Dear mCalcio readers,
I regret to inform you to that due to some urgent personal matters, I am forced to take a temporary leave of absence from my blogging activities.
I hope to resume the footy reporting sometime early next week. In the meantime, you may find the following resources useful to keep up-to-date on all things Serie A.
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See you soon hopefully.
Great week-end of great match-ups, once again.
In England, we had Chelsea vs. Liverpool, where the Blues’ long unbeaten streak at home was finally broken. In France, the classic Marseille vs. PSG saw the Parisian team victorious over their bitter rivals on hostile territory.
And finally in Serie A, the Derby della Mole saw Juventus put an end to a victory crisis against Torino, returning to victory in domestic competition after their great win over Real Madrid mid-week.
There are teams who, when unexpectedly leading their league after a few weeks of play, will eventually crumble under the hype and the rarified atmosphere. After all, oxygen tends to get scarce in the upper floors of Serie A, especially for those who haven’t been living there since the early 90′s.
Napoli isn’t one of those teams.
Nearly two months after the season start, the Edy Reja magic is still working. In fact, the biggest indication of greatness (well, one of the biggest) is achieving victory (and doing so consistently) even when you don’t deserve it. Such was the case in the match against Lazio today, where Azzurri and Biancocelesti competed in a very enjoyable an evenly-matched battle, but where the home team had to concede the win due an unfortunate own goal of their nº1 defender, Sebastiano Siviglia. At the heart of said play for the Napoletani? Who else but Ezequiel “El Pocho” Lavezzi.
Is it too early to say “Juventus crisis, begone”? One thing is certain: in the lowest moment of their season so far, the Bianconeri have really stepped it up when it counted. Coming from five consecutive winless matches, there is nothing like beating Real Madrid and winning a derby that will recharge your batteries in a major way. Something which the newest Juve family member knows full well: after providing his team with the match-winning-goal against the Merengues, he obliged again on Saturday; what would the Old Lady do without Amauri?
As for Torino, there seems to be no light yet at the end of their tunnel. Saturday marked the Granata’s fourth consecutive loss, leaving them just one point above the relegation zone.
Good operation for Italy on Matchday 1 of the UEFA Cup Group Stage. Indeed, out of the three Serie A teams still left in the competition, all of AC Milan, Udinese, and Sampdoria were victorious, achieving wins over Heerenveen (3-1), Tottenham (2-0), and Partizan Belgrade (2-1) respectively.
Not only that, but Thursday night was special because it marked a very rare event in football history: Gennaro Gattuso scored a goal! 
And, AND… made an assist! Grande Ringhio! 
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