14 November 2010
LAZIO 2 (Zarate 15, Floccari 61)
NAPOLI 0
Mauri clipped a great ball over the top of the Napoli defence to Zarate, he touched the ball past Cannavaro and beat De Sanctis with a shot into the bottom corner. Lavezzi clipped the top of crossbar after bamboozling the Lazio defence with a series of dummies. Referee Bergonzi had an awful game. Floccari should have been booked for a blatant dive and in the build up to the second goal Cannavaro took out Hernanes with an awful, EPL style two footed foul, the ball broke to Zarate and he rolled a centre to Floccari, 2-0. Hernanes sprang to his feet immediately. Good to see he was ok.
If Lega Calcio deemed Krasic's dive against Bologna worthy of a two match ban Cannavaro deserved four for his challenge on Hernanes.
Attendance : 25,000
Assists : Mauri, Zarate
BARI 0
PARMA 1 (Candreva 33)
Attendance : 16,000
Red Cards : Masiello 75 (Bari), Donati 85 (Bari)
Assist : Marques
BOLOGNA 1 (Di Vaio 58)
BRESCIA 0
Attendance : 13,304
Red Car : Mudingayi 83 (Bologna)
Assist : Ramirez
CAGLIARI 0
GENOA 1 (Ranocchia 83)
Attendance : 10,000
Assist : Veloso (ck)
PALERMO 3 (Pastore 33, Pastore 47, Pastore 85)
CATANIA 1 (Terlizzi 46)
Pastore headed Palermo into the lead from a free kick. Catania equalised within a minute of the restart from a corner then fell behind a minute later when Andujar failed to hold a relatively tame Pastore effort. Pastore completed his first Serie A (career?) hat-trick on the break from Maccarone's centre.
Just as I was about to say Balzaretti was worth a look at international level he gets a call-up for Wednesday's friendly against Romania. Well deserved to. He's excellent going forward. Italy need to move on from Zambrotta.
Attendance : 25,532
Assists : Balzaretti (fk), Gomez (ck), Miccoli, Maccarone
SAMPDORIA 0
CHIEVO 0
Another 0-0 involving Sampdoria. They've scored 11 goals in 12 games. Why hasn't Di Carlo got the boot?
Attendance : 20,526
Assist : n/a
UDINESE 4 (Di Natale 11, Di Natale 24, Di Natale 40, Floro Flores 55)
LECCE 0
Lecce's notoriously awful offside trap stood in a line as Di Natale collected a Sanchez pass, rounded the 'keeper and rolled the ball into an empty net. Sanchez caused havoc in the Lecce penalty area, forced a hurried clearance and Di Natale smashed the rebound past Rosati. He completed a first half hat-trick from Floro Flores' knockdown. Another badly botched offside trap allowed Floro Flores to score a fourth. Lecce's misery was complete when Handanovic saved a penalty from Di Michele.
Lecce were lucky to get 0. Udinese could have score 10 and I'm not exaggerating.
Attendance : 13,500
Assists : Sanchez, n/a, Floro Flores, Armero
INTER 0
MILAN 1 (Ibrahimovic 5)
Seedorf, who should have scored with a second minute header, released Ibrahimovic on the break with a fantastic longball, as he ran into the box Materazzi dived in with an idiotic sliding tackle and took out his left leg. Penalty. Ibrahimovic blasted the ball into the bottom left corner. Another great ball, this time from Robinho, sent Ibrahimovic clear of the Inter defence and Cordoba made a spectacular mid-air clearance as Flamini was about to connect with his centre. Ibrahimovic blazed a volley over the bar from a tight angle and Robinho had a goal disallowed for offside as Milan continued to boss their neighbours. Obi, one of the players that stupid fat bastard Benitez selects just to show this is his and not Mourinho's team, pulled up with a muscle injury and was replaced by Coutinho. Sneijder dived to win a free kick, Gattuso was lucky not to get a second yellow. The Dutchman's free kick whistled wide of the top left corner.
At half time Gattuso made way for Pirlo and Pandev replaced Milito. Sneijder's second free kick, from absolutely miles out, forced an Abbiati save - it was as close as Inter got to scoring. Pandev's sole contribution was to get Abate sent off. Abate kicked away the ball after Ibrahimovic and Materazzi clashed. Pandev pushed over Abate, he got to his feet and in Pandev's face and the ref, Tagliavento, who saw the entire incident, showed both players yellow cards. Abate had been booked in the 11th minute for pulling back Eto'o. Antonini replaced Robinho. Ibrahimovic crashed into Materazzi when he jumped into a challenge for a 50-50 ball, taking the Inter defender out of the game. Two former Inter players combined for the next chance, Ibrahimovic laid off Ambrosini's pass and Seedorf's first time shot kissed the right post. Milan comfortably held on to end Inter's 52 match unbeaten home run.
In his first few months in charge the main criticism levelled at Allegri was his shoddy haircut (this is Italy after all), which he has since addressed. He's relegated Berlusconi's favourite Ronaldinho to the bench and is doing an excellent job of rotating the squad. Some well timed injuries in midfield have helped greatly in that respect. Against the top teams he's drawn with Lazio, beaten Napoli and now Inter away. His major blip, Cesena aside, was the home defeat to Juventus, a match they should have won by a healthy margin.
The clock is ticking on the Benitez cancer. In three months he's destroyed Mourinho's team. Eto'o aside everyone of Inter's big hitters have been awful. The team are averaging a goal a game. They've won two of their last six, played dreadful football and now find themselves in fifth place in what is a very compressed top half of the table in which four points separate Napoli in 3rd and Genoa in 9th place. My guess is if Benitez blows the CWC in December and is still way off the pace in the league once Inter return from Dubai he's toast.
Attendance : 80,000
Red Card : Abate 60 (Milan)
Assist : Ibrahimovic (won pen)
13 November 2010
FIORENTINA 1 (Gilardino 59)
CESENA 0
Attendance : 20,340
Assist : Cerci
JUVENTUS 1 (Iaquinta 35)
ROMA 1 (Totti 49 Pen)
Aquilani swung in a low cross from the left and Iaquinta caught the bouncing ball with a spectacular scissor kick. In first half injury time Pepe elbowed a Totti free kick to concede the equalising penalty.
Attendance : 27,000
Assists : Aquilani, n/a