Sunday 30 September 2012

Juventus V Roma

What a great game.. for Juve fans, although near the ends their were signs of laziness on behalf of the Juve players but Buffon was quick to stamp that out! Eventhough the stats may indicate that the ball possession was more or less equal, in the first half it was all Juventus pressure and it showed with them scoring all three goals with 20 minutes.
The first goal came on the 11th minute from a free kick masterfully taken by Andrea Pirlo. Who looked slightly afraid when he scored and saw a large group of players running towards him to celebrate! One does wonder Pirlo will be okay for the mid week Champions League match against Shacktar Donesk. But Juventus' midfield is bursting with talent with the likes of Arturo Vidal, Emmanuel Giaccherini, Asamoah, Paul Pogba and Claudio Marchisio, the latter had a number of occasions to make the lead that much stronger yet the crossbar and Steeklenburg's fingertips denied him.
The second goal came in the form of a penalty in the 16th minute which was calmly put away by the new penalty taker... Arturo Vidal. The third goal was much needed to say the least as rumour go flying around that he may go to AC Milan. Alessandro Matri broke away and got another goal 3 minutes later, although for a split second it did look as though the keeper did enough to steer it off course, yet it was to power and spun into the back of the net. So Juve were up by 3 goals before halftime and could have had more but luck was not their for Mirku Vucinic and he didn't have the pleasure of scoring against his former employers.
This is the trouble if you go all attack but forget about the defence. Roma did get  a goal back in the second half with a Pablo Osvaldo penalty in the 69th minute and Roma had enough time to make a dramatic comeback but misses from Osvaldo and Erik Lamela meant that Juve could compound their grief even further, Sebastian Giovinco go on the end of a surprising;y good run by Andrea Barzargli to make it 4-1.
A wonderful group effort, yet I did see some yobbish behaviour from Leonardo Bonnuci that I'm sure Buffon will sort out!

Monday 24 September 2012

Rome travel guide - things to see and do in Rome

Week 4 drama!

What can be said for this weekend of sport? All that can be said with any amount of certainty is that it was exciting! Both Milan clubs lose, Lazio lose, Napoli are held but once again Juventus win.
First the good news.. Juve won 2-0 over Chievo. They had over 60% possession and they piled on the pressure from the offset and had it not been for the Chievo Keeper; Stefano Sorrentino, they would have lost by a greater deficit. Yet he performed the vital save to keep it goalless at half time. However there was a moment in the first half when Juve had the ball in the back of the net, Mirko Vucinic had his goal rightly ruled out on the 26th minute, he was a frustrated figure and at times did seem a little lazy especially with his passing.
Fabio Quagliarella left it till the 63rd minute to make it 1-0 and then five minutes later he made it 2. This performance has lead people to label him as the top striker, all this does make me wonder what's going to happen to Alessandro Matri. You have to keep in mind, what if he gets injured? Now that they are also in Europe's elite competition they cannot afford to just draw like they did in huge parts last season.  They did win this game with ease and the on loan Arsenal striker, Nickola Bendtner did have the chance to come on, albeit it was in the 80th minute, not a lot of time to see what he has got to offer, only time will tell.
It's never dull in Serie A THAT'S FOR SURE!!

Thursday 20 September 2012

Calm down, it's only matchday 1!

Juventus are back in Europe and showed that they are a team to be respected ( even though I didn't see it live!). Juve went down to the reigning champions Chelsea with half an hour of the first half, but if you look carefully it was essentially against ten men, at that time Arturo Vidal was getting treatment and it was against the run of play. But more importantly it was due to a deflection by Leonardo Bonucci and it was by their new Brazilian signing : Oscar, who has not been stripped of his talent by the Premiership.
The second goal came within minutes and was more to do with how shell shocked Juve were, yet I will admit that it was a sublime goal, from Oscar and some poor defending on the part of the back 3 of Juve. Vidal later pulled one back, gritting his teeth while he did it, he was obviously in pain yet he soldiered on. No matter what the stats say, Juve were in control, yet it took then till the 80th minute for substitute Fabio Quagliarella to equalise and he almost went on to win it had it not been for his rustiness which caused the ball to just shave the paint of the crossbar! Still a lot of work to do, so we mustn't get too excited, like Buffon said " it would be just arrogant to say they could win the Champions League in September".

Monday 17 September 2012

Week 3 shocker

What a weekend, first Milan lose to Atalanta at home and just as it looked like that Juventus were going to suffer their first defeat, they pull the win out of the hat, and least we forget newly promoted Torino, they tried their best and are still growing in confidence but Inter proved to be too Strong.
First of all... What is wrong with AC Milan? They are just finding it difficult to win at home, this is their second defeat at home albeit it is only week 3, but they have lost to Sampdoria and Atalanta not exactly part of the heavy hitters club. If this continues the fans will turn, but the media and co are too quick to place the blame on the Coach Allegri. This is simply unfair as the " wise" Gaillliani has decided to sell the heart of the team and then when he did buy new players, they were bought in too late to properly adjust and adapt to the style of play that Milan play. People forget that not only Thiago Silva and Ibrahimovic left but Antonio Cassano and a whole plethora of experienced players. The fans are well within their rights to be angry but they have that anger directed at the wrong person.
Now onto something close to my heart...Juventus Vs Genoa.  It was Genoa to strike first in the form of Ciro Immobile who despite his name would suggest, was very mobile and struck in the 18th minute after some poor defending by Juve. To be fair, The Old Lady were resting some of their regulars in preparation for Wednesdays game against Chelsea. It was evident by the first half that these players were a little rusty and the regulars on the field were not used to playing with them. They were all eventually taken of and replaced by Mirko Vucinic, Stephen Lichtsteiner and Kwado Asamoah, and it was not coincidence the all of Juventus' goals came in the second half with Emannuele Giaccherini, Mirko Vucinic and Asamoah. Vucinic had a role in all the goals as it was his pass that found Giaccherini, it was his penalty and it was his cross that found Asamoah to make it 3-0. Yet it could have been very different as Genoa had a chance to make it 2-0 before the break if it had not been for the heroics of Gianluigi Buffon. I just hope they can play like they did in the second half for the entire game against Chelsea on Wednesday.
Lastly, the game with Inter Milan and Torino, it was almost too sad to watch as Inter just toyed with them, but Torino did give Inter a little scare but the crossbar came to Inter's rescue. Had Torino had more quality in the final third it could have been entertaining. As it was Inter came out 2-0 victors thanks to goals by Diego Milito and Antonio Cassano.
Serie A is full of surprises that's for sure!!!

Wednesday 12 September 2012

Juventus

Can anyone explain to me what they are doing?? Firstly they go out of there way to say that Nickolas Bendtner was not the " top player" that they wanted to sign, I'm sure that did wonders for his confidence. And know that the transfer window has close one would hope that all the speculation of players moving in and out would calm down at least for now. That doesn't seem to be the case, as Juventus has been linked to Nani of Manchester United and Theo Walcott of Arsenal.
The transfer window has always been a stressful time.. for me! Maybe it's old age but I can't seem to handle all the rumours that coincide with that time of year. It just seems absurd that you would want to revamp your team, especially after what Juventus managed to do last season, going the through the entire league unbeaten! Nothing seems to be broken, so why do they have to spend so much money on trying to fix something that isn't broken? If they have so much cash lying around they should send some this way!
I understand that they are now going to be playing in the Champions League and they have to have a deeper squad if they are to have any chance of success, but that's what the transfer window is for, why make all this noise afterwards?
Not only is this disrespectful to the fans but also to the current players, are you telling me that Juve have so little faith in Giovinco and Bendtner and not to forget Vucinic, Matri and Quagliarella?? It's not as though Walcott and Nani are top players anyway, they struggle to get into their own teams.
Oh ye of little faith!

Monday 3 September 2012

Inter V Roma

A perfect game for the debut players as Antonio Cassano and Alessandro Florenzi score for their respective teams. This was one of the most anticipated and entertaining games in week 2 of the Serie A season and it did not disappoint!

It was end to end with some truly beautiful football played in between. AS Roma were a new team under Zemen, they were more attack orientated, and it show when the young Florenzi scored in the 15th minute. And as this early lead brought much elation to the travelling fans, Roma fell asleep and almost let Inter back in the game when Diego Milito was seen to be brought down by the Roma goalkeeper, but as you look more closely you see just how vital the keeper was in his decision to come out for the ball- and he didn't get Milito. Yet Roman hearts were stopped when Danieli De Rossi was force to come off within 30 minute due to an injury, not only forcing them to be without the heart and soul of the midfield but they were forced to use up one of their substitution early on in the game.
Inter were stuggling to hold onto the ball for long periods of time, even though the stats record that they had 53% of the possesion- it was very tight! It took Inter up until first half stoppages, and even that was lucky, it took a huge deflection from Burdisso for Cassano's shot to go past the keeper. So they went in at the break all square.
In the second half you didn't have the time to blink it was that quick! After a few blunders a misses that should never have happened from such players, Pablo Osvaldo scored a beauty on 67 minute when he ran onto the ball threaded neatly by a reinvigorated Francesco Totti and lobbed it over the Inter keeper.  Substitute Marquinho scored the third goal to seal the victory. The only thing that tainted the victory was a second yellow card to Osvaldo for a deliberate yellow card which resulted in a sending off in the 90th minute. But it in no means dampened the celebrations from the fans as they watched as hoards of the Nerrazzurri fans depart their stadium  before the end of the game.

Saturday 1 September 2012

Bologna V Milan

A hard fought win for Milan, but after their opening game which they lost, this comes as a mighty relief for the Coach and players. Giampaolo Pazzini scored a hat trick on his full debut in the colours of AC Milan, yet it wasn't as easy as the score line leads you to believe!
Milan may have had the lions share of possession, yet Bologna or should I say Alessandro Diamanti were confident that they could cause some trouble to this depleted Milan side who had arguably lost their best players in Thiago Silva and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. All the headline in Italy will be praising Pazzini but what they have to remember is that Ibrahimovic did not only score goals, he also helped make them and held the ball up with his huge stature. Pazzini on the other hand does not provide that creativeness and doesn't have the strength to hold up the ball, hence his first goal which came about from a soft penalty, and his second goal came about because of a goalkeeping error, for the third goal I do admit took a little fines, yet I do question whether the Rosonerri need a player like him- he is rather whiny!