard of refereeing.”

Roma climbed above Napoli into fourth after a 4-0 rout of Udinese despite losing Federico Fazio to a red card on 31 minutes.

Nicolo Zaniolo opened the scoring before the dismissal of Fazio for a foul as the last defender.

Chris Smalling doubled Roma’s lead early in the second half with a Justin Kluivert goal and Aleksandar Kolarov penalty wrapping up victory. – AFP