“Pain & Suffering” seems to be the theme for big clubs this week-end. After Inter, Roma, and Juventus, injury-laden AC Milan was the fourth team having to go through hell and fury to scrape a win against Cagliari on Sunday. A Rossoblu side which, as evidenced by their 7th spot in the league rankings, confirmed once again to be fully deserving of their recent attention.
Indeed, Massimiliano Allegri’s team put up a really fierce display at the San Siro today, having only bad luck (cf. Cossu’s shot off the woodwork plus a couple of wrong offside calls) and one tiny defensive mistake to blame for their loss. Clarence Seedorf’s tally is thus keeping Milan’s slender serie A title hopes alive.
You know, punters have always given great importance to statistical records. winning streaks and whatnot, but I always say “there’s always a first time” and that “records are meant to be broken“. As much as it feels great when it happens to the good guys (i.e. you, or the team you are cheering for), you’re left with nothing but a feeling of confusion & emptiness when it happens to your opponent. Juventus vs. Cagliari was the latter.
41 years exactly, back to the year of the Lord 1968. While students in Paris were rioting and bringing down the French government, Helmut Haller, Roberto Boninsegna and Gigi Riva had travelled to Turin, in order to get the last recorded Cagliari victory on Juventus soil. The last until Saturday evening, when Biondini, Jeda, and Matri emulated their glorious ancestors and pushed Del Piero & friends against the ropes. After their mid-week loss to Udinese, the Bianconeri may want to quickly strike the last five days from their collective memories. Or at the very least make an useful lesson out of them: the Serie A can be tricky and there are no “safe” matches.
Good form comes and goes at AC Milan lately. One week, the Rossoneri get beaten by teams like Bologna and Genoa. Later, they rebound nicely with a whopping 4-1 against Lazio and derby win over Inter Milan. Then later still, we get back to abysmal displays against modest teams, such as Sunday’s 0-0 draw vs. the last-ranked team of Serie A, Cagliari.
“Calcio-Champagne“:
noun
Composite word formed by “calcio” and “champagne“.
Typically utilized by the Italian press to describe a free-flowing, short-passing, very technical and spectacular kind of footy.
In other words, pretty far from the spectacle Cagliari and Juventus gave us Sant’Elia today. I wouldn’t go as far as to call it a snooze-fest, but damn was it scrappy. Plenty of ball possession intertwined with bad passing, and not a lot of shots on goal to show for it. In everyone’s defense, Juve had Del Piero and Trezeguet out injured (not to mention Camoranesi), while Cagliari… well, are last, so that would explain a few things.
“Thank God for Amauri” must be saying Claudio Ranieri though. The ex-Palermo striker once again provided his team with the GWG, something which in the absence of David Trezeguet (kicked to the curb for three months at least, due to knee problems) may become more and more of a regular feature at Juve.
(From Gazzetta dello Sport): So, while the ADP-Trez duo was left to watch the match from the sidelines, Ranieri proceeded to a more-or-less revolutionized line-up for this one: Mellberg on for Legrottaglie at center-back, Salihamidzic for Grygera on the right, Marchionni for Camoranesi, Marchisio for Poulsen, and a two-man striking duo composed by Iaquinta and Amauri. On the other end, Cagliari manager Massimiliano Allegri opted for Alessandro Matri as his main striker (in lieu of Jeda and Acquafresca), supported by Larrivey.
The match started with Juventus taking charge early on (a seemingly valid Amauri goal was called off in the 3rd minute), but without Camoranesi, the team severely lacked in the unpredictability department. Even the energy of Pavel Nedved wasn’t sufficient to energize the visitors’ midfield, in which Marchionni’s dribbling accuracy left to be desired and Sissoko was shining, but for all the wrong reasons (losing half a dozen balls in less than 10 minutes due to poor passing).
Thus, the main first half Bianconeri tactic became long balls kicked towards Amauri, who exploited one his strong points (aerial play) and tried to redirect to the passes to Iaquinta. It was really the component that was working best in Ranieri’s team, with both strikers running energetically after every ball, and imposing their physical play to shield it and wait for their teammates’ overlaps. Thus in minute 39, the pair got rewarded for their good efforts: a Marchisio cross from the right-wing was “cushioned” by Iaquinta, enabling Amauri to apply a short-range (near) bicycle kick. 1-0 Juventus.
After the restart, the Cagliari tried to re-invigorate his team’s efforts by inserting Acquafresca, Jeda, and Lazzari in quick succession. On the other end, Ranieri substituted Sissoko (getting overly nervous) with Tiago (who, amidst general incredulity, did not play badly during the short time he was on the field) and Marchisio with De Ceglie. Unfortunately for the home team, the changes had very little effect on the pace of the game: the Bianconeri still kept most of the ball possession (in particular thanks to a very highly-motivated Amauri), while Cagliari struggled to create any substantial scoring (in fact, shooting) chance.
Before the match ended, Matri went for a repeat of his good first-half shot on Buffon (who had to be substituted by Manninger at half-time, due to a minor groin strain) and nearly gave Cagliari the equalizer: his 90th ripping half-volley effort was however well parried by Manninger into corner. Close, but no cigar for Cagliari: the Sardinians remain at the bottom of Serie A, while Juventus share the lead with Inter.
The match started with Juventus taking charge early on (a seemingly valid Amauri goal was called off in the 3rd minute), but without Camoranesi, the team severely lacked in the unpredictability department. Even the energy of Pavel Nedved wasn’t sufficient to energize the visitors’ midfield, in which Marchionni’s dribbling accuracy left to be desired and Sissoko was shining, but for all the wrong reasons (losing half a dozen balls in less than 10 minutes due to poor passing). 
After the restart, the Cagliari tried to re-invigorate his team’s efforts by inserting Acquafresca, Jeda, and Lazzari in quick succession. On the other end, Ranieri substituted Sissoko (getting overly nervous) with Tiago (who, amidst general incredulity, did not play badly during the short time he was on the field) and Marchisio with De Ceglie. Unfortunately for the home team, the changes had very little effect on the pace of the game: the Bianconeri still kept most of the ball possession (in particular thanks to a very highly-motivated Amauri), while Cagliari struggled to create any substantial scoring (in fact, shooting) chance.
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