Continuing my weekly article inspired by Gazzetta dello Sport, here are the performances of all Italian soccer players operating in foreign European leagues.

Based on Gazzetta’s info, there are currently 26 Italians playing in first divisions abroad, and 15 of them stepped on the field this week-end.

The table below includes the team the player belongs to, their opponents for the week, the number of minutes they played, their contribution (goal, assist), and the final score of the game.
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ENGLAND
Player	Team	Opp.	mins.	Contrib.	Score
Rolando Bianchi	Man City	Bolton	87	1 goal	4-2
Carlo Cudicini	Chelsea	@Arsenal	(bench)	/	0-2
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SCOTLAND
Massimo Donati	Celtic	@Inverness	90	/	2-3
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GERMANY
Luca Toni	Bayern M.	@Hertha B.	N/A	/	0-0
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SPAIN
Fabio Cannavaro	Real Madrid	Osasuna	90	/	2-0
Giuseppe Rossi	Villareal	@Getafe	(bench)	/	3-1
Christian Abbiati	Atl. Madrid	Recreativo	90	/	0-0
Gianluca Zambrotta	Barcelona	@Valencia	(bench)	/	3-0
Enzo Maresca	Sevilla	@Valladolid	24	/	0-0
Morgan De Sanctis	Sevilla	@Valladolid	90	/	0-0
Emiliano Moretti	Valencia	Barcelona	90	/	0-3
Stefano Sorrentino	Recreativo	@Atl. Madrid	90	/	0-0
Marco Storari	Levante	@Espanyol	90	/	0-1
Bruno Cirillo	Levante	@Espanyol	90	/	0-1
Damiano Tommasi	Levante	@Espanyol	73	/	0-1
Christian Riganò	Levante	@Espanyol	90	/	0-1
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FRANCE
Fabio Grosso	Lyon	Nice	90	/	0-0
Flavio Roma	Monaco	Lens	90	/	2-0
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HOLLAND
Graziano Pellè	AZ Alkmaar	@Feyenoord	/	/	pp.
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BELGIUM
Roberto Mirri	Mons	St. Truiden	(stands)	/	0-0
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SWITZERLAND
Stefano Razzetti	St. Gallen	SEASON OVER	/	/	/
Andrea Guatelli	FC Zürich	SEASON OVER	/	/	/
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POLAND
Stefano Napoleoni	Widzew Łódź	NEXT ROUND	IN	FEBR.	/
Joseph Oshadogan	Widzew Łódź	NEXT ROUND	IN	FEBR.	/
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UKRAINE
Cristiano Lucarelli	Shakhtar D.	NEXT ROUND	IN	MARCH	/
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RUSSIA
Ivan Pelizzoli	Lok. Moscow	SEASON OVER	/	/	/

Heroes of the week

This week only one goalscorer, but more than one protagonist and key player in his game.

Let’s start with the scorer. Rolando Bianchi had already gotten on the scoreboard last week, when his Premier League team Man City travelled to Tottenham and lost 1-2, despite the goal scored by the ex-Reggina striker. This week though, Bianchi’s 1-0 goal vs. Bolton cleared the way for the Citizens’ 4-2 final win, and should hopefully convince Sven-Goran Eriksson to give the Italian striker more playing time.

Meanwhile, Italian keepers are once again under the Spanish spotlight this week. Last week I mentioned Christian Abbiati (now a regular starter at Atletico Madrid due to Leo Franco’s injury), who made some splendid saves vs. Getafe. The ex-Milan keeper repeated himself this week and was in large part the reason why the match against Recreativo ended on a scoreless 0-0 draw. The other protagonist of the night was Recreativo’s own keeper, another Italian i.e. Stefano Sorrentino. The Spanish press was full admirative of the Italian’s abilities, in particular sports newspaper As who elected Sorrentino “El Crack” (a.k.a. man of the match) due to “some great saves on Sergio Aguerö followed by a double miracle save on Reyes and Luis García in the dying minutes of the game“.

For a country that produced legends such as (to cite only a few) Dino Zoff, Stefano Tacconi, Walter Zenga, Gianluca Pagliuca, Angelo Peruzzi, and obviously Gianluigi Buffon, one big hurrah for Italian goalkeepers!

Posted in Italian Players Around the World |

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