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 22 Italians playing in first divisions abroad, and 11 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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Player | Team | Opp. | mins. | Contrib. | Score |
Carlo Cudicini | Chelsea | @Everton | (injd.) | / | 1-0 |
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Massimo Donati | Celtic | Aberdeen | 90 | / | 1-0 |
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Luca Toni | Bayern M. | Dortm. (CUP) | 120 | 2 goals | 2-1 |
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Fabio Cannavaro | Real Madrid | @Racing | 90 | / | 2-0 |
Giuseppe Rossi | Villareal | Valladolid | 63 | / | 2-0 |
Christian Abbiati | Atl. Madrid | Betis | (bench) | / | 1-3 |
Gianluca Zambrotta | Barcelona | Espanyol | 90 | / | 0-0 |
Enzo Maresca | Sevilla | Almeria | (susp.) | / | 1-4 |
Morgan De Sanctis | Sevilla | Almeria | (bench) | / | 1-4 |
Emiliano Moretti | Valencia | @Ath. Bilbao | (N/A) | / | 1-5 |
Stefano Sorrentino | Recreativo | @Zaragoza | 90 | / | 0-3 |
Damiano Tommasi | Levante | Getafe | (injd.) | / | 3-1 |
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Fabio Grosso | Lyon | @Strasbourg | 90 | 1 goal | 2-1 |
Flavio Roma | Monaco | @Nice | 90 | / | 2-0 |
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Graziano Pellè | AZ Alkmaar | Sparta | 73 | / | 1-0 |
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Roberto Mirri | Mons | @Westerlo | 90 | / | 1-1 |
Alessandro Pistone | Mons | @Westerlo | 90 | / | 1-1 |
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Stefano Razzetti | St. Gallen | @Luzern | (bench) | / | 0-1 |
Andrea Guatelli | FC Zürich | @Grasshop. | (bench) | / | 1-1 |
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Stefano Napoleoni | Widzew Łódź | Polonia B. | 90 | 1 goal | 2-4 |
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Ivan Pelizzoli | Lok. Moscow | @CSKA M. | (bench) | / | 0-0 |
Heroes of the week
At last! We finally have more than one player featuring the “heroes of the week” section, after a long while. Of course, no surprises with the presence of Mr. Toni, but others like Mr. Grosso or Mr. Napoleoni aren’t quite as common. Here goes.
Mr. German-goalmachine just never seems to stop. Four doubles in less than 10 days, 35 goals with Bayern Munich this season (only 5 goals away from Gerd Müller’s 1972 record) and two capitals tallies in the Dfb Pokal (German Cup) final vs. Borussia Dortmund (including the extra-time match-winning goal). Any additional comment is pretty much superfluous about Luca Toni.
Moving over to France, it’s rematch time for Fabio Grosso. Often criticized by the French Sports media, the Azzurri left-back has been having a tough time at Lyon since his move from Inter, but the ex-Palermo player has really picked it up lately. With the team closely followed by Bordeaux in Ligue 1 standings, it was capital for the title holders to keep winning, and they have Fabio to thank for it. Indeed, a Grosso header (not exactly his specialty) provided the match-winning goal vs. Strasbourg last week-end, thus keeping Lyon at +4 distance on their 2nd-ranked rivals.
Finally, over to Poland where a rather lucky/unlucky Stefano Napoleoni will most likely soon be done with his Widzew Lodz adventure. Indeed, despite the Italian striker’s recent excellent run of form, his goals will prove insufficient to keep the Polish team in top flight next year. Because of a corruption scandal, Widzew will automatically be relegated to the second division at the end of year, but should they finish in the relegation zone this season, they will actually be forced to play in the third division! I doubt Napoleoni will want to stick around under those circumstances…