Report: Chievo 1 Catania 1

The hosts wasted a plethora of chances before Sergio Pellissier eventually gave them the lead in the 64th minute but Lopez scored his third goal in as many games to ensure Catania made the long trip back to Sicily with a point.

Catania remain seven points above the drop zone with Chievo only four points better off.

Chievo headed into the match in confident mood following last week's narrow defeat at AC Milan where only Clarence Seedorf's last-gasp winner prevented them from picking up a memorable point at the San Siro.

Pellissier was lively from the off and should have given his side the lead in the 12th minute when a clever right-footed shot from a tight angle flew narrowly wide.

The Chievo captain went even closer nine minutes later but saw his effort well saved by Mariano Andujar before being once again denied by the Catania goalkeeper after cleverly carving out some space for himself.

Luciano also had a great chance to fire Chievo into the lead, eight minutes from the interval, as he seized on a loose rebound in the Catania box but fired wide.

Catania had its first real sight on goal seconds later but Pablo Alvarez failed to trouble home goalkeeper Stefano Sorrentino with a shot from distance.

Chievo looked even more dangerous after the break and seemed certain to take the lead shortly before the hour mark but, with only the goalkeeper to beat, Pellissier headed an effort off the crossbar.

Pellissier made a second calamitous error in as many minutes when he raced through on goal but failed to beat Tomas Kosicky - who had replaced the injured Andujar - when through one on one.

The 30-year-old atoned for his earlier errors in the 64th minute as he beat the offside trap before firing Chievo into a deserved lead.

The goal seemed to spark Catania into life and moments later they tested Sorrentino for the first time but the Chievo goalkeeper did well to keep out a superb strike by Blazej Augustyn.

Catania continued to press and in the 72nd minute a fine shot from Lopez flew past the far post by the narrowest of margins.

Seconds later they had the ball in the back of the net but Pablo Ledesma's strike was rightly ruled out for offside.

However, they soon had the equaliser when Lopez went down under a challenge in the area and the Argentinian dusted himself down to fire Catania level 15 minutes from time.

That seemed to take the wind out of Chievo's sails and the game limped to a finish.