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Udinese overtake AC Milan - the Serie A roundup
Posted - 31st March 2008
This weekend's Serie A games were overshadowed by the tragic death of Parma fan Matteo Bagnaresi, crushed to death by a coach carrying Juventus fans at a service station outside Asti. The Juventus Parma game was postponed as a result, and a minute's silence honoured before the kick-off of all Sunday's games.
On the pitch there were several dramatic results, though few that changed the positions in the table. The big losers were undoubtedly AC Milan, who lost 1-2 at the San Siro to Atalanta. Qualification for next year's Champions League looks unlikely, and the team now face the risk of not even qualifying for the UEFA cup. Taking to the field without Kaka, Milan failed to find their feet in almost every area of the field. While Pato has been lauded as the new Pele, scoring last week for the Brazilian national squad, it's increasingly clear that he alone can't be the solution to Milan's woes. The Milan defence was porous, to say the least, and Atalanata were clinical in punishing them, despite the fact that thus far the team from Bergamo have lost as many games as they've won (10 apiece). To put the situation in context, Atalanta have won only two of their last three matches, beating just Milan and last-placed Empoli. Going into half-time Milan were 2-0 down, and their upfront combination of Pato-Gilardino looked unable to change the situation. Ancelotti chose to substitute Gilardino (who looks increasingly likely to leave Milan at the end of the season) with Paloschi, who immediately injected some much needed energy into the Milan attack, but it was veteran Paolo Maldini who finally put Milan on the scoreboard with a well taken header. That something isn't right in the milan camp was symoblised perfectly when Andrea Pirlo stepped up to take a penalty towards the end of the match. He faltered, and Atalanta goalkeeper Ferdinando Coppola (the irony of it being that Coppola is on loan to Atalanta from Milan). Milan now lie in sixth place at 49 points, having been passed out by Udinese. Sampdoria also have 49 points, and their recent form is much better than Milan's. The World Champions, then, will be lucky to find themselves in the UEFA cup next year.
The other big loser of the weekend, though actually drawing against Cagliari, was AS Roma. Saturday was, in theory, the best chance for Roma to close the gap of four points between themselves and Inter Milan. Roma played away from home against Cagliari, who have spent most of the season in last place. Inter meanwhile travelled to Rome's Olympic Stadium to play Lazio, on paper a more difficult encounter. Roma, though, failed miserably to take command of the game against Cagliari - having gone down 1-0 in the opening minutes thanks to a ridiculous own-goal by Matteo Ferrari. Francesco Totti equalised, from a blistering free kick, but despite throwing everything at the Sardinian team they could not find that crucial winning goal. To add injury to insult, Totti aggravated his knee injury and will now almost certainly miss this week's Champions League match against Manchester United. Roma look unlikely to catch Inter this season, and it's not because of favouritism towards the Milan team from referees (though that has hardly helped), but because they've failed time and time again to win against the weaker teams in Serie A.
Inter breathed a sigh of relief, no doubt, with Roma's result, but failed themselves to take the initiative to make up some lost ground, drawing with Roma's rivals Lazio 1-1. Roberto Mancini - whose position looks shakey, despite the fact that he's the most succesful Inter coach of recent years - fielded Ibrahimovic and Crespo up front, and was repaid almost immediately by the Argentinean striker, who finished off a beautiful pass from Maicon. The equaliser, when it came, was scored by Lazio's Rocchi, though Inter can justifiably moan that he was marginally offside. The reality, though, is that Inter, despite their wealth of talent, failed to score a second goal, allowing Lazio into the game. Will Inter still win the scudetto? Probably, but at this stage of the season, they should be widening the gap.
Fiorentina had a poor weekend, but were graced by the fact that Milan had a worse one. Udinese beat the team from Florence 3-1, with goals from Insler, and the Italian national squad duo Di Natale and Quagliarella - both of whom look set to make an impact on this year's European Championships. The team from Friuli is in great form, and may yet surpass Fiorentina (who've won eight and lost five of their last thirteen matches) to finish fourth for a Champions League place. Fiorentina coach Cesare Prandelli will, no doubt, be dissapointed by his team's performance in what he described as 'the most important match of the season'. Admittedly his team were missing their top goal-scorer Adrian Mutu (suspended for this match) - giving space to Cristian Vieri to score his fifth goal of the season - but that's scant consolation when a Champions League spot is in the balance.
Marco Borriello continued his superb scoring streak, putting himself back on the top of the goalscorer's list with his eighteenth goal of the season for Genoa (scored against Reggina). One of the big debates surrounding Roberto Donadoni's Italian squad for the European Championships will have to be the role given to Borriello. At the moment he's likely to make the squad, but seems peripheral to Donadoni's plans which centre more on current Bayern Munchen striker Luca Toni. There will be a sizeable section of the Italian public rooting for a chance to be given to this Napoli born striker.
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