Week-End Reviews

Here are the results and summaries for matchday 31. Full Video Highlights here.

Italy.TheOffside.com week 31 review

Italian Calcio Blog week 31 review

Gazzetta in English week 31 review

MILAN, 30 March 2008 – Round 31 of the Serie A will be remembered by the umpteenth tragedy in the stands. A Parma fan was hit by a bus and killed in a highway service area. Shortly before the incident, tensions between groups of Juventus and Parma fans were running high and the bus driver left in a hurry, scared of the confrontations. But the incident has not been confirmed yet. In any case, the match between Juventus and Parma has been postponed.

Saturday’s match between Inter and Roma brought negative results for the giallorossi (Totti will not play in the Champions League against Manchester due to a left thigh injury) and Fiorentina and Milan competed for a spot in the Champions League. Udinese celebrated their 3-1 score (with goals by Inler, Di Natale and Quagliarella, while Vieri scored for Fiorentina) and Milan’s 2-1 defeat against Atalanta (Floccari and Langella opened the score, Maldini reduced the gap and Pirlo missed a penalty kick). Udinese is now one of the strongest teams in the race for fourth place, moving ahead of Milan (tied with Samp) in the standings and only three points behind Fiorentina. Torino moves ahead of Catania, Sampdoria ahead of Empoli and Genoa defeats Reggina, tied with Livorno and Siena.

Napoli midfielder Marek Hamsik headed home in stoppage time as Stefano Colantuono endured an unhappy return to the Palermo hotseat. The game looked to be heading for stalemate after Federico Balzaretti struck the bar for Palermo with a cracking shot and visiting keeper Alberto Fontana made some top saves. Slovakia’s Hamsik then nodded in after Ezequiel Lavezzi’s clever flick and Napoli even had time to rattle the woodwork through Roberto Sosa.

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GOALS of the WEEK

Not many stunners this week, but still entertainment aplenty in the Serie A. We’re back to a ‘Top 5′, just to make our selection a little bit more ‘ruthless’ (alright that might be stretching it a bit, but you get the meaning), and Gokhan Inler gets first spot on the podium.

• Di Natale‘s ‘Speedy Gonzales’ run following a great Inler pass (min. 01:20) (Udinese-Fiorentina)
• Langella‘s mini-flick & finish after a brilliant Atalanta counter-attack (min. 00:25) (Milan-Atalanta)
• Sammarco‘s long-range ‘daisy-cutter’ (min. 00:12) (Empoli-Sampdoria)
• M.Rossi‘s outside swerve ‘poke’ from 20 yards (min. 01:11) (Genoa-Reggina)
• Totti‘s long-range free-kick from 28 yards (Cagliari-Roma)

This week, the goal-of-the-week award goes to Gökhan İnler. The Swiss international (of Turkish descent, for those who are wondering) has the rather useful ability of being ambidextrous: his left foot is as equally fearsome as his right one, and on this occasion Sebastien Frey had to learn it the hard way. Scroll to minute 00:10:

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Results Summary

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Serie A – day 31
Cagliari – Roma	1 - 1
Lazio – Inter	1 – 1
Catania – Torino	1 - 2
Empoli – Sampdoria	0 - 2
Genoa – Reggina	2 – 0
Juventus – Parma	pp.
Livorno – Siena	0 - 0
Milan – Atalanta	1 - 2
Udinese – Fiorentina	3 - 1
Napoli – Palermo	1 – 0

Posted in Serie A |

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