Weekend Roundup of Italian Serie A - Nov 1st, 2010
It was another exciting weekend of football action in Italy where Lazio extended their lead at the top of the table to four points while Inter Milan also registered a crucial win to stay hot on the heels of Lazio.
Suffering a defeat at the weekend were Massimiliano Allegri’s AC Milan at the hands of Luigi Del Neri’s Juventus. Elsewhere, Udinese, Sampdoria and Lazio also earned easy wins at the weekend.
Antonio Cassano was dropped by Sampdoria after the striker publicly swore at the president earlier in the week. But his absence made no difference as his side laboured to a last gasp victory of Cesena.
Lazio are the surprise package in Serie A this season as they have surprised all and sundry with impressive performances so far and at the weekend, they gave another performance of note as they held on for a dogged win with only 10 men.
It didn’t look like that Lazio will be comfortable in the game against Cesena as they missed the creative ideas of their talismanic striker Cassano in the match but it was another veteran who came good as Giampaolo Pazzini grabbed a late winner for Lazio
in the game.
Cassano was dropped by his manager on disciplinary grounds as he swore at Riccardo Garrone, the club president just days before the game.
Cassano’s future is now quite unclear as his outburst has seen him being out of favour of the management which also jeopardizes his international career. There are strong speculations in the market that the striker will be sold in the January transfer window
and with his talent, there will be no shortage of possible suitors.
Also registering a narrow win at the weekend were Diego Maradona’s previous club, Napoli as they beat Brescia 1-0 courtesy of a solitary strike by Ezequiel Lavezzi. After this win, the Naples side has now moved to fifth spot in the Serie A table.
In another match, Adrian Mutu was denied a hero’s return from his drug ban as his side were held to a 0-0 draw by Catania at the Campo Comunale "Zia Lisa”.
In the other games of the weekend, Udinese continued their rise up the table with a comfortable 2-0 win over relegation threatened Bari while Cagliari piled on the misery at Bologna with a 2-0 win. Parma played a drab 0-0 draw with Chievo Verona.
Earlier on Saturday, Del Piero entered the history books as he became the all time leading scorer for the Bianconerris. He guided his side to a crucial victory over AC Milan to condemn the Rosseneris to only the third place in the league,
Goals from Quaglierella and Del Piero had given the Old Lady of Turin a comfortable 2 goal lead in the game. Zalatan Ibrahimovic could only manage a consolation goal for the home side late in the game.
On Friday, Rafael Benitez’s Internazionale Milan were lucky to be 1-0 winners over Genoa as a 45th minute speculative strike by Sully Muntari sealed the win for his side.
The win moves the defending scudetto champions to 18 points in the league with Lazio still leading the table with 22 points.
Next week in Serie A, Lazio will play in the derby of Rome against AS Roma.
Catania0 - 0Fiorentina
Cagliari2 - 0Bologna
Brescia0 - 1Napoli
Bari0 - 2Udinese
Parma0 - 0Chievo
Cesena0 - 1Sampdoria
Palermo0 - 1Lazio
AC Milan1 - 2Juventus
AS Roma2 - 0Lecce
Genoa0 - 1Internazionale
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