Sunday’s Serie A action got underway at Stadio Via del Mare in the southern city of Lecce. Gigi De Canio’s Giallorossi were beaten heavily by AC Milan on their return to the top flight but beat Fiorentina the following weekend. Two draws against Parma and Palermo showed that Lecce are no pushovers.
The visitors were unbeaten since an opening day loss at Chievo, beating Parma and Cesena and drawing at San Siro against Milan and at home against Bologna.
In a somewhat stunted lunchtime game, Catania fell behind against the run of play and then made most of the running without ever really looking like drawing level.
Maxi Lopez had a fantastic chance to open the scoring for the visitors after just five minutes but could only hit the on-rushing Antonio Rosati in the Lecce goal from close range.
Catania controlled possession for much of the first half, with Ciro Capuano and Alessandro Potenza pushing up the wings and Adrian Ricchiuti pulling the strings in midfield. The home team looked to take their chances to attack when possible but too many first half sorties ended with inaccurate passes from the wasteful Ruben Olivera, but he finally opened up Catania with a good pass for Daniele Corvia who fired wide after 27 minutes.
Lopez created another chance out of nothing a few minutes later, touching it past his marker on the edge of the box and flying past Rosati before his shot from a tight angle was blocked. There was more than a hint of handball in his initial control.
Lecce started to impose themselves and they got their rewards in the 36th minute when Daniele Corvia found himself on the end of a deflected cross from Olivera, who was finally settling into the game, and stabbed it into an open goal to give his side the lead.
The second half started slowly and was regularly interrupted by niggly fouls and wayward passes. The teams were evenly matched as Lecce continued to seek out a second goal and Catania chased an equaliser, although clear-cut chances were few and far between.
With 17 minutes left, a nice passage of play by the Sicilians resulted in Potenza cutting in from the right and shooting low just wide of the Lecce goal with his weaker foot. Catania shifted up a gear, with Pablo Ledesma and Maxi Lopez desperately seeking to unlock the Lecce defence.
For the last quarter of an hour Lecce were happy to try to absorb Catania’s pressure and hit the visitors on the break. It was a strategy that succeeded as Catania failed to find a cutting edge, and Lecce banked three valuable home points ahead of a tough trip to Turin to play Juventus after the international break.