6 December 2010
NAPOLI 1 (Maggio 95)
PALERMO 0
A disappointing game between two of this seasons top four contenders. Both teams had several shots from range with varying degrees of accuracy. Napoli dominated the second half. Dossena back healed a ball towards the far post, Sirigu made a marvellous save, scrambling across his goal to block Lavezzi. Yebda, another Portsmouth loanee now making a name for himself in Serie A forced another save from Sirigu. With seconds to go Cavani played Palermo's offside trap like a fiddle as he pulled away from his marker onto a Hamsik through pass, centred and the unmarked Maggio slid the ball into an empty net. Massive result for Napoli.
Attendance : 40,000
Assist : Cavani
5 December 2010
CESENA 0
BOLOGNA 2 (Di Vaio 31, Britos 87)
Cesena centreback Benalouane fell as he tracked a long ball as it sailed towards the box, his header broke to Di Vaio who worked himself an opening before blasting past Antonioli. Casarini whipped in a cross from the right and Britos connected with a brilliant diving header at the near post to settle this Emilia-Romagna derby.
Attendance : 15,680
Assists : n/a, Casarini
FIORENTINA 1 (Mutu 52)
CAGLIARI 0
Attendance : 21,664
Assist : D'Agostino (fk)
LECCE 1 (Ofere 47)
GENOA 3 (Toni 55, Ranocchia 76, Rossi 94)
Di Michele chased down a longball, brushed aside Rafinha (who has been a massive flop), skipped Mesto's tackle then centred for the Nigerian-Swede Ofere to score his first Serie A goal. Toni equalised from a corner. Lecce struggled to cope with Veloso's dead ball delivery, his free kick was met by another of Genoa's giants, Ranocchia. Rossi started and finished off a simple move against a Lecce side who had by now given up.
Attendance : 6,200
Assists : Di Michele, Veloso (ck), Veloso (fk), Destro
PARMA 2 (Crespo 24 Pen, Crespo 56)
UDINESE 1 (Di Natale 35)
Di Natale's stunning free kick drew Udinese level but Crespo, who was profligate last week against Inter, got between two defenders and leapt in the air to flick Angelo's cross into the far corner. As good a header as you'll see this season.
Attendance : 12,267
Assists : Giovinco (won pen), Asamoah (won fk), Angelo
SAMPDORIA 3 (Pazzini 17 Pen, Guberti 56, Guberti 61)
BARI 0
Pazzini despatched a penalty awarded for handball. Rossi, who had been booked for handling the ball, encroached on Curci twice as Sampdoria were readying themselves for a Bari free kick. The ref showed him a second yellow. Ventura was understandably furious. Guberti scored a brilliant first goal, curling the ball into the top right corner from the left of the penalty box and a crap second, via a deflection off Gazzi.
I'm surprised Ventura hasn't been sacked. It's only a matter of time.
Attendance : 20,877
Red Card : Rossi 32 (Bari), Ventura 34 (Bari)
Assists : n/a, Tissone, n/a
CATANIA 1 (Morimoto 37)
JUVENTUS 3 (Pepe 35, Quagliarella 44, Quagliarella 58)
Iaquinta beat Catania's offside trap onto a longball, half volleyed a cross over the back post and the onrushing Pepe slammed a first time shot past Andujar. Juve had barely finished their celebrations when Morimoto took advantage of several deflections in the Juve box to equalise. Quagliarella hammered a shot against the underside of the crossbar and over the line but the goal didn't stand. A minute later he got his goal. Once again Iaquinta held up a longball, powered past his marker and played another centre across goal, Quagliarella took a touch before firing low into the bottom right corner. Quagliarella dispossessed Biagianti in the Catania half and as he pathetically looked towards the ref waiting for the whistle, the Italy striker whipped the ball inside the left post. Excellent finish. Catania put pressure on the crap Juve defence and almost got back into the game but Juve started to find space on the break and should have added more goals, Del Piero and Krasic guilty of a shocking misses.
Attendance : 16,556
Assists : Iaquinta, n/a, Iaquinta, n/a
4 December 2010
CHIEVO 2 (Moscardelli 61, Granoche 83)
ROMA 2 (Simplicio 26, Simplicio 44)
Tinkerman Ranieri benched Borriello and Menez ahead of Roma's Champions League match against Cluj, giving a rare start to Adriano. The Brazilian looked slow and clumsy but had a hand in both goals. De Rossi chipped a free kick into the box, Adriano got a touch but Rigoni intercepted and should have cleared, Simplicio stuck out a foot and stripped the ball from behind Rigoni, flicked it over his head as he turned to face goal then lobbed over Sorrentino as he charged off his line. Brilliant goal. Adriano intercepted a clearance from Rigoni and played the ball out wide to Cassetti on the overlap, Cassetti centred and Simplicio got in front of his marker to poke the ball into the corner. Moscardelli turned onto a pass and let fly with a speculative 25 yard effort which Julio Sergio parried into his own net. Bogliacino stooped low to head on a long pass and Granoche burst past three players to equalise. De Rossi jumped into Moscardelli with a deliberate, late foul from behind to earn a red card. Roma are a dirty side who react violently whenever things don't go their way. Julio Cesar made a brilliant point blank save to deny Pellissier the winning goal.
Attendance : 11,147
Red Card : De Rossi (Roma)
Assists : n/a, Cassetti, n/a, Bogliacino
MILAN 3 (Boateng 4, Robinho 28, Ibrahimovic 31)
BRESCIA 0
Allegri did it again. Having played Flamini in an advanced attacking role in recent weeks to great effect this week Pirlo was returned to his position in front of the defence and Boateng played behind a front two of Ibrahimovic and Robinho while Seedorf and Ronaldinho looked on from the bench. Robinho intercepted a loose ball in midfield and fed Zambrotta, Zambrotta passed to Ibrahimovic who beat Zebina as he ran into the box, collected his captain's backheel and centred for Boateng to slide the ball past Sereni. His first ever Serie A goal to the delight of his team-mates and the fans who see him as something of a cult hero. Within seconds of going close to scoring a brilliant individual goal Robinho raced onto a hospital pass to tap-in Milan's second. Surrounded by a hoard of Brescia defenders Ibrahimovic turned away from goal, dragged the ball back, suddenly burst forward and let rip with a fierce right foot shot into the roof of the net. Great goal.
Attendance : 52,000
Assists : Ibrahimovic, n/a, Pirlo
3 December 2010
LAZIO 3 (Biava 27, Zarate 52, Hernanes 90 fk)
INTER 1 (Pandev 74)
Hernanes headed the ball against Floccari and Castelazzi, who was diving for the initial header, made a great one handed save, Cambiasso tried to hack the ball clear with an overhead kick, it bounced towards Biava and he used his stomach to belly bounce the ball into the net. Right back Natalino, who made his debut as a second half sub last week, slipped as he tracked Zarate's run onto a longball, the Argentinean dinked the ball over Castelazzi as he flew off his line. Pandev took advantage of a lucky bounce to score against his former employees. The goal lifted the visitors who had been a distant second best until that point. Hernanes sealed a well deserved victory with a brilliant right footed free kick from the edge of the box, via a deflection off Santon.
Looks like Lazio legend Diego Simeone, who also spent two years at Inter, will replace the parasite Benitez after the club world cup.
Attendance : 50,000
Assists : n/a, Hernanes, n/a, n/a