23 September 2007
ATALANTA 2 (Langella 43, Zampagna 93)
LAZIO 1 (Mutarelli 69)
Langella beat Lazio's new goalkeeper, 21 year old Uruguayan Fernando Muslera, with a precise near post header. Pandev recovered from losing his balance in the box to turn and centre, with Coppola distracted by Makinwa, an unmarked Mutarelli tapped in an empty net. For the second consecutive week Zampagna score a last minute goal, running onto Coppola's ball over the top of the Lazio defence he held off Stendardo before volleying over Muslera.
Attendance : 11,000
Assists : Pinto, Pandev, Coppola
CAGLIARI 0
PALERMO 1 (Zaccardo 15)
Attendance : 12,000
Assist : Migliaccio
CATANIA 0
FIORENTINA 1 (Mutu 4)
Attendance :18,000
Red Card : Baiocco 79 (Catania)
Assist : Santana (ck)
EMPOLI 0
NAPOLI 0
Attendance : 11,985
Assists : n/a
LIVORNO 2 (De Vezze 1, Loviso 62 Pen)
INTER 2 (Ibrahimovic 35, Ibrahimovic 72 Pen)
Fortunately for Livorno Inter carried forward their mid-week form. Inter's new centre back pairing of Cordoba and Burdisso were done by a simple long ball down the middle, De Vezze ran into the box unopposed and sent a shot bouncing over a helpless Julio Cesar. Maicon ran through two tackles before unselfishly passing to Ibrahimovic who blasted in the equaliser. I didn't see replays of either penalty incident.
Attendance : 9,500
Red Card : Maicon 80 (Inter)
Assists : Knezevic, Maicon, Pulzetti (won pen), Ibrahimovic (won pen)
ROMA 2 (Totti 30, 36)
JUVENTUS 2 (Trezeguet 17, Iaquinta 88)
David Trezeguet scored his 100th league goal for Juventus to give the Old Lady a shock lead. He started the move on the half-way line, heading a ball to Del Piero, Del Piero held off De Rossi before releasing Iaquinta down the right flank and Trezeguet darted in the box, across Mexes to head in his cross. Criscito allowed Totti to turn on the edge of the box, Roma's captain held off the young defender's desperate challenge, before calmly curling the ball inside a post. Six minutes later he was first to react to a rebound after Aquilani drew a point blank save from Buffon. Del Nedved ran between De Rossi and Cicinho before throwing himself to the ground to win a penalty, that's about the only thing he's good for thesedays. Del Piero blazed the ball over the crossbar and was later substituted. Roma then played like Milan i.e. they took their foot off the game, created several chances and were ultimately punished for not taking any of them. Juve won a throw in. Chiellini hurled the ball into the box, Iaquinta got in front of a static De Rossi and Cicinho and sent a back header looping over Doni.
Juan had an excellent game but the rest of Roma's defence, Mexes especially, were poor under the little pressure Juve put them under. You can't accuse this Juve team of being it's boring, their defence is terrible and things are only going to get worse in that respect as Andrade was stretchered off and maybe out for the season.
Attendance : 70,000
Assists : Iaquinta, Mancini, n/a, Chiellini (throw in)
TORINO 1 (Dellafiore 24)
SIENA 1 (Maccarone 53)
Torino pulled a corner back to the edge of the penalty area and Rosina hit a great first time shot which went whistling across the face of goal, Barone tried to turn the ball in a the back post but his shot was charged down and Dellafiore fired the under Eleftheropoulos. Maccarone missed two penalties, one on the half hour mark and one on 53 minutes but on the second occasion he scored from the rebound.
Attendance : 18,000
Red Card : Codrea 82 (Siena)
Assists : n/a, n/a
SAMPDORIA 0
GENOA 0
Attendance : 35,000
Assists : n/a
22 September 2007
UDINESE 2 (Di Natale 4, Di Natale 62)
REGGINA 0
It seems many sources are giving Di Natale credit for scoring a great goal from an improbable angle, inside the box near the touchline, when in fact his shot almost certainly took a deflection off Lanzaro. Amoruso, who is lost without striker partner Bianchi, rattled the crossbar with a bullet header. D'Agostino hit a high lob towards the right hand side of the box, Di Natale flicked up the ball, while it was still in the air, then volleyed into the left corner. Sensational goal.
I expected Udinese to struggle this season but other than their inexplicable collapse against Napoli they've been excellent and that's despite the poor form of Quagliarella.
Attendance : 10,000
Assists : n/a, D'Agostino
MILAN 1 (Seedorf 44)
PARMA 1 (Pisanu 73)
Parma failed to clear a corner, Kaka' gained possession on the edge of the box, juggled the ball twice as he ran inside the box and centred for Inzaghi whose first time shot was parried by Pavarini, Castellini's clearance bounced off Seedorf and flew into the net. Reginaldo, who has been rubbish for Parma this season, mugged Nesta on the left flank. He dragged the ball back, drawing a challenge from Nesta, then took the ball on his left foot, ran past Nesta and crossed for Pisanu to equalise.
How can a team that perform so well in Europe against quality opposition, the 2-1 victory over Benfica flattered the Portuguese, play so poorly in the league? It's as if the players think Serie A is beneath them. Gilardino can't handle the pressure of playing for Milan. Inzaghi is incredible in Europe but useless domestically. None of this would be an issue if Ronaldo was fit. Ancelotti's negative tactics don't help either. Two DMs against mediocre sides like Siena and Parma is absolutely totally and utterly un-necessary as is substituting one of them for Emerson, who should be no more than emergency cover for Ambrosini and Gattuso. Another of Ancelotti big failings is that he doesn't make use of the entire squad and is afraid to take risks. He rotates from a small group of players while letting talents like Donati (Celtic), Donadel (Fiorentina) and Foggia (Cagliari) leave the club and Gourcuff is sat on the bench.
Attendance : 51,026
Assists : n/a, Reginaldo