Juventus continue their dominance in a tough win vs Sassuolo while Roma seem to have a myriad of problems drawing again against Chievo. Napoli squander an excellent chance to gain ground on guaranteed Champions League football in the form of a second place finish and Lazio demolish Fiorentina at home.
Let’s get to the games:
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Sampdoria | 2 | (10-12-4) |
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Cagliari | 0 | (4-8-14) |
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Sampdoria looked very confident in this game after their come-from-behind victory last week at Atalanta. The goals would come from Luca De Silvestri and Samuel Eto’o who would score his first goal for his new team. The result would also cause Cagliari coach Gianfranco Zola to lose his position as head coach and be replaced by previous coach Zeman.
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AC Milan | 2 | (8-11-7) |
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Verona | 2 | (7-8-11) |
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Milan and Verona looked to be an evenly matched game as Milan has been struggling mightily for the second half of the season. The first goal in this one came off of a penalty kick converted by Luca Toni after Milan midfielder Sulley Muntari made an extremely foolish challenge on the edge of the box to give away Verona the penalty. Five minutes before the halftime break, Milan would tie the game up thanks to Philippe Mexes being tripped up in the box to award Milan their own penalty kick. Jeremy Menez would step up to the spot and coolly convert the penalty kick for his 13th goal of the year and 7th goal from a penalty. Philippe Mexes became the x-factor again as the Frenchman would score a goal of his own from an improbable angle that deflected in off the Verona defense. In the end, it was Hellas Verona’s super-sub Nico Lopez to score a goal in the 95th minute crushing the hearts of Fillipo Inzaghi’s men and Milan fans around the world.
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Cesena | 0 | (4-8-14) |
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Palermo | 0 | (8-11-7) |
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After putting in a very lackluster performance against Empoli last week, you would think Palermo would try to heat things up in their match against Cesena. Instead, this would prove to be another very uneventful game as both teams would hold possession for most of the game and rarely look dangerous. Something tells me next week will be different as Palermo play Juventus and Cesena face off against Inter.
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Parma | 0 | (3-3-18) |
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Atalanta | 0 | (5-9-12) |
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Parma would finally get the nod to play a game in the Serie A after there have been talks to save the squad from bankruptcy with a 5 million dollar loan coming from the other Italian teams. Parma would put in a strong performance and earn a point against Atalanta and walk off to cheers of a proud Parma fan-base who sold out the stadium for their team.
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Udinese | 3 | (8-7-10) |
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Torino | 2 | (9-9-8) |
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Udinese-Torina was one of the more entertaining matches of the weekend as 5 goals were scored in the match with a lot of back and forth play. Fabio Qualiarella would be the first to strike in this match by scoring in the 15th only to have his goal canceled out by fellow Italian striker Antonio Di Natale 2 minutes later. Torino would then shoot themselves in the foot by suffering an own goal and allowing Mali-born defender Molla Wague to score a third goal. The final goal would come from Marco Benassi as Torino did everything they could to look for the equalizer but would ultimately come up short.
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Chievo | 0 | (6-8-12) |
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AS Roma | 0 | (13-11-2) |
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Roma’s issues continued in this game as their lack of creativity and clinical strikes would do them in again this week. Francesco Totti, while still an excellent player in his own right, has actually looked to slow down the team’s attacking options. The Roma captain rarely plays an entire match anymore and seems to only get the nod because Rudi Garcia feels obliged to. Roma lack ways to score after riding Gervinho’s excellent form in the beginning of the season. Couple that with an aging De Sanctis in net and a diminished defense after losing Benatia and that is where Roma lack in their attempt to contend for a title. Chievo would actually look the better side in this match at times, and have better chances to score. One truly sad note from this game was 19-year-old Federico Matiello breaking his leg after a challenge from Radja Nainggolan.
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Empoli | 1 | (5-14-7) |
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Genoa | 1 | (9-10-6) |
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Genoa have enjoyed a very solid season this year that not many of their fans were truly expecting. Being in 7th place at this stage of the season has truly delighted their fan base and helped the team put together some strong results. In this match, Genoa would continue their strong play and score first with a goal from Niang assissted by Bertolacci in the 27th minute. Empoli would tie things up with 21-year-old Federico Barba scoring his 2nd goal of the year in the second half.
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Napoli | 2 | (13-7-6) |
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Inter Milan | 2 | (9-9-8) |
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The San Paolo would provide a rocking atmosphere for the home side Napoli as they would look to grab three points and fall within 2 points of Roma for second place. Napoli got off to an excellent start with a plethora of chances coming from very strong play by Dries Mertens and Gonzalo Higuain. The Argentina striker would trouble Samir Handanovic at least three times in the first half until finally receiving a perfectly placed cross that simply needed a tap-in to give Napoli the lead. Somehow an almost statistically-impossible situation occurred as Higuain skied the tap-in over the net causing moans and groans throughout the stadium. In the second half, Napoli would take the lead deservedly with a goal from captain Marek Hamsik. The strong play would then be rewarded again as Freddy Guarin would lose the ball in midfield allowing Gonzalo Higuain to strike a wonderfully curved shot that rattled off the post and into the net. The Napoli players seemed to have celebrated the victory after that goal as they closed themselves in defense at an extremely early juncture in the match. Inter would have 20 minutes of play where Napoli were closed into their half defending the Inter attacks. Eventually the shaky Napoli defense would break with Rodrigo Palacio scoring a goal after a scuffle in the box. In the 85th minute, Napoli defender would drag down Palacio in the box to award Inter a penalty. Mauro Icardi would convert the penalty by chipping the ball into the net which would anger his fellow countryman and Napoli goalkeeper Mariano Andujar. Inter would walk away with the point, as an overly confident Napoli could only rue another missed opportunity.
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Lazio | 4 | (14-4-8) |
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Fiorentina | 0 | (11-9-6) |
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Lazio came into this game smelling blood after Napoli’s draw vs. Inter Milan. Lazio knew that a win could see them tie Napoli with a crucial game vs the Partenopei coming up in the near future. The scoring would start with a phenomenal volley off the foot of Lucas Leiva to put Lazio up 1-nil. Lazio would go on to score 3 more with a penalty from Antonio Candreva and a brace from Miroslav Klose.
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Juventus | 1 | (18-7-1) |
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Sassuolo | 0 | (6-11-9) |
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The Juventus-Sassuolo game looked to be a victory celebration event for the Juventus fans. The fans seemed to be in a very happy and calm attitude enjoying the match knowing that Juventus would most likely be crowned champions very soon. The game itself was a very good one with Sassuolo causing tons of problems for Juventus tactically and technically. Juventus would turn the heat up in the last 15 minutes of the game with a myriad of chances to take the lead until finally Paul Pogba took things into his own hands by scoring yet another wonder goal. It seems as if he can only score extraordinary goals that take a huge amount of talent and ball control and he exhibited this in this goal coming in the 82nd minute.