All week we will be unveiling the winners of our Team of the Year voting with a mixture of regular and guest writers. Here’s the first entry, courtesy of the excellent Danny Penza. For much of his career, Christian Abbiati played second fiddle to a number a different goalkeepers. Right or wrong, Abbiati rarely got consistent minutes in goal as a starter. Furthermore, the goalkeeping position for Milan had basically been a revolving door for the past couple of seasons, [...]
This season of Calcio has been more fascinating than usual, as teams that usually dominate have struggled (Inter, Roma, Juventus) and some surprise packages have arisen (Napoli, Bologna). Some of the biggest catalysts are well-known and often heralded. The sparkling form of Edinson Cavani; the stellar defense of Andrea Ranocchia; Napoli’s home fortress: all of which have been reported on endlessly. However, there have been some equally impressive facets of Serie A this season that may have gone overlooked. Here’s [...]
The Winners Udinese have won again, which is hardly surprising from the team that has taken sixteen points out of the last eighteen. Fifteenth-placed Catania fell away to Francesco Guidolin’s side, who temporarily moved to third before Napoli won the late game in Serie A. Gokhan Inler netted early in the side before captain Antonio Di Natale added yet another goal to his tally off a rigore, bringing his season total to a whopping twenty five strikes in thirty games. [...]
Probable Formations Matchday 30 Italian Serie A Saturday 19.03.11 17:00 Lazio vs Cesena Lazio (4-1-3-2): Muslera , Scaloni, G. Biava, Dias, Garrido , Matuzalém, González, Hernanes, Mauri, Zárate, Sculli UPDATE: Lazio up 1-0 after Mauro Zarate scored inside two minutes. Lazio could go fourth in Serie A with victory over Cesena today Cesena (4-1-3-2): Antonioli, Santon , Pellegrino, Von Bergen, Lauro, Colucci, Caserta, Parolo, Jiménez, Bogdani, Malonga 19:45 Palermo vs AC Milan Palermo (3-4-1-2): Sirigu, Muñoz, Goian, Migliaccio, Darmian, Bacinovic, [...]
Julian De Martinis previews the weekends matches for us Lazio - Cesena. A game that might be tighter than expected. The home side have lost two of their last three and will be reeling from their Derby loss last weekend, as well as the subsequent suspensions of Stefan Radu and Cristian Ledesma. Cesena, on the other hand, pulled off a very decent draw against Juventus after being down two goals. Should Lazio fail to gain all three points here, the [...]
This new weekly feature may be titled “Northern Lights”, due to the fact that these Serie A clubs hail from the north of Italy, but based on league form it would be more propos to entitle it “Lower End Teams, So Low That Most of Them Are Fighting Relegation.” Only one of these teams is truly shining. The Contender: Udinese Udinese continue to play sparkling football and have been duly rewarded, reaching the height of fourth place for the first [...]
The Italian Football FanCast is the podcast for fans of Serie A and Calcio. On this edition of the Italian Football FanCast, we look at Milan’s charge for the Scudetto as they steamrollered Napoli at the San Siro thanks to a wonderful performance from Alexandre Pato. Our roving reported Paolo Rusmini fill us in on all the action. Unfortunately for Kris Voakes, Palermo’s match with Udinese was full of goals, but the seven that were scored were all for the Zebrete [...]
Probable Formations Matchday 27 Italian Serie A Saturday 26.02.11 20:45 Juventus vs Bologna Juventus (4-4-2): Storari, Grygera, Bonucci, Barzagli, Chiellini, Krasic, Felipe Melo, Marchisio, Martinez, Matri. Iaquinta Bologna (4-3-1-2): Viviano, Esposito, Portanova, Britos, Rubin, Perez, Mudingayi, Della Rocca, Casarini, Di Vaio, Meggiorini Sunday 27.02.11 12:30 Catania vs Genoa Catania (4-3-1-2): Andujar, Potenza, Silvestre, Augustyn, Alvarez, Schelotto, Ledesma, Lodi, Gomez, Bergessio, Maxi Lopez Genoa (4-4-2): Eduardo, Mesto, Kaladze, Dainelli, Moretti, Rossi, Veloso, Kucka, Criscito, Floro Flores, Palacio 15:00 AS Roma vs [...]
Champion’s league hopefuls Juventus and Roma will be looking to pick up after a disappointing round last week, which saw the bianconeri fall to a shock defeat versus struggling Lecce and Claudio Ranieri sacked. Elsewhere possibly Serie A’s two most exciting teams will go head to head, whilst there’s only the small matter of the top two teams squaring off at the San Siro… Saturday 26th February (2045 CET) Juventus (7) v Bologna (12) Bologna continue to defy the odds [...]
The Italian Football FanCast is the podcast for fans of Serie A and Calcio. On this edition of the Italian Football FanCast, we look back at another eventful weekend in the peninsula, especially in Genoa where Roma threw away a three goal lead to eventually lose the game, and we have our new roving reporter on the case to tell us exactly how such a tragedy could occur. As a result of the defeat, Roma boss Claudio Ranieri handed in his [...]
Probable Formations Matchday 26 Italian Serie A Saturday 19.02.11 18:00 Bologna vs Palermo Bologna (4-3-1-2): Viviano, Moras, Portanova, Cherubin, Rubin, Perez, Mudingayi, Della Rocca, Ramirez, Di Vaio, Meggiorini Palermo (4-3-2-1): Sirigu, Anjelkovic, Munoz,Bovo, Garcia, Migliaccio,Bacinovic,Nocerino, Illcic, Pastore,Miccoli 20:45 Inter Milan vs Cagliari Inter (4-3-1-2): Cesar, Maicon, Cordoba, Ranocchia, Kharja, Zanetti, Cambiasso, Motta, Stankovic, Pazzini, Eto’o Cagliari (4-3-2-1): Agazzi, Pisano, Canini, Astori, Agostini, Biondini, Conti, Nainggolan, Cossu, Aquafresca, Nene Sunday 20.02.11 12:30 Lecce vs Juventus Juventus (4-4-2): Buffon, Sorensen, Bonucci, Chiellini, [...]
With Inter closing the gap on the frontrunners and Sampdoria winning the Derby della Lanterna during midweek in the rearranged fixtures, a full card will be played out with a number of crucial games around the peninsula. Bologna – Palermo Last weekend Bologna fell to a resurgent Sampdoria side as they leaked three goals in 15 minutes. But more performances like that will draw the Felsinei into a relegation fight. Palermo were battered 3-1 at the Stadio Dall’Ara last year [...]
