Milan - A pair of lowered shorts and their coach's altercation with a journalist have partly obscured a hat-trick from Catania's flag bearing striker and the good performance of the team in the Italian Serie A.

The Sicily side at the weekend rose to a comfortable seventh place as Giuseppe Mascara scored all their goals in a 3-2 win over Torino.

But the striker's feats and the team's good position seemed to take the back-seat in the Italian media, which on Tuesday devoted space to the explanation provided by Gianvito Plasmati about the lowering of his shorts at a crucial moment of the game.

Plasmati, a 25-year-old striker, exposed his underwear toward the opponents' goal as Mascara was readying to take a free kick he then curled past goalkeeper Matteo Sereni for a temporary 2-1 lead.

"It was a gesture made for fun," Plasmati said. "Certainly not lack of respect for the opponents or the spectators.

"We who stand by the (opponents') wall help the player who kicks. We legally obstruct the opponents and try to get them out of the box. We move to create room."

Plasmati said he doesn't think what he did is against the rules, although referee selector Pierluigi Collina is expected to sanction him.

"Do you think it was on obstruction foul? I don't think it was," Plasmati said. "Did it seem an obscenity? I did not undress myself."

Catania's coach Walter Zenga also caused a stir after the game for bickering on personal grounds with a journalist interviewing him for the public channel RAI 2.

The two made peace Monday, but Zenga, 48, a former star goalkeeper with Inter Milan, faces a fine by his club.

"Zenga will be fined because he hurt himself and his image, but above all our club, which is working hard to offer a positive image to Italy," Catania team manager Pietro Lo Monaco said.

"At times, he seems to have forgotten that he quit being a footballer. Zenga is doing a great job, but he shouldn't stumble into these incidents." (dpa)