With AC Milan roundly trouncing cross town rivals Inter Milan last weekend and with Leonardo’s men suffering the most almighty of calamities in mid week against Schalke 04, many forgot that there was still a title race to be enjoyed in Serie A this season.
After all, though Inter may have failed in their bid to overhaul Milan’s two point lead, which now stands at five, Napoli remain very much in the hunt for the Scudetto, trailing Massimo Allegri’s men by just three points.
Saturday saw the next nearest challengers to the Sky Blues, Udinese in action. Inter Milan also played, with both sides looking to recover after momentum curtailing defeats.
Udinese, who lost for the first time in 2011 last week, were clearly still reeling from the end of a run that had seen some tip the Little Zebras as dark horses for this season’s Scudetto. But if last week’s surprise loss to lowly Lecce put the dampeners on such talk, the visit of Roma is likely to have extinguished hope for Francesco Guidolin’s men.
Though nothing could separate the teams in the first half, the second period saw Roma take control through a 57th minute penalty from Francesco Totti. With the Romans chasing Udinese and that soon to be gone fourth Champions League qualification spot, the home side looked to have rescued a valuable point when top scorer Antonio Di Natale levelled the game with two minutes remaining.
However, Udinese found themselves guilty of some inept defending from the restart and with what proved to be the last action of the game, Roma captain Totti struck once again to close the gap on their opponents.
Inter at least, took some solace from an otherwise miserable week. An inept showing in Europe had had many pundits questioning the methods of Brazilian coach Leonardo. But his team responded against Chievo with a solid, if unspectacular 2-0 win which came courtesy of second half goals from South American pair Esteban Cambiasso and Maicon.
The win saw Inter briefly return to second place in the table on Saturday night. By Sunday evening though, Napoli were back breathing down the neck of leader AC Milan thanks to an important away win over Bologna. A 30th minute goal from Giuseppe Mascara saw the Neapolitans edge ahead, before a moment of madness from Emiliano Viviano gifted a spot kick to the Sky Blues on the stroke of half-time, and Marek Hamšík duly dispatched it.
Lazio meanwhile, took full advantage of Udinese’s slip up with a 2-0 win over Parma. The visitors welcomed new manager Franco Colomba to the fray but soon found themselves behind through a goal from Brazilian Hernanes. And despite Parma pressing the Eagles for an equaliser, the game was tied up with 13 minutes to go. Sergio Floccari doubling the advantage and leaving the away team just a point off the relegation zone.
With Roma and Lazio both winning, Juventus knew that defeat to Genoa would effectively end the Bianconeri’s hopes of qualifying for Europe. And when Leonardo Bonucci put through his own net after seven minutes to gift Genoa a 1-0 half time lead, fans feared the worst.
Back came Juve though, with Marco Rossi scoring an own goal of his own to level the game and restore hope. That proved to be short lived however as Antonio Floro Flores pounced just six minutes later to put Genoa back in control. The stage was then set for the big man Luca Toni…
Labelled a flop by many following just three league goals for Genoa in the first half of this season, the ex Bayern Munich man clearly had the last laugh, beginning with a careful headed assist for Alessandro Matri to equalise just after the hour mark. Then, with seven minutes remaining and time running out, Toni struck the winner to breathe life and most importantly belief back into Juve’s campaign. Six points off fourth place and Champions League football, the Old Lady may just sneak it yet.
One side that gave up on hopes of Europe long ago are Palermo. This week marked the bizarre return of Delio Rossi to the Sicilian side’s bench, following the dismissal of his replacement Sergio Cosmi- and what a crazy game it was!
Things started well enough against Cesena, with goals from Jasmin Kurtič and Mauricio Pinilla putting them in control. And when Steve Von Bergen saw red for Cesena, few could have expected what followed. Two goals from Marco Parolo and Emanuele Giaccherini in stoppage time saw the relegation battlers salvage an unlikely point in an otherwise bad tempered encounter. More incredible still was Cesena substitutes Paolo Sammarco and Alex Calderoni receiving red cards despite featuring as unused substitutes.
Relegation rivals Brescia enjoyed a similarly heated draw at Cagliari. The home side took a first half lead through Andrea Cossu before Andrea Caracciolo levelled up things for Brescia. With the clock running down Cagliari striker Eder attempted a dive but to no avail as the Brazilian received a second yellow card, much to the dismay of coach Giuseppe Iachini who soon followed the player for an early bath.
Brescia now lie second bottom and two points from safety. Contrastingly, Lecce continued their impressive revival against Sampdoria. David Di Michele opened the scoring for Lecce on 39 minutes before a Ruben Olivera strike just past the hour mark doubled their lead.
Sampdoria did pull a goal back through Massimo Maccarone on 69 minutes but any hope of a revival was quashed with the dismissal of Daniele Mannini for a second bookable offence.
The home side are now just a point off relegation and a far cry from the Champions league qualifiers of last season. One reason behind that has been the difficult departure of Antonio Cassano.
Cassano meanwhile continues to impress for Milan and his team enjoyed another important win over underachievers Fiorentina. Like Samp before them, the Viola have flirted with relegation this season when dreams of Europe were the target at the start of the campaign. Unlike Sampdoria though, Fiorentina have steadied the ship and will certainly survive another season in Serie A.
Nevertheless, the Rossoneri made short work of their hosts with Clarence Seedorf putting Allegri’s men a goal up after eight minutes. And it was 2-0 before half time with Alexandre Pato doubling the lead just before the interval. The second half saw Zlatan Ibrahimovic take centre stage for all the wrong reasons.
The Swede huffed and puffed aplenty but could find no way through the Viola defence. And when Real Madrid target Juan Vargas pulled a goal back for the Florence based team, Zlatan’s misses looked all the more telling. But worse was to come as Ibrahimovic received a straight red card in stoppage time to put the dampeners on an otherwise good win.
With the former Barcelona and Juventus man now set to miss three games for Milan, Napoli may just continue to dream of a first Scudetto since their Maradona glory years. After all, Milan have struggled for goals without Ibrahimovic in the squad. Six games to go and three points in it – the battle for league titles and Serie A survival could go down to the wire.