28 September 2008

BOLOGNA 0
NAPOLI 1 (Denis 87)

Attendance : 21,000
Assist : Gargano (ck)


CATANIA 1 (Paolucci 17)
CHIEVO 0

Attendance : 15,000
Assist : Bizarri (gk)


LECCE 2 (Giacomazzi 34, Castillo 62)
CAGLIARI 0

Giacomazzi tried his luck from 30 yards, Cagliari center back Lopez cowardly ducked out of the way and the ball flew inside Marchetti's right post. Caserta turned with the ball on the half way line, he played a one-two with Castillo, flicked the ball outside Pisano and chased down his own pass before centring for Castillo to slide in at the back post.

Attendance : 8,000
Assists : Castillo, Caserta


PALERMO 1 (Miccoli 52)
REGGINA 0

Attendance : 19,235
Assist : n/a


ROMA 2 (Manfredini 17 og, Vucinic 32)
ATALANTA 0

Panucci latched onto a half cleared corner, controlling on his knee before firing a left foot shot which took a double deflection past a helpless Coppola in the Atalanta goal. Vucinic turned onto Menez's deflected pass before shooting straight at Coppola who should have saved but fumbled the ball into his own net.

Attendance : 35,000
Assists : n/a, n/a


TORINO 1 (Amoruso 92 Pen)
LAZIO 3 (Pandev 30, Zarate 63, Zarate 84 Pen)

Zarate collected a crossfield pass and despite running into traffic inside the box he still managed to beat three players and touch the ball forward for Pandev to tap past Sereni. Torino besieged the Lazio goal but missed half a dozen chances. Zarate sucked in a defender as he turned onto a pass and flicked the ball forward, took a few steps before steadying himself and curled a shot beyond Sereni, brilliant goal. Sereni was sent off for pulling back Brocchi as he followed up a rebound. In real-time this seemed to be an EPL referee level decision but replays vindicated the ref. As Torino had used all their subs Ventola went in goal. Needless to say he got nowhere near Zarate's spot kick, the Argentineans sixth league goal of the season. Pratali was shown a second yellow for pushing Radu. Lichtsteiner should have joined him for jumped into Dzemaili with a crude elbow in the box. Amoruso converted the penalty but was forced to retake at which point Torino's coach went apeshit and was sent to the stands. He made no mistake second time round, once against blasting the ball into the bottom right corner.

Lazio are the best footballing side in Serie A. IF they get lucky with injuries who knows?

Attendance : 16,000
Red Cards : Sereni 83 (Torino), Pratali 88 (Torino)
Assists : Zarate, Mauri, Zarate (won pen), Dzemaili (won pen)


UDINESE 2 (Quagliarella 22, Pepe 29)
SIENA 1 (Kharja 38)

The Siena defence stood waiting for the offside flag as Di Natale angled his run onto a pass down the channel, he cut inside the box and as defenders arrived to close him down nonchalantly flicked the ball to Quagliarella with this outside of his right foot and the striker shot first time into the bottom corner. Quagliarella held up a longball and played in Pepe who for the second successive game nutmegged a goalkeeper to score. Maccarone, yet to get off the mark this season, hit the woodwork and Kharja stumbled the rebound over the line.

Attendance : 13,000
Assists : Di Natale, Quagliarella, n/a


MILAN 1 (Ronaldinho 38)
INTER 0

Ronaldinho, taking up his familiar position on the left, passed a ball into Kaka' who returned it with a back heel inside Maicon, changing the direction of the play, Ronaldinho slipped the ball between Maicon's legs, Kaka' ran down the left, cut inside the box and from the by-line attempted to pick out Pato but the ball rebounded off Burdisso and Ronaldinho fired off a snapshot drawing a fantastic low save from Julio Cesar. Ibrahimovic stung Abbiati's palms with a fiercely struck low drive and Milan broke to score. Gattuso found Ronaldinho on the centre circle, he held off Vieira before sweeping a crossfield pass out wide to Kaka', Chivu and Quaresma arrived to close him down, he waited for a split second before clipping a cross to the back post and Ronaldinho got between Maicon and Cambiasso to power a header into the top right corner. Queue delirious celebrations.

On the hour mark Materazzi and Mancini made way for Cruz and Adriano. Cruz and Ibrahimovic flashed shots wide of either post. Burdisso was shown a second yellow for chopping down Kaka' on the break. Flamini, on for Pato, caught Adriano in the face with a clumsy though probably unintentional elbow when challenging for a high bouncing ball in the box and amid the confusion Stankovic, who Mourinho tried to shop all summer, struck a volley straight at Abbiati, he fumbled the ball, Kaladze mistimed his clearance and Adriano worked an opening before blazing high over the bar. Materazzi talked himself into a dismissal from the bench for protesting over the elbow. Stankovic should have joined him a few minutes later for kicking Kaka' twice, he missed the first time. BASTARD. Ronaldinho left to a standing ovation and his replacement, Shevchenko, almost floored Julio Cesar with a violent but poorly placed close range effort. Adriano should have equalised in injury time but headed wide having got free of Ambrosini and Bonera at the back post.

Milan were the first to every ball, even Ronaldinho was tackling back. Seedorf was brilliant and forced the substitution of Vieira, who couldn't handle him in midfield. Chances were few and far between though Inter's hopeless longballs only started working when Milan tired late on.

It should come as no surprise that Mourinho has been rubbing everyone the wrong way since arriving in Italy. Most recently criticising Lecce's coach, Mario Baretta, after he claimed Mourinho showed a lack of respect by sending assistant coach Beppe Baresi, Giuseppe's older and considerably less talented brother, out to a press conference. While this is common practice in the EPL it's not in Italy. That in addition to his continued bullying of Ranieri :

"I studied Italian five hours a day for many months to ensure I could communicate with the players, media and fans. Ranieri had been in England for five years and still struggled to say 'good morning' and 'good afternoon.' Who is he to tell me what to do?". Kaka' mocked Mourinho's post match comments. So far Ancelotti hasn't risen to the bait and has been largely dismissive of Mourinho though earlier in the season he poked fun at his less than stellar playing career. This off field soap opera is as entertaining as the football itself.

Attendance : 79,057
Red Cards : Burdisso 76 (Inter), Materazzi 81 (Inter, bench)
Assist : Kaka'


27 September 2008

SAMPDORIA 0
JUVENTUS 0

Attendance : 28,000
Assist : n/a


FIORENTINA 1 (Gilardino 61)
GENOA 0

Attendance : 29,930
Assist : Dainelli