Kwadwo Asamoah hasn’t quite been the unstoppable force he was at the very start of the season. The Ghanaian has looked jaded since returning from the six weeks he spent at the African Cup of Nations with Ghana. Primarily bought in during the summer so as to add depth to the Juventus midfield, keeping in mind the club would be battling on three fronts. Asamoah, though, was converted into a wing-back by Antonio Conte. And he took that role like [...]
Saturday 28th April Roma v Napoli The game of the weekend is between two teams of contrasting fortunes. Roma have lost their last two games, a heavy 4-0 loss to Juventus in Turin and a 2-1 home reverse to Fiorentina. Napoli on the other hand, have beaten strugglers Lecce and Novara to move up to fourth. A huge game in the battle for third place, a Napoli win would leave Luis Enrique’s side with only Europa League football to play [...]
There was some idiotic scenes in the Genoa, as the home side -losing to Siena at the time -were demanded to take of their jerseys by their own ultras. The reasoning; according to this small minority of fans the players were not fit enough to wear the club’s colours. Marco Rossi, Genoa’s captain, ceded to their demands and went about collecting jerseys from his team-mates. This left Genoa Giandomenico Mesto in tears on the pitch. To their credit, at least [...]
It all began with Inter against Birmingham City in 1955 and ended, for the time being at least, in a battle at Stamford Bridge last week. In between, there have been more than 200 clashes which have formed one of the major storylines of European football. When Italian and English clubs go head to head, you can usually turn the controversy meter up full blast. When you stack the stats up of their encounters in major competition, as analysts at [...]
guest writer/Joel Sked Substituted at half-time having inadvertently assisted the goal which gave the opposition the lead is not the debut Eduardo Vargas had in mind after making his £11.4m move from Universidad de Chile to Napoli. In the 20th minute of the last-16 Coppa Italia clash with Cesena ‘Edu’ chased back to the edge of the area to help out defensively when an attempt to control the ball resulted in releasing Stefan Popescu who fired past Antonio Rosati. But [...]
Host Kevin is joined by Serie A Weekly writers Owen Neilson and Ryan Ross to discuss all the surprises and events from the first half of the Italian Serie A 2011-12 season. Podcast topics include, Juventus, Milan and Inter, players like Jovetic, Klose, Djibril Cissé and Simone Pepe, a Best XI, and also a few words on racism in football. The crew venture into the world of Champions League with banter on possible Napoli success and a final few words [...]
guest writer - Luca Cetta Looking to build from a start to the season in which they sit second behind Milan only on goal difference and remain the only unbeaten side in Europe’s top leagues, January is shaping up to be an important month on and off the pitch for Juventus. During 2009-2010 Juventus lost three out of four in January, while last season’s disastrous loss against Parma (including Fabio Quagliarella’s season ending injury) was compounded by a thrashing at [...]
As the Serie A season enters the winter break, Lazio sit firmly in fourth position on 30 points after an encouraging start to the season. They have only lost two games in the league (against Juventus and, once high-flying, Genoa) and they have qualified from the Europa League group stages. The additions made to the squad in the summer have been incredibly influential in helping carry the squad forward. From back to front most of the new signings have made [...]
Milan recorded their first win in the Champions League this season after they defeated Czech side Viktoria Plzen 2-0 at the San Siro on Wednesday night. It was not a vintage display by any stretch from the seven time European champions but it was enough to gain all three points and keep pace with Barcelona in Group H. In the post-match press conference Plzen coach Pavel Vrba said, “Ibrahimovic was the best player on the pitch.” He was right. Zlatan [...]
Fittingly, for the first Serie A club to fall under foreign ownership, AS Roma’s willingness to embrace change continues with gusto. An influx of youth and experience from various corners of the globe is creating real fervour amongst tifosi, singling Roma out as one of world football’s teams to watch this season. But amongst the excitement and anticipation, does the existing blend of old and new make for a harmonious camp or is there discord for which further fine tuning [...]
After drawing 2-2 in the first leg in Palermo, the Rosanero made the trip to Switzerland knowing that they would need a win against FC Thun in order to guarantee a spot in the next round of the Europa League. The club was hoping to avoid another repeat of the Mladá Boleslav debacle from a few years earlier when Palermo crashed out very early in the UEFA Cup against the minnows from the Czech Republic. Yet, the memories from the [...]
Inter’s preseason is well underway, with three friendlies and three wins under their belt. Ritiro in the idyllic setting of Pinzolo has come and gone and after ten days, the squad has returned to Milan with training to resume at Appiano Gentile. While the pitch and training grounds have been quite busy with double training sessions and matches, they are not the only place seeing action. Late last week, news started circulating that the FIGC were not going to revoke [...]
