The Sunday afternoon matches in Italy brought a few surprises in Serie A. Or perhaps, considering the unpopularity of the Europa League, the scores are to be expected: it's clear that no one wants fifth place in the league.

Atalanta 4-1 AS Roma

Goodness gracious, can Roma be any more inconsistent? The giallorossi seem to take two steps back for every one step forward. A shot from Guido Marilungo and a brace from Germán Denis saw the home side take a 3-1 lead, the Roma goal coming from Fabio Borini. Then the visitors really lost the plot, with Pablo Osvaldo seeing red for an off the ball clash with Luca Cigarini, and Marco Cassetti being sent off in the final minutes for insulting the officials. In between the reds, Denis completed his hat-trick.

Cagliari 1-2 Lecce

Lecce would really appreciate it if Siena would stop winning. The salentini haven't lost in their last four matches, but they're still stuck in the relegation zone, two points behind Siena. Luis Muriel gave the visitors the lead going into the break, but a rather harsh penalty decision gave Joaquin Larrivey the opportunity to equalise for Cagliari. Andrea Bertolacci put Lecce in front once again just ten minutes later, and that's where the score stayed, giving the visitors all three valuable points.

Catania 3-1 Novara

Watch it, Palermo, your rivals from the east are gaining on you, and they're laughing while doing so. Pablo Barrientos set up Gonzalo Bergessio for the first Catania goal, reminding fans why watching the rossazzurri are even more fun when the little Argentine is healthy. Bergessio also hit opposing goalkeeper Samir Ujkani in the face, an interesting fact that really has no relevance here but was amusing at the time. After the restart, Giovanni Marchese scored an absolutely magnificent goal, a beautiful volley that flew past Ujkani, who'd clearly had better days. Alejandro Gomez gave Catania the 3-0 lead with 35 minutes left to go, and from then on the home side toyed with their visitors, eventually allowing Novara a goal in the last few minutes, a tap-in by Raffaele Rubino.

Chievo Verona 1-0 Cesena

Of course Chievo managed to put just one past bottom-dwelling Cesena. Well done, Davide Moscardelli.

Siena 4-1 Palermo

Last week, Palermo were riding high after their 5-1 demolition of Lazio. But Siena turned the tables and left the rosanero still searching for their first away win. It probably would have helped the visitors if Federico Balzaretti hadn't been sent off in the first minute, when the referee judged his trip on Mattia Destro to be the denial of a clear goal-scoring opportunity. Palermo still managed to take an early lead, however, with a Igor Budan header in the 12th minute. The visitors had about ten minutes to breathe before another slightly questionable decision saw Claudio Terzi step to the penalty spot, putting Siena level. Erjon Bogdani, Luca Rossettini, and Franco Brienza made Palermo's misery complete.