13 December 2009
SAMPDORIA 0
ROMA 0
Attendance : 28,000
Assists : n/a
ATALANTA 1 (Tiribocchi 81)
INTER 1 (Milito 15)
It looked like business for usual when after 15 minutes Milito ran over two tackles in the box, which is a surprise in itself as he usually cannot resist taking a dive, before dragging a shot inside the left post. Inter lost Sneijder to cheap yellow cards. He had a hand in the first goal and also hit the woodwork. Both coaches, Mourinho and Conte, were in the stands which has to be a first. Conte's last throw of the dice was to bring on Caserta and within seconds he found fellow substitute Tiribocchi with a brilliant 50 yards pass via an ever so slight deflection off Lucio, Tiribocchi killed the ball before side footing past Julio Cesar.
Lucio is still a great defender but it's clear he's not used to dealing with the technical level of the forwards found in Serie A. At times he's made to look ordinary.
Attendance : 20,000
Red Card : Sneijder 65 (Inter)
Assists : n/a, n/a
CATANIA 0
LIVORNO 1 (Danilevicius 88)
Attendance : 12,000
Red Card : Mascara 84 (Catania)
Assist : n/a
CHIEVO 2 (Pinzi 12, Sardo 24)
FIORENTINA 1 (Montolivo 5)
Chievo had already hit the woodwork before Montolivo scored an all too rare goal when he smacked home a loose ball. Avramov, standing in for the injured Frey, spilled Elvis' centre and Pinzi tapped in the equaliser. Sardo, possibly capitalising on the lack of Frey's presence in the penalty area, headed in Luciano's low free kick.
Attendance : 10,508
Assists : n/a, n/a, Luciano (fk)
LAZIO 1 (Kolarov 39)
GENOA 0
Attendance : 15,000
Red Card : Bocchetti 66 (Genoa)
Assist : n/a
MILAN 0
PALERMO 2 (Miccoli 49, Bresciano 61)
Receiving a pass on the left hand edge of the box, Miccoli switched the ball onto his right foot as he checked inside Zambrotta before curling inside the right post. Miccoli killed Antonini on the left, forcing him to dive in with tackles twice and on the second occasion doing a Bergkamp pirouette as he span away and passed to Pastore, Ambrosini made a perfectly timed sliding tackle just as he was about to pull the trigger but inadvertently helped the ball onto Bresciano who thumped in Palermo's second.
Miccoli should be playing for Italy. He has an explosive shot and as he can play out wide he would be an ideal back-up for Di Natale.
Attendance : 39,253
Assists : Bresciano, n/a
PARMA 2 (Panucci 57, Amoruso 86)
BOLOGNA 1 (Mudingayi 43)
Parma fell behind to a counter attack. Di Vaio sent Mudingayi clear and despite having only ever scored twice in nine years the midfielder showed great composure to curl the ball over Mirante from the edge of the box. Panucci headed in a deflected cross to equalise, his first Parma goal. Britos was sent off for a clumsy challenge on Dzemaili. He didn't make much contact but had he not fell on top of Dzemaili I doubt the ref would have given a card or penalty. In any case Amoruso missed but made amends by scoring the winner after Zaccardo, who has been excellent since returning to Serie A from Wolfsburg, bust a gut to keep alive a ball that was heading out of play.
Attendance : 17,535
Red Card : Britos 61 (Bologna)
Assists : Di Vaio, n/a, Zaccardo
SIENA 2 (Maccarone 66, Ghezzal 90)
UDINESE 1 (D'Agostino 93)
Jarolim helped on a ball to Maccarone, he cut inside his marker and from the left hand edge of the penalty hit an extraordinary curling shot into the top right corner of Handanovic's' net. In the 90th minute Brandao sent Handanovic's goalkick back into the Udinese half, Ghezzal chased down the ball, held off Zapata (it's a good job he's 6ft) and judged the bounce to perfection, lobbing over Handanovic as he dived at his feet. D'Agostino scored a rare goal from open play.
Attendance : 9,000
Assists : Jarolim, Brandao, Floro Flores
12 December 2009
CAGLIARI 3 (Larrivey 75, Matri 80, Jeda 89)
NAPOLI 3 (Lavezzi 22, Pazienza 65, Bogliacino 96)
Lavezzi dribbled between two players and beat Marchetti with a low drive inside the left post. It's about bloody time he scored a goal. He was booked for taking off his shirt as he celebrated. From a half cleared corner, Pazienza kicked the ball into the ground and quickly fired off a second shot to double Napoli's lead. Cossu released Matri down the left and Larrivey got in front of his marker to meet the striker's centre with a half volley. Matri equalised with a superb header. Jeda, who seems to score a remarkable amount of headed goals despite being a midget, was convinced he had headed in the winner from Canini's cross. In the 95th minute we witnessed another of those bizarre incidents that seem only to happen in Serie A. A ball ran out of touch so Cagliari's coach, Massimiliano Allegri, flicked it up and kicked it to his bench to waste time. A ball boy throw another ball towards Lavezzi who smacked it against Allegri, earning a yellow card. Lavezzi refused to go off at first, wasting even more time. When the game eventually restarted Marchetti made a brilliant save from a Denis header, Bogliacino hurled himself at the rebound, almost colliding with the post as the ball hit the back of the net.
Attendance : 18,000
Red Card : Lavezzi 95 (Napoli)
Assists : Hamsik, n/a, Matri, Cossu, Canini, n/a
BARI 3 (Meggiorini 7, Barreto 44 Pen, Almiron 81)
JUVENTUS 1 (Trezeguet 23)
Meggiorini charged down Marchisio as he dithering when about to pass out from the edge of the box, the ball bounced up in the air, Meggiorini caught it on the volley and Legrottaglie flicked out a foot, deflecting it past Buffon. Trezeguet did what he does box, snare a goal in the box after Gillet gave up a rebound from a poor Diego shot. Dirty cheat Cannavaro stepped on Barreto's right foot as he tried to go past him in the box and Baretto took a dive to make sure he won a penalty. He sent Buffon the wrong way. Juve blew three early second half chances to equalise before Grosso repeated his trick against Australia and went over Almiron's legs as he dived in with a suicidal tackle. Big match bottler Diego was flashed with one of those laser torches just before he took his penalty, which he sent into the stands. Don't expect him to play for Brazil anytime soon. Former Juve flop Almiron hit a loose ball through a ruck of players, leaving Buffon rooted to the spot. In the remaining minutes Bari should have massacred Juve on the break.
Just when you thought things couldn't get any worse for Juve Buffon is out for six weeks with a knee injury and oil painting Camoranesi could be out for three months with a thigh injury.
Rumour is Lippi will take over Juve for a THIRD TIME after the World Cup. That's all Italian football needs, more tainted titles. Having used steroids in his first stint and refs in his second what will he resort to this time?
Attendance : 52,000
Assists : n/a, n/a, Barreto, n/a