MILAN, 11 May 2008 – Those who thought everything had already been decided were in for a surprise today: we will have to wait to the last round to know who wins the Scudetto this year. Inter were hoping to celebrate early, but drew 2-2 against Siena today, with Roma only one point behind then in the standings. Patrick Vieira opened the score, Massimo Maccarone drew and at the end of the first half, Mario Balotelli’s goal brought peace of mind back to Inter. In the second half however, Houssine Kharja evened the score and Marco Materazzi’s penalty kick was deflected by Alex Manninger, putting a damper in San Siro’s celebratory plans. For Roma however celebration was very much in order, because Panucci’s and De Rossi’s goals sufficed to win over Atalanta and keep Roman hope alive. The last 90 minutes of serie A will be decisive.
THE RACE FOR CHAMPIONS LEAGUE – In the fight for a place in Europe’s top-flight competition Fiorentina moved ahead of Milan today, taking the fourth place in the standings. Facing against a struggling Parma side, La Viola went one goal down very early in the match (headed goal by Igor Budan), but Mario Santana replied for Fiorentina and Franco Semioli and Pablo Osvaldo followed suit. The Gialloblu will have to fight for survival next week, and they’ll have a very tough customer (Inter). On their part, AC Milan (in fourth place before today’s game after winning the derby last week), lost at Stadio San Paolo against a stunning Napoli side (goals from Marek Hamsik, Maurizio Domizzi and György Garics) before Clarence Seedorf scored the Rossoneri’s consolation goal. The Neapolitans move ahead of Genoa in the standings, who fell today in Marassi at the hands of a Lazio. Inspired by the return of Stefano Mauri, the Biancocelesti overcame the Rossoblu through their striking duo Pandev-Rocchi (1 goal each).
THE BATTLE AGAINST RELEGATION – The first veredict was signed today at the bottom of the standings: Livorno are down to Serie B. The Amaranto lost their last chance for survival in Serie A against Torino (goal from Alessandro Rosina) and bid farewell to Serie A one week before the end of the season. The Granata are safe, and so are Cagliari: the Sardinians (who looked somewhat lost up to only a few months ago) secured their stay in Serie A today, during the first ten minutes of the second half of their match vs. Udinese (goals by Robert Acquafresca and Andrea Cossu). Meanwhile, Marino’s Udinese fell behind Sampdoria in the standings, who won 2-0 in Palermo (goals from Antonio Cassano and Christian Maggio) in Amauri’s last match in front of his fans.
Reggina are also safe after winning the “tie breaker” against Empoli with goals from Edgar Barreto and Nicola Amoruso. The Tuscan side can still hope however, thanks to Juventus‘s draw against Catania (temporarily ahead with a goal from Jorge Martinez) with Alessandro Del Piero’s 19th goal of the season (who now join Trezeguet and Borriello in the ‘capocannonieri’ ranking of the league). We won’t know until next week which one of the three – Empoli, Parma and Catania – will join Livorno down to Serie B.
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GOALS of the WEEK
Aside from all the Scudetto-related excitement of Inter-Siena game, the Fiorentina win over Parma, the AC Milan loss vs. Napoli (and so on and so forth), matchday 37 was also characterized by tons of awesome goals, and after last week’s scarce “weight-loss” menu this comes as a very welcome surprise. I’m not putting all of them here but feel free to check the others out for yourself. I recommend, in particular, Hamsik’s goal vs. Milan or Osvaldo’s tackled volley vs. Parma.
This week, the goal-of-the-week award goes to Edgar Barreto. Boy was this an important win for Reggina, who are now assured of remaining in Serie A another season, but check out the goal that opened the score for the Amaranto! That must have been (at least) a 35-yarder (scroll to minute 01:20):
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MILAN, 11 May 2008 – Those who thought everything had already been decided were in for a surprise today: we will have to wait to the last round to know who wins the Scudetto this year. Inter were hoping to celebrate early, but drew 2-2 against Siena today, with Roma only one point behind then in the standings. Patrick Vieira opened the score, Massimo Maccarone drew and at the end of the first half, Mario Balotelli’s goal brought peace of mind back to Inter. In the second half however, Houssine Kharja evened the score and Marco Materazzi’s penalty kick was deflected by Alex Manninger, putting a damper in San Siro’s celebratory plans. For Roma however celebration was very much in order, because Panucci’s and De Rossi’s goals sufficed to win over Atalanta and keep Roman hope alive. The last 90 minutes of serie A will be decisive.
THE RACE FOR CHAMPIONS LEAGUE – In the fight for a place in Europe’s top-flight competition Fiorentina moved ahead of Milan today, taking the fourth place in the standings. Facing against a struggling Parma side, La Viola went one goal down very early in the match (headed goal by Igor Budan), but Mario Santana replied for Fiorentina and Franco Semioli and Pablo Osvaldo followed suit. The Gialloblu will have to fight for survival next week, and they’ll have a very tough customer (Inter). On their part, AC Milan (in fourth place before today’s game after winning the derby last week), lost at Stadio San Paolo against a stunning Napoli side (goals from Marek Hamsik, Maurizio Domizzi and György Garics) before Clarence Seedorf scored the Rossoneri’s consolation goal. The Neapolitans move ahead of Genoa in the standings, who fell today in Marassi at the hands of a Lazio. Inspired by the return of Stefano Mauri, the Biancocelesti overcame the Rossoblu through their striking duo Pandev-Rocchi (1 goal each).
THE BATTLE AGAINST RELEGATION – The first veredict was signed today at the bottom of the standings: Livorno are down to Serie B. The Amaranto lost their last chance for survival in Serie A against Torino (goal from Alessandro Rosina) and bid farewell to Serie A one week before the end of the season. The Granata are safe, and so are Cagliari: the Sardinians (who looked somewhat lost up to only a few months ago) secured their stay in Serie A today, during the first ten minutes of the second half of their match vs. Udinese (goals by Robert Acquafresca and Andrea Cossu). Meanwhile, Marino’s Udinese fell behind Sampdoria in the standings, who won 2-0 in Palermo (goals from Antonio Cassano and Christian Maggio) in Amauri’s last match in front of his fans.
Reggina are also safe after winning the “tie breaker” against Empoli with goals from Edgar Barreto and Nicola Amoruso. The Tuscan side can still hope however, thanks to Juventus‘s draw against Catania (temporarily ahead with a goal from Jorge Martinez) with Alessandro Del Piero’s 19th goal of the season (who now join Trezeguet and Borriello in the ‘capocannonieri’ ranking of the league). We won’t know until next week which one of the three – Empoli, Parma and Catania – will join Livorno down to Serie B.
GOALS of the WEEK
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who edited the goals of the week please?
You mean who selected them? I did.