13 February 2011
PALERMO 2 (Pastore 7, Nocerino 48)
FIORENTINA 4 (Gilardino 36, Camporese 70, Bovo 78 og, Montolivo 88)
Pastore blasted Palermo into the lead with a brilliant first time shot from an Ilicic cut-back. Gilardino missed two easy chances before losing Munoz to head in the equaliser. The boy needs to learn how to mark. Miccoli wriggled between two defenders before hanging up a cross for the late arriving Nocerino to head past Boruc. Fiorentina's 18 year old centre back took advantage of shocking marking to tap in his first Serie A goal from a corner. Montolivo struck the inside of a post with a spectacular shot on the turn from 35 yards out. Bovo turned a Ljajic centre past his own 'keeper. Ljajic raced down the left flank, put on the breaks and stepped past Ilicic before rolling a centre across goal and Montolivo tapped in the fourth.
Attendance : 24,571
Assists : Ilicic, Behrami, Miccoli, Pasqual, n/a, Ljajic
BARI 0
GENOA 0
Attendance : 15,000
Assists : n/a
BRESCIA 0
LAZIO 2 (Gonzalez 17, Kozak 58)
Uruguayan winger Gonzalez scored his first Serie A goal in only his second appearance with a great flick header from mid-week bad boy Hernanes. Kozak, who Lazio sent on loan to Brescia last season, headed in the second from a corner and as you would expect (Serie A doesn't have the badge kissing culture) didn't celebrate.
Attendance : 7,000
Assists : Lichtsteiner, Ledesma (ck)
CAGLIARI 4 (Conti 19, Canini 29, Nene 44, Nene 71)
CHIEVO 1 (Thereau 84)
After upsetting Napoli and holding Lazio at the Olimpico in recent weeks you wouldn't have expected Chievo to capitulate in this manner. Conti threw himself at Pisano cross to score with a close range header. Cagliari worked a short corner, Conti's miss-hit shot fell kindly to Canini who held off Pulzetti before shooting into a corner. Nene ran onto a longball and lobbed over Sorrentino as he raced off his line. Chievo failed to clear their lines from a corner, Sorrentino punched out Astori's goalbound volley and Nene volleyed in the rebound with a scissor kick. Not nearly as impressive as it sounds. The Cagliari defence were already in the dressing room when Thereau scored his consolation goal. Constant's cross was excellent. Easy to see why both Milan and Inter are chasing him.
Cagliari are surprisingly making light of Matri's absence.
Attendance : 5,000
Assists : Pisano, n/a, Cossu, n/a, Constant
CATANIA 3 (Silvestre 47, Lodi 80 fk, Lodi 85 fk)
LECCE 2 (Jeda 56, Munari 61)
Silvestre headed Catania into the lead in first half injury time. Jeda equalised with a textbook header. He's got good hang time for a midget. Munari, who made Lecce's first, tapped in a rebound after Olivera's shot came back off a post. Lecce paid a heavy heavy price for failing to kill off Catania on the break, some of the worst counter attacking you'll see. One two occasions they broke from their own half only to fail miserably with the final ball. Lodi, not to be confused with the 'gay' Pro Wrestler circa 1999 WCW, scored two identical left footed fresh kicks inside the left post. Giacomazzi, who looks like the Syrian that was bummed in Friday's Spartacus, was sent off for dissent.
Attendance : 15,000
Red Card : Giacomazzi 95 (Lecce)
Assists : Llama (fk), Munari, n/a, Gomez (won fk), Lodi (won fk)
CESENA 0
UDINESE 3 (Di Natale 41, Inler 69, Di Natale 75)
Udinese thought they had won a penalty when Sanchez was tripped on/in the box. The ref awarded a free kick on the edge of the box and Di Natale rifled the ball into the top right corner. Inler, making a rare foray forward, recovered from a sloppy first touch to squeeze a shot inside a post. Di Natale tapped in the third from a deflected cross as Udinese continued their menacing push for a Champions League place.
Attendance : 16,704
Assists : Sanchez (won fk), Di Natale, n/a
SAMPDORIA 3 (Palombo 8 fk, Gastaldello 11, Maccarone 15)
BOLOGNA 1 (Paponi 65)
Palombo, Colombo's Italian cousin, eased the pressure on his coach with a brilliant free kick through a poorly formed wall. Gastaldello headed in a corner. Dessena dived in for a loose ball, sending Portanova sprawling, the ball broke for 'Big Mac' Maccarone and he rounded Viviano before tapping into an empty net. Paponi scored via a deflection off a Sampdoria defender.
Despite losing this six pointer and their 3 points penalty Bologna are still in a healthy position.
Attendance : 21,000
Assists : Poli (won fk), Ziegler (ck), Dessena, n/a
JUVENTUS 1 (Matri 30)
INTER 0
Krasic tried to bait Zanetti on the left but he wouldn't bite so he passed the ball back to Sorensen, Cordoba left Matri to attack the Dane's cross, missed the ball and Matri headed down past Julio Cesar. Buffon flapped at a point blank Pazzini header but nonetheless parried the ball to safety. Matri should have put the game to bed but headed a glorious Krasic cross wide when this time Ranocchia bailed and left him unmarked in the centre of the box. Matri took a shot to the ribs under a Maicon challenge and spent the rest of the match moping around in pain. He couldn't jump but saw another chance, a left foot volley, flash wide of a post. Pepe tried to run the ball out of defence but hit the wall that is Maicon, he played a one-two with Pandev before swinging in one of his laser precision crosses, Eto'o, charged towards the back post and shanked his shot against the underside of the crossbar and out. Minutes later Sneijder played him in with a disguised pass, he turned away from Sorensen as the ball bounced off his heals, he uncorked his left foot and kicked free air.
For those keeping count Inter under Leonardo 14 goals conceded in 9 games. Inter play their game in hand away to a resurgent Fiorentina in mid-week without the suspended Motta.
Attendance : 24,485
Assist : Sorensen
12 February 2011
MILAN 4 (Seedorf 8, Cassano 17, Robinho 61, Robinho 65)
PARMA 0
Ibrahimovic touched Merkel's deflected cross to Seedorf, he rounded Mirante and poked the ball into an empty net. Cassano scored a magnificent first goal for Milan. Hugging the left touchline, he gave a disguised return pass to Antonini, Antonini backed into a defender and passed inside to Seedorf, Cassano ran infield onto Seedorf's pass and played square to Gattuso who chipped a deliciously weighted ball over the heads of the Parma defence and just as it dropped Cassano gently rolled it into the bottom right corner. Beautiful goal. Milan wasted half a dozen chances before, ironically, Robinho came off the bench and took the game away from Parma with two clinical strikes from Cassano passes.
Attendance : 46,119
Assists : Ibrahimovic, Gattuso, Cassano, Cassano
ROMA 0
NAPOLI 2 (Cavani 49 Pen, Cavani 83)
Hamsik made the most of Juan's momentary tug on his shirt to go down and win the penalty. Cavani's shot rebounded off both posts though was clearly over the line and he followed up just to make sure. Why De Rossi berated the ref afterwards is anyone's guess. Napoli were comfortably the better side and Cavani put the seal on a fine win with another extraordinary goal, volleying in Cannavaro's cross with the side of his shin.
Attendance : 32,737
Assists : Hamsik (won pen), Cannavaro