20 October 2013

ATALANTA 2 (Cigarini 41, Denis 84)
LAZIO 1 (Perea 53)

Cigarini thumped a loose ball past Marchetti to give Atalanta a deserved lead. Lazio's 20 year old Colombian striker punished some sloppy defending to equalise at the back post. Cigarini split Lazio's defence, Denis beat their offside trap and dropped Marchetti with a feint before going past him and tapping in the winner.

Attendance : 12,127
Assists : n/a, Lulic, Cigarini


FIORENTINA 4 (Rossi 66 Pen, Rossi 76, Joaquin 79, Rossi 81)
JUVENTUS 2 (Tevez 37 Pen, Pogba 40)

Tevez dived to win the penalty and Cuadrado gifted Juve a second. When attempting to clear a pass to Tevez he sliced the ball up into the air and Pogba fired into an empty net. Both Tevez and Pogba mocked the Fiorentina fans by doing the Batistuta machine gun celebration after scoring. After Rossi converted another non penalty Juve had what they call in Italy a 'blackout'. Buffon made another in a growing list of mistakes when he failed to parry a speculative Rossi shot. Asamoah went walkout as a Valero pass found substitute Joaquin in acres of space and he took a touch before shooting past Buffon as he tried to close him down. Cuadrado made the fourth on the break, running deep from his own half with Barzagli desperately tried to keep up, he slipped a ball out to the left where once again Asamoah was nowhere to be found and Rossi completed his hat-trick in style with a first time shot into the left corner.

Fiorentina's first victory over Juventus since 1998. I commented on Juve's defence in the last round. They're almost as poor at the back as Milan. Buffon is shot and makes mistakes every couple of games. Asamoah is bone idle and gets caught out of position. Lichtsteiner is a big miss. I'm not sure why Ogbonna isn't getting a chance.

Attendance : 26,000
Assists : Tevez (won pen), n/a, Fernandez (won pen), Fernandez, Valero, Cuadrado


GENOA 2 (Gilardino 22, Gilardino 50)
CHIEVO 1 (Bentivoglio 48)

The Gasperini magic continued as Genoa won for the second time this season. Gilardino gave them the lead with a fantastic header. Bentivoglio equalised after the break, Paloschi making the most of a fortuitous deflection off Biondini to setup Bentivoglio. Two minutes later Marchese fired a shot through a ruck of bodies, Bentivoglio hacked it off the line, it hit Gilardino in the face and bounced into the net.

Attendance : 19,000
Assists : Marchese, Paloschi, n/a


LIVORNO 1 (Siligardi 92)
SAMPDORIA 2 (Eder 19 Pen, Pozzi 97 Pen)

De Silvestre made the most of a stupid challenge by Duncan to win the penalty. Siligardi equalised with a shot from distance that slipped through Da Costa's fingers but Regini dived in the 7th minute of injury time to job Livorno out of a point.

Attendance : 9,471
Assists : De Silvestri, Piccini, Regini (won pen)


SASSUOLO 2 (Berardi 12 Pen, Floro Flores 17)
BOLOGNA 1 (Diamanti 32 Pen)

Berardi bumped into Mantovani and went down for a cheap penalty. Floro Flores scored a lucky second when his shot deflected in off Krhin. Natali was one of several Bologna players fouled in the box as Diamanti swung in a corner. Antei made a stunning point blank clearance off the line in a second half dominated by the visitors in dreadful conditions.

8 games, 0 wins, 22 goals against. Pioli is dead man walking.

Attendance : 12,100
Assists : Berardi (won pen), n/a, Natali (won pen)


VERONA 3 (Cacciatore 9, Jorginho 61 Pen, Jorginho 88 Pen)
PARMA 2 (Parolo 20, Cassano 25)

Cacciatore volleyed Verona into the lead from a corner. A Verona defender appeared to be calling for a fault in play after fouling Marchionni but Parolo showed no concern for his team-mate when he picked up the ball and blasted his side level from the edge of the box. Five minutes later Cassano trapped a ball on his chest before firing a half volley past Rafael. Jorginho converted two extremely soft penalties to complete the comeback and maintain Verona's unlikely position in the top five.

Attendance : 20,000
Assists : Taleb, n/a, Parolo, Toni (won pen), Jorginho (won pen)


TORINO 3 (Farnerud 21, Immobile 53, Bellomo 90)
INTER 3 (Guarin 46, Palacio 55, Palacio 71)

This almost topped Fiorentina v Juve for sheer insanity. Handanovic was harshly sent off for taking out Cerci in the opening five minutes, I say harshly because his vision was almost certainly effected by the smoke from the flares that had enveloped his area of the pitch. Lazio reject Carrizo came on in his place and promptly saved Cerci's penalty. Farnerud pounced on a deflected pass to give Torino the lead. In first half injury time Padelli ran into traffic as Cambiasso swung in a corner, Guarin leapt up and sent an overhead kick through a sea of bodies into an empty net. Great goal.

Immobile scored within 5 minutes of coming on as a second half sub, thumping in a rebound after a Cerci shot was blocked. Padelli screwed up again to give Inter an immediate equaliser. He flapped at a Taider cross and Palacio headed into an empty net. Belfodil, on for Taider, powered past the left full-back and centred for what should have been the winning goal. In injury time Wallace conceded a free kick on the far left of the penalty area and everyone watched as Bellomo's cross sailed over the wall before dropping inside the right post.

Attendance : 20,881
Red Card : Handanovic 5 (Inter)
Assists : n/a, n/a, n/a, n/a, Belfodil, Immobile (won fk)


19 October 2013

CAGLIARI 2 (Ibarbo 26, Pinilla 84)
CATANIA 1 (Bergessio 5)

Bergessio headed in a fifth minute corner. Ibarbo rolled into Legrottaglie as he controlled a longball into the box, turned then lashed a shot into the top left corner. Brilliant goal. Legrottaglie was sent off for bringing down Ibarbo. Ibarbo missed the penalty and the rebound. Despite being a man up for half the game Cagliari had to wait until six minutes before full time before securing only their second win of the season when Pinilla put away his own rebound.

Attendance : 4,800
Red Card : Legrottaglie 40 (Catania)
Assists : Plasil, Conti, n/a


MILAN 1 (Birsa 22)
UDINESE 0

Attendance : 33,188
Assist : Robinho


18 October 2013

ROMA 2 (Pjanic 48 fk, Pjanic 71 Pen)
NAPOLI 0

Gervinho fluffed his lines when through on the counter attack. While chances were few and far between Roma lost their way after Totti limped off with a hamstring injury on the half hour mark. Two minutes later Pandev, who always chokes in big games, ran onto a brilliant Insigne reverse but shot straight at De Sanctis and De Rossi ran forward and launched himself at the rebound to make a spectacular overhead kick clearance off the line. One of the best clearances of all time. 10 minutes later the roles were reversed and this time Insigne managed to blow a chance from six yards out. Cannavaro replaced Britos and immediately earned himself a yellow card for tripping Gervinho. From the resulting free kick Pjanic whipped a shot into the top left corner. Cannavaro, inexplicably linked to Juventus last season and Milan this, fouled Borriello to concede the penalty.

Benitez decided to rest Higuain ahead of Napoli's UCL game with Marseille, because playing the weakest team of the group is obviously more important than battling for top spot with Roma. He also had the nerve to claim Roma were playing on the counter attack. It's early days of course but I'm convinced this moron will rotate his way out of a title challenge.

Attendance : 45,000
Red Card : Cannavaro 70 (Napoli)
Assists : Gervinho (won fk), Borriello (won pen)