A blog about the latest soccer news, best players, transfer talk and anything else about the world game, with a heavy focus on the Selecao and Inter Milan!
Atalanta hosted Inter this week and the Nerazzuri knew they couldn’t afford another slip up following Roma’s win over Genoa to close the gap to just one point the night before. Inter’s huge injury list continued but at least it allowed 17 year old Balotelli aka “Super Mario” to start. At least Cambiasso was back to work the midfield as only he can (Thanks again Real! you guys just love giving away excellent defensive midfielders don’t you?).
There was plenty of action early and after 21 minutes Vieira rose up to nod in Maicon’s corner kick. Crespo also scored but saw his goal disallowed for offside. After the break Inter wasted a few good chances to increase their lead but Balotelli was doing well and setting up the rest of the team with many good plays. Finally he took charge and doubled Inter’s lead, scoring his first Serie A goal. He beat the offside trap and picked up Stankovic’s pass, leaving the keeper for dead and slotting into an empty net.
In the dying minutes there was some controversy as Materazzi went on a tug fest with Inzaghi’s shirt in the area but the foul actually went the other way and then Doni saw two yellows in quick succession when he got a bit shirty with the ref himself for not giving a free kick after Vieira bowled over Pellegrino. So Inter restored their advantage at the top to four points but are still definitely feeling Roma’s pressure and unrelenting surge to nab the Scudetto at the death. Anyone remember 2002? Let’s not see a repeat of that!
In other matches, AC Milan defeated Cagliari at home 3-1. Highlights below.
Also Roma defeated Genoa 3-2 but not without a fight and an entertaining battle. See highlights below too.
Just some quick video highlights of the best action from this round.
I personally found the best match by far this week between Fiorentina and Genoa. Not that Genoa put up much of a fight but the Viola just played so well. It marked the return of Adrian Mutu and he wasted no time picking up where he left off. A brilliant assist for the first goal and an incredible power drive for the second. Enjoy below.
Inter did enough to get back to winning after a terrible champions league exit. They defeated Palermo 2-1 and the first goal saw Vieira and Ibrahimovic combine well and then Jimenez wrapped things up.
Roma came from behind to defeat Milan. Although Kaka’s goal was easy on the eyes, they left themselves open yet again and gave a crucial game away.
AC Milan beat Genoa last night, 2-0 with both goals coming from wonder kid, Pato.
The 18 year old placed a well cushioned header in the back of the net for his first goal and the second was pure class. Displaying his incredible pace, he left his marker for dead and although the first shot was blocked by the Genoa keeper, he calmly collected the rebound and tapped it in to seal the visitors fate.
The other big match up this weekend (apart from Arsenal vs Manchester United) is the battle between Inter and Juventus! Although Roma is sitting in second spot, one place above Juventus, they are only one point behind. The Inter-Juve games have always been fierce and highly anticipated affairs and this is an especially important match. This is the first time the two teams have faced each other in a league match for almost a couple of years. Juventus is keen to reassert itself as a serie A powerhouse while Inter will want to prove that the last two scudettos were earned through a great team and not by default as many claim.
Both teams are certainly different from the last time they met. Juve has restructured and had to let some players leave while they pulled themselves out of serie B. While Inter has made some important buys over the last couple of years, a couple such as Ibrahimovic and Viera from Juve, allowing them to build a squad with much depth. Look at their line up of strikers for proof of that!
Inter are coming off the back of a 4-1 win over Genoa, a win where Ibrahimovic and Samuel were rested to not risk then picking up yellow cards as that would mean their suspension for the big game. Also Julio Cesar and Toldo were injured and the 3rd keeper had to be fielded. Suazo also scored his first goal for Inter, which will hopefully be the start of many more to come (another Adriano would be hard to take!). So Inter is still unbeaten after 10 games while Juve have lost a couple, drawn a couple and won the rest.
Traveling to Turin means the crowd won’t make it easy on Inter and the Adriano saga might have lowered the moral of the team a bit (He wasn’t happy about being subbed during a previous match and now isn’t even on the squad list for the Champions League group stages). Although that may be getting blown up as much more than it was, apparently he’s been doing really well at training.
Lippi has come out to say that Juve could take the scudetto, even though he admits Inter is the strongest team. He also conceded that it could go either way. Whatever happens, you can bet Juve will continue to fight all the way and this is going to be a tough match for both sides.
