Inter march on as Sampdoria stumble

November 2, 2009

Inter Milan continued their inexorable march towards a fifth straight Italian Serie A title with a 2-0 victory away to lowly Livorno on Sunday.

There may only be 11 games gone in the championship but Inter have already opened up a seven-point lead over second-placed Juventus after the Turin giants were beaten 3-2 at home to Napoli on Saturday.

Sampdoria also failed to keep pace with Inter as they were held to a 0-0 draw at home to newly-promoted Bari on Sunday, leaving them third on goal difference behind Juve.

Inter were far from their sparkling best against a team who had won their previous two matches under new boss Serse Cosmi, but they always looked capable of doing enough to win.

Livorno, who lost on-loan Inter centre-back Nelson Rivas to injury in the warm-up, had the best chance of the opening period as Antonio Candreva brought a fine save out of Julio Cesar from a free-kick.

The opener came just four minutes into the second half as Diego Milito, restored to the starting line-up after making a substitute appearance in midweek on his return from injury, twisted and turned on the edge of the box before shooting low through a crowd of legs into the bottom corner.

Brazilian full-back Maicon then set the seal on the victory 10 minutes from time as he burst forward from his half, played a one-two with Patrick Vieira and reached the edge of the box unchallenged before slotting home left-footed into the bottom corner.

This relatively comfortable stroll in the park was ideal preparation for Inter ahead of their midweek trip to Ukraine to face Dynamo Kiev in a crucial Champions League match.

Coach Jose Mourinho gave rare starts to young Slovenian midfielder Rene Krhin and Brazilian misfit Mancini whilst leaving the likes of Samuel Eto’o, Walter Samuel and Esteban Cambiasso on the bench, although all three came on as substitutes.

But Mourinho was counting the cost of more injuries to his team after the game as Muntari Sulley limped off during the first half.

“Unfortunately we’re a team that always has injuries, I can never play the team I want,” said Mourinho who was already without Thiago Motta, Mario Balotelli, Cristian Chivu and Wesley Sneijder.

“Muntari can’t walk and I don’t think 48 hours will be enough (to recover), I think it will be difficult as well for Thiago Motta to be ready for Wednesday.”

In Genoa Sampdoria were in uninspired form as they failed to break down a stubborn Bari.

Sampdoria playmaker Antonio Cassano, playing against the club where he began his career, had a goal ruled out for offside three minutes from time in an otherwise anonymous performance.

It could have been worse for Sampdoria, though, as Bari’s Paulo Barreto put an injury-time penalty wide while Leonardo Bonucci then had a goal wrongly ruled out for offside.

AS Roma ended a three-game losing streak as they came from behind to beat Bologna 2-1 in the capital.

Brazilian Adailton gave Bologna the lead on 32 minutes but Mirko Vucinic benefited from a kind ricochet to equalise three minutes later before Simone Perrotta scored the winner in the 52nd minute.

Marco Marchionni scored a brace as Fiorentina got back to winning ways after two straight defeats with a 3-1 success at home to Catania in a match that ended 10-men apiece.

Alberto Gilardino scored the third goal for ‘La Viola’ while Giuseppe Mascara netted for Catania.

ROME (AFP)

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Race on in Italy to peg back Inter

October 31, 2009

It will be a case of damage limitation this weekend for Inter Milan’s Serie A title rivals.

The reiging four-in-a-row champions went four points clear of the pack on Thursday following a thrill-a-minute 5-3 win over Palermo.

And the worry now for Inter’s rivals and neutrals alike is that the gap could keep on growing if the leaders don’t slip up soon.

Inter travel away to newly-promoted Livorno on Sunday in a game they will be expected to win comfortably, even if they do ring the changes to keep some players fresh ahead of a long trip to Ukraine to tackle Dynamo Kiev in midweek.

Livorno may have won two straight games since Serse Cosmi took over from Gennaro Ruotolo just 10 days ago with the club rock bottom and winless, but beating Inter will be a whole different proposition for the team with the worst attack in the league.

Inter’s main rivals have a 24-hour start on the champions to try to put some pressure on them and provoke a slip.

AC Milan and Juventus host Parma and Napoli respectively on Saturday — Inter play on Sunday — but come into their matches in vastly differing states of morale.

Juve are on a high after climbing to second in the table following Wednesday’s 5-1 thrashing of Sampdoria, who had been above them at kick-off.

That victory convinced Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon that his Juve team are back to their best.

“Scintillating? No, I’d call it a nuclear explosion,” he said about the performance against Samp.

“That’s the quality we have and we knew it. We wanted to win and to do so convincingly.

“We’ve always performed against the big teams, but unfortunately it’s the other matches that make the difference.

“We need to try to stop dropping points in those to give ourselves a chance of reaching our goals.”

Napoli are one of the teams who probably fall into the category of other matches for Juve and they will be buoyed by their stunning late comeback against Milan on Wednesday when they snatched a 2-2 draw despite reaching 90min at 2-0 down.

It meant they remained unbeaten under coach Walter Mazzarri and they showed enough against Milan to suggest they will be more than a handful for Juve, as long as they can tighten up at the back, where they did look vulnerable.

Milan had been on course for a fourth straight win but the two dropped points now leaves them nine points behind Inter and knowing that they can afford few such banana skins if they are to have any hope of winning the title this year.

If truth be told, Napoli deserved their draw and Milan’s luck finally ran out after three games in a row where they fought back from 1-0 down to snatch narrow victories.

They host a newly-promoted team but one holding a Champions League qualification berth and with a lot to defend on Saturday night.

At the bottom Marco Baroni takes over Siena for the first time following the sacking of Marco Giampaolo as the Tuscans host Lazio, whose own coach Davide Ballardini is surely perilously close to the boot after they slumped to 15th with Wednesday’s 1-0 home loss to Cagliari.

Meanwhile, Samp will be hoping to bounce back from their Turin humiliation at home to Bari while Palermo and Fiorentina will both look to boost their Champions League qualification hopes as they host Genoa and Catania respectively.

Fixtures:

Saturday

AC Milan v Parma, Juventus v Napoli

Sunday

Cagliari v Atalanta, Chievo v Udinese, Fiorentina v Catania, Livorno v Inter Milan, Palermo v Genoa, AS Roma v Bologna, Sampdoria v Bari, Siena v Lazio

ROME (AFP)