SERIE A ROUND 23
 
JUVE GO 4 POINTS CLEAR

10 man Juventus battle out a victory over Roma. Abbiati earns Milan a point
away to Cagliari. Inter and Lazio score comfortable victories. Fiorentina pile
more misery on Parma who concede 4 goals for the second successive week.

26 FEBRUARY 2000

LAZIO				2-1			UDINESE
Negro 18						Locatelli 89
Salas 47

Negro fired Lazio in the lead with a low shot from Ravanelli's cross. Veron
finally pulled his finger out of his arse and did something after 3 months of
inactivity, picking out Salas with an excellent pass, Turci flew out of his
box and completely missed leaving Salas with a tap-in. Conceicao shot straight
at Turci when put through by Salas. Locatelli repeated the trick at the other
end from Muzzi's cross but made amends when he scored from a rebound
after Marchegiani blocked his initial shot. Easy for Lazio, Udinese get stage
fright against the big boys.

Attendance : 45,000


PARMA				0-4			FIORENTINA
							Balbo 21
							Rui Costa 65, 75
							Mijatovic 85

Di Vaio wasted a great chance to give Parma an early lead, shooting wide from
Thuram's super pass. Toldo made a great save from Benarrivo. Rui Costa
carried the ball deep from his own half, played in Mijatovic with a beautiful
disguised pass and Balbo tapped in his centre.

Crespo threw himself over Toldo in the box, didn't get a penalty and then
gave a thumbs up to the ref! Rui Costa started and finished the move that led
to Fiorentina's second, he picked out Balbo wide on the right, he turned Lassissi
inside out before centring for Rui Costa to tap-in and he added a second
when volleying in a superbly weighted pass from Balbo. Mijatovic blasted in
a free kick to cap off a marvellous performance.

Fiorentina's first away win in 13 months. You get the impression several of
the Parma players are more concerned with the fat contracts they'll get from
transfers at the end of the season. Thuram is particularly guilty of giving
half arsed performances,  right now he's almost as useless as Costacurta.

Attendance : 20,045


27 FEBRUARY 2000

BARI				1-1			TORINO
Osmanovski 49						Ferrante 57

Collauto curled a free kick off the crossbar, Perrotta flashed an overhead
kick from the rebound just wide. Osmanovski scored from close range after
a fortunate deflection from a free kick left.

Osmanovski and Spinesi wasted chances to make the game safe early in the
second half and were duly punished when Ferrante curled a free kick up and
over the wall. Diawara smashed a shot off the crossbar, Perrotta headed wide
from a cross and Bucci made a miraculous point blank save from Spinesi's
overhead kick. Garyza pushed Diawara in the face, he in turn tried to goal
kick Garyza's bollocks but caught him in the mid-riff. 

Attendance : 25,000


BOLOGNA			0-0			PIACENZA

Rastelli headed over the bar from about 6 inches out.  Roma made a fine save
from Signori's free kick and denied him again with a fantastic block from a
header. Only Piacenza have scored less goals than Bologna. Signing a proven
goalscorer has to be a priority next season. What happened to Ventola?

Attendance : 25,000


CAGLIARI			0-0			MILAN

Milan didn't manage a single shot on target in the entire match, the closest
they came to scoring was when Shevchenko fired a shot across goal.
Abbiati earned Milan an ill deserved point with some customary incredible
saves. The first with his feet from Oliveira, an awesome tip over from
De Patre's half volley and he ended the first half with a reaction save from
O'Neill's free kick.

Abbiati and De Patre continued their dual in the second half, Abbiati tipped
over De Patre's header from a free kick, flew across goal with his feet to keep
out another De Patre header and made a brilliant diving save from Mboma.
Suazo played a one-two with Mboma but fired wide. 4-0 would have flattered
Milan, they blew chunks. Boban was beyond awful, Serginho continually
screwed up crosses. The only outfield players who played like they had a set
were Gattuso and Chamot. O'Neill was absolutely outstanding for Cagliari.
Mboma caused Milan all sorts of problems when he came on in the second
half. With a bit more consistency he would be one of the best forwards in the
World, he has more to his game than Weah but is wasteful in front of goal.

Attendance : 25,000


INTER				3-0			VENEZIA
Vieri 43
Zamorano 53
Recoba 83

Vieri returned a hospital pass with interest, beautifully placing his shot
past the 'keeper. Seedorf released Recoba on the left with a beautiful chipped
pass and the Uruguayan fired a low cross into the box for Zamorano to stab
in at the far post. Vieri missed an open goal from another awesome Recoba
cross before going off with a hamstring injury. Recoba got ridiculous bend on
a shot from the edge of the box and scored a deserved goal with a crisp first
time shot from Georgatos' cross.

Attendance : 56,000


PERUGIA				0-0			VERONA

Amoroso headed against the crossbar. Mazzantini spilled a shot by Morasco
but Rivalta cleared. Frey ended a 4 week highlight reel drought by making a
brilliant reaction save from Tedesco.

Attendance : 12,000


REGGINA			2-1			LECCE
Pirlo 11							Lucarelli 72 (Pen)
Kallon 41 (Pen)

Kallon conned the ref into awarding a free kick 20yds from goal. Baronio
stepped over the ball and Pirlo blasted it past Chimenti. Another dive by
Kallon, this time in the box, and another goal for Reggina.

Taibi made a freak save from Bonomi's perfectly placed free kick. A Lecce
player was flattened in the box, don't know who because the idiot commentator
didn't say his name and I didn't get his shirt number. Lucarelli converted
the penalty. Kallon nearly added a second but Chimenti kept out his ferocious
drive.

Attendance : 23,612


JUVENTUS			2-1			ROMA
Davids 30						Delvecchio 37
Inzaghi 45

Following a series of mistakes Cafu stole the ball from Inzaghi's feet just
before he pulled the trigger. Inzaghi and Montella went looking for
penalties. Roma should have been awarded a penalty when Tacchinardi went
straight through the back of Delvecchio. Cafu headed out Conte's cross
straight to Davids who blasted Juve into the lead with a fantastic volley.
Roma equalised with a cleverly worked free kick, Di Francesco passed to
Montella who hit a beautiful first time pass high to Delvecchio who hooked
the ball past Van der Sar. Montero was sent off for blatant handball as
Totti raced onto a fantastic pass from Nakata. Van der Sar saved bravely
from Nakata and almost broke both their legs in the process. From the
resulting corner Van der Sar spilled Totti's header and Aldair pathetically
tried to lift the ball into the net instead of giving it a good whack. Aldair
really sucks despite his ridiculous average ratings in the press.

Birindelli's cross took a wicked deflection off Aldair and Inzaghi was left
with a tap-in. Van der Sar had to dive low to keep out Delvecchio's
volley but after that Roma never threatened. Inzaghi and Del Piero wasted
great chances to increase Juve's lead.

Another resilient display for Juve, Davids and Inzaghi were outstanding.
Roma still play their high octane passing game but still have a shitty
defence. Aldair may be great at brining the ball forward but is a liability
in defence.

Attendance : 55,000
Red Card(s) : Montero 38 (Juventus)