4 November 2012

PESCARA 2 (Abbruscato 49, Weiss 93)
PARMA 0

ELVIS held off a defender to shoot a longball past Mirante. Pescara rode their luck as goalkeeper Perin kept Parma at back. With Parma pushing forward in search of an equaliser Pescara suckered them on the break. Quintero cleared a header with a spectacular spinning back heel volley to Weiss, he dribbled wide of a defender before slamming a shot in off the right post. Wonderful goal.

Attendance : 16,000
Assists : n/a, Quintero


BOLOGNA 1 (Diamanti 46)
UDINESE 1 (Di Natale 73)

Diamanti stroked a low centre past Brkic. Di Natale hammered home a loose ball to equalise.

Attendance : 23,909
Assists : Gabbiadini, n/a


CATANIA 4 (Gomez 9, Lodi 25 Pen, Gomez 29, Barrientos 69)
LAZIO 0

Gomez began the rout with an outrageous left foot shot from an impossible angle then did the gangnam dance. Dirty Dias handled to concede the penalty and four minutes later the Lazio defence ball watched a cross instead of tracking Gomez as he ran from deep to bag his second. Barrientos tapped in Catania's fourth on a counter attack.

A stunning victory which once again exposes Lazio's lack of strength in depth. Without Klose to hold up the ball they were always going to struggle though no one could have expected this. Not ideal preparation for next week's Rome derby.

Attendance : 10,922
Assists : Spolli, n/a, Marchese, Gomez


FIORENTINA 4 (Rodriguez 14, Jovetic 49, Toni 54, Cuadrado 84)
CAGLIARI 1 (Casarini 42)

Rodriguez headed goal shy Fiorentina into the lead from a corner. Casarini equalised via a massive deflection off Roncaglia. The goal had originally been ruled out for offside. Jovetic put Fiorentina back in front from another Valero corner. Five minutes later he chased down a longball and centred for Toni's third goal of the season. Cuadrado put the icing on the cake with an exquisite lob.

Attendance : 19,533
Assists : Valero (ck), n/a, Valero (ck), Jovetic, n/a


NAPOLI 1 (Cavani 6)
TORINO 1 (Sansone 91)

Gillet spilled a Hamsik cross and Cavani tapped in the rebound. One of Napoli's joke defenders, Aronica, played a hospital pass straight down the middle and Sansone danced around De Sanctis before tapping into an empty net.

Attendance : 30,000
Red Card : Mazzarri 90 (Napoli C)
Assists : n/a, n/a


SAMPDORIA 1 (Maresca 53)
ATALANTA 2 (Bonaventura 2, De Luca 76)

Raimondi flicked up a cross with his left foot then volleyed the ball to the back post with his right and Bonaventura volley in at the back post. Maresca equalised with a looping overhead kick. Atalanta exposed Sampdoria's left flank for a second time and De Luca slid home a Denis centre.

Attendance : 21,499
Assists : Raimondi, Gastaldello, Denis


SIENA 1 (Paci 55)
GENOA 0

Attendance : 8,076
Assist : Valiani (ck)


ROMA 4 (Totti 11, Osvaldo 31, Lamela 69, Destro 79)
PALERMO 1 (Ilicic 84)

Totti headed in a rebound after Palermo goalkeeper Ujkani slapped his shot against the crossbar. Piris hit a longball into the box, Ujkani collided with one of his centrebacks, the big oaf Munoz and Osvaldo tapped into an empty net. Good work down the left between Totti and Tachtsidis left Lamela with a tap in at the back post. Destro came off the bench, was booked for a dangerous foul, scored from a Lamela through ball, his first for Roma, then half removed his shirt to earn a second yellow. Dipshit. Burdisso and Miccoli crashed into each other when attacking a ball and Ilicic waltzed through the gap to blast in a consolation goal.

Attendance : 30,598
Assists : n/a, n/a, Tachtsidis, Lamela, Miccoli


3 November 2012

MILAN 5 (Emanuelson 16, Montolivo 36, Bojan 41, El Shaarawy 75, Pazzini 93)
CHIEVO 1 (Pellissier 18)

Milan got a huge slice of luck when Constant's cross found Emanuelson via a deflection and in turn his shot went in off a defender. Chievo levelled immediately from a corner, punishing Milan's woeful set piece defending. Montolivo restored Milan's lead again via the help of a deflection at the end of a fine move. Mexes was very lucky not to concede a penalty when he pulled one of his trademark bonehead moves. Thinking he was Ibrahimovic, he jumped in the air to volley clear a cross and kicked the ball against his right arm. Ambrosini also had a close call when he threw an arm around Hetemaj as he stormed into the box then fell rather dramatically. Bojan completed a hat-trick of deflected goals on a super counter attack to score his first Milan goal.

Ambrosini snuffed out an attack and passed into Bojan who ran through a tackle before laying off to Montolivo, Abate and Boateng probed the right flank before passing back to Montolivo who hit El Shaarawy with a crossfield pass, the prince who will one day be King, recovered from a heavy first touch to keep the ball in play and passed to Constant, the ball was eventually worked to Abate on the opposite flank and he accelerated past a defender before firing a centre to the back post for man of the match El Shaarawy, 4-1, thirteen passes, five players, wonderful team goal. Milan's fifth goal was just as good, I counted 12 passes. After some patient probing Bojan found El Shaarawy with a magnificent, driven crossfield pass and he rolled the ball to the back post for Pazzini to end his eight game drought.

Milan's best performance since hammering Arsenal in the UCL last season. Constant was once again very, very good at left back. He's already twice the player Antonini is despite not being a natural defender. Allegri may still be canned at the end of the season (I hope he gets the Man City job), especially if rumours that there's a deal in place with Guardiola are true, but he's going to leave the next coach with a good, not great, squad, two fantastic right backs and the best young player in all of Europe.

Attendance : 33,360
Assists : n/a, Luciano (ck), n/a, n/a, Abate, El Shaarawy


JUVENTUS 1 (Vidal 0.18)
INTER 3 (Milito 59 Pen, Milito 75, Palacio 89)

The omens were not good for Inter. For a start the crook Tagliavento was officiating and it was no surprise when he failed to call a clear offside against Asamoah as he centred for Vidal's opener 18 seconds into the match nor was it a surprise when the coward failed to show a second yellow to Lichtsteiner for kicking Palacio. Juve's stand in coach quickly substituted Lichtsteiner just in case. Nor was it a surprise when Tagliavento, who I hope we have established is a crook, failed to call a penalty against Marchisio when he hauled down Milito - that was at the request of an assistant linesman. Ten minutes later an absolute masterstroke by Stramaccioni. He substituted Cassano, who is usually awful when his teams are chasing, for Guarin. The Colombian intercepted a loose pass from Vidal and raced upfield, Buffon could only parry his low, skidding drive and Milito put his foot through the ball to gave Inter a lead they wouldn't relinquish. Milito made way for Mudingayi five minutes later. Juve, who had been a distant second best for almost an hour, began to look threatening but Inter suckered them on the counter. Mudingayi tackled Marchisio as he tried to dribble through traffic and passed to Guarin who found Nagatomo in acres of space down the left, as he got Buffon within his sights he panicked and was tackled by Barzagli, he fell under Chiellini's challenge, got to his feet and kept running before slipping in Palacio and his shot went in off Buffon and Juve's ill gotten, controversy laden unbeaten run finally ended at 49 games.

Attendance : 40,563
Assists : Asamoah, Milito (won pen), n/a, Nagatomo