The perfect example of “a match of two halves”, Saturday’s Fiorentina vs. Udinese also delighted Serie A fans with a big deluge of goals, courtesy of some often shaky defending (on both sides) but more so of the great prideful reaction by Cesare Prandelli’s boys. One goal down early in the game, La Viola looked over the precipice, reacted and came back as only a great fighter would.
In particular, today’s lasting image was the big “fu** you” message (figuratively speaking) sent by Riccardo Montolivo to all his critics, after his uninspiring mid-week performance for Italy. The Viola midfielder literally took his team by the reins, providing the playmaking and the scoring, and capping a great performance with two nicely taken goals.
Coming back strong from the Summer break, Italy was involved in some mid-week Serie A action Wednesday. Here are the results and summaries for matchday 4. Full Video Highlightshere.
Note: Sorry for the tardy update and the lack of match reports this time. My University Intramurals job took a big load of my time this week.
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Substitute Julio Ricardo Cruz scored to give Inter Milan a hard-fought 1-0 win over newly promoted Lecce on Wednesday to take over sole possession of the Serie A lead. With four forwards playing, Cruz took a headed pass from Zlatan Ibrahimovic to hit the target with a low shot in the 79th minute at the San Siro. Ibrahimovic hit the crossbar in the 26th for the three-time defending champion. Juventus was held to a 1-1 draw by Catania and AC Milan beat Reggina 2-1 for its second straight win.
Inter leads with 10 points, followed by Lazio and Atalanta with nine each. Napoli, which beat Palermo 2-1, and Juventus are next with eight points apiece. Amauri scored his third goal in three games for Juventus in the 16th minute but Gianvito Plasmati, who also scored against Inter earlier this season, equalized in the 68th for Catania. Alexandre Pato scored the winner for Milan after Bernardo Corradi had equalized for Reggina. Marco Borriello had scored first for the Rossoneri, who face Inter in the Milan derby Sunday.
Diego Milito joined Lazio’s Mauro Zarate atop the league scoring chart with his third and fourth goals in Genoa‘s 3-1 win over 10-man AS Roma, which has only one win through four rounds. Stefano Mauri, Goran Pandev and Sebastiano Siviglia scored to give Lazio a 3-0 win over Fiorentina, and Sergio Floccari’s goal led Atalanta to a 1-0 victory over last-place Cagliari. In the remaining three matches, Bologna overcame Udinese with an away score of 3-0, while Chievo-Torino (1-1) and Siena-Sampdoria (0-0) ended in draws.
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GOALS of the WEEK
Now see… we had an awesome batch of goals last week-end (and I mean some really really good stuff), so because of that, seems that the football Gods had to compensate on Wednesday.
Very ordinary stuff… in fact, just a Top 3 selection this time. (yeah… that bad!) .
And the winner is… Antonio Floro Flores. Definitely not mind-blowing stuff here… but a nice dribbling execution and cool finish. I couldn’t have, in good conscience, given the award to a bicycle kick 1 yard from the line right? .
Italian teams made 4 out of 4 in the UEFA Cup Thursday night. Indeed, in the round just before the Group Stage all four Serie A sides in action recorded first-leg victories, some welcome news after the difficulties Roma and Fiorentina encountered in the Champions League. Uefa.com reports. Partial video highlights here.
Seven-time winners AC Milan are having to adjust to a rare season without UEFA Champions League football (not to mention a terrible start to the Serie A campaign) and they quickly found their feet with a morale-boosting triumph against FC Zürich. Meanwhile Sampdoria were the night’s big winners, hitting five past FBK Kaunas in Genoa, while Napoli held off a spirited Benfica and Udinese impressed in their away win to Borussia Dortmund.
Milan vs. Zürich
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After opening the Serie A season with successive defeats, Milan lifted their spirits with a convincing win against Zürich. Andriy Shevchenko twice went close for the Rossoneri before playing a part in the opening goal a minute into added time at the end of the first half. Zürich goalkeeper Johnny Leoni saved his shot but Marek Jankulovski was on hand to volley in the rebound.
Zürich striker Alexandre Alphonse’s 66th-minute header hit the post and just seconds after that Alexandre Pato doubled Milan’s advantage with a 25-metre free-kick. Substitute Marco Borriello made it three after being teed up by Shevchenko on 74 minutes, though the Rossoneri’s celebrations were tempered by Dušan Djuric‘s 30-metre drive soon after which ensures Zurich return to the Letzigrund with a foothold still in the tie.
. Emiliano Bonazzoli and Antonio Cassano both scored twice as Sampdoria put one foot in the group stage with a crushing victory against the Lithuanian champions. Bonazzoli broke the deadlock when he headed in Angelo Palombo’s corner (14) and added a second eight minutes later. Cassano got in on the act before the break and scored again 12 minutes into the second half with a fine curling free-kick.
A dire night for Kaunas was compounded when Vytautas Lukša was sent off for a second yellow card with three minutes to play before substitute Bruno Fornaroli headed another in the final minute.
Napoli prevailed in a five-goal thriller at the Stadio San Paolo, but Luisão’s 59th-minute strike to reduce the arrears leaves Benfica well placed for the return. The Portuguese side had appeared in good stead in Italy when David Suazo (16) headed them in front, yet within three minutes goals from Luigi Vitale and German Denis had turned the match on its head.
Both owed much to good fortune and there was more than a hint of luck in Napoli’s third goal ten minutes after half-time too as Léo diverted Christian Maggio‘s cross past Quim. Luisão quickly responded, however, to leave the tie in the balance.
First-half goals from Antonio Floro Flores and Gokhan Inler put Udinese in the driving seat at the Westfalenstadion as the Italian side made the most of some sloppy Dortmund defending to take control of the tie. Floro Flores struck on the break 8 minutes in before Swiss international Inler doubled the advantage when he turned in Simone Pepe’s cross with 34 minutes played.
A young Dortmund side regrouped after the interval but were fortunate not to fall further behind as they pressed for a way back into the tie.
GOALS of the WEEK
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