10 January 2010

JUVENTUS 0
MILAN 3 (Nesta 29, Ronaldinho 72, Ronaldinho 88)

On the pitch at least this was one of the most uneventful meetings between these giants of Italian football.

Diego flashed a shot wide of a post minutes before Nesta gave Milan the lead. Pirlo aimed a corner low at the near post, Melo sliced the ball across goal and Nesta pounced to score his third goal of the season. Gattuso tried to dribble the ball to safety from a Juve corner, Chiellini snapped at his feet to shoot, drawing a save from Dida. At the other end Manninger scrambled to clear a fine drive from Thiago Silva. Milan's centre backs are now a serious goal threat. Milan doubled their lead from another near post comer, an obviously ploy, Ronaldinho's header went in off De Ceglie. As the pitch was consumed with smoke, started by a fire in the stands, Ronaldinho headed in a second after Flamini flicked on a Beckham cross via another deflection off Melo. Dida, who is in tremendous form, produced a fantastic save to deny Del Piero a free kick consolation goal.

Attendance : 24,165
Assist : n/a, n/a, n/a


BOLOGNA 0
CAGLIARI 1 (Matri 66)

Attendance : 14,341
Assist : Parola


FIORENTINA 2 (Mutu 38, Castillo 74)
BARI 1 (Barreto 25)

The giant Ranocchia flicked on a corner and Baretto headed Bari into the lead against the run of play. Mutu scored a rare headed goal, thanks to a Gillet blunder. Almiron was shown a second yellow for hacking down Jorgensen. Montolivo curled a shot against the crossbar and Castillo, who had replaced Donadel four minutes earlier, tapped in the winner. Six minutes later he was sent off for a wild, jumping foul on Baretto, fortunately he didn't make a great deal of contact.

Attendance : 20,349
Red Cards : Almiron 58 (Bari), Castillo 80 (Fiorentina)
Assists : Ranocchia, Pasquale, n/a


GENOA 2 (Mesto 36, Sculli 71)
CATANIA 0

Bellusci picked up two yellow cards following tussles with Suazo. His second was ridiculous, the striker hauled him and as he fell Suazo went over him. Terrible mistake by the normally excellent Rosetti. It wasn't take long for Genoa too advantage. Mesto met Criscito's cross with an excellent angled header and he made the second with an excellent inswinging cross which Sculli headed into the bottom corner.

Attendance : 25,000
Red Card : Bellusci 28 (Catania), Mihajlovic 41 (Catania)
Assists : Criscito, Mesto


LIVORNO 2 (Tavano 23, Lucarelli 62)
PARMA 1 (Dzemaili 68)

Raimondi angled a ball outside two defenders to Tavano and with Livorno flooding the Parma penalty area with runners his marker had to back off, Tavano's quick finish gave Mirante no chance. Two of Livorno's old stagers combined for the second, Filippini's pass, and a lame attempt at offside, gave lumbering Lucarelli a yard in his marker and he beat Mirante with a composed finished. Dzemaili scored his first goal outside of Swiss football after Livorno failed to clear their lines from a corner.

Attendance : 7,150
Assist : Raimondi, Filippini, Allesandro Lucarelli


NAPOLI 1 (Denis 71)
SAMPDORIA 0

Attendance : 45,000
Assist : Aronica


PALERMO 1 (Cavani 70 Pen)
ATALANTA 0

Attendance : 18,817
Red Card : Garics 90 (Atalanta)
Assist : Cavani (won pen)


UDINESE 1 (Di Natale 27 fk)
LAZIO 1 (Floccari 16)

Floccari made in 3 goals in 2 games for Lazio with a towering header from a Baronio free kick. He made a similarly excellent start to his Genoa career before tailing off. Di Natale equalised with a superb right footed free kick.

Attendance : 14,000
Assist : Baronio (fk), Di Natale (won fk)


9 January 2010

ROMA 1 (De Rossi 1)
CHIEVO 0

Attendance : 30,000
Red Card : Doni 11 (Roma)
Assist : Pizarro (ck)


INTER 4 (Milito 24, Sneijder 36 fk, Sneijder 88 fk, Samuel 93)
SIENA 3 (Maccarone 18, Ekdal 37, Maccarone 65)

Maccarone shocked Inter with a stunning solo effort, running from his own half the Inter defence backed off and he slammed a left foot drive past Julio Sergio. Sneijder picked out Milito with a magnificent high crossfield pass, Milito cut in from the left, stepped away from a defender and fired low into the corner. Sneijder curled in a free kick but incredibly Siena hit back immediately from a throw in. Rossi threw the ball to Reginaldo and he turned away from two defenders before squeezing a cross between two more Inter players and Ekdal, on loan from Juve, tapped in unmarked at the back post. Ekdal sent Reginaldo racing down the left with an excellent pass, Reginaldo teased Lucio with stepovers before pulling the ball back to Maccarone who steered a first time shot past Julio Cesar. In an immensely stupid and negative move in the 72nd minute madman Malesani substituted Reginaldo, who was linking superbly with Maccarone for Fini and followed that up with the equally idiotic substitution of Ekdal for Jarolim in the 80th minute. Sneijder curled in his second free kick, this time low in off a post. Arnautovic flicked on a cross, Milito cleverly backed into a defender before laying the ball off to Pandev, he passed first time between two defenders and with a brilliant first touch SAMUEL took the ball on his left foot, turned his marker and hammered a shot inside the right post.

Incredible game. Mourinho just held onto his unbeaten home record which I believe stretches back seven years though Malesani was entirely to blame. He snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

Attendance : 50,000
Red Card : Cribari 95 (Siena)
Assists : Vergassola, Sneijder, Stankovic (won fk), Reginaldo, Reginaldo, Samuel (won fk), Pandev