Week Seven Review: Juve fall, Inter win and Samp stall

Inter 2-1 Udinese
Udinese showed no fear and played as if they were the home side. Indeed, they dominated possession for large periods of the game and were unlucky to go behind to a wonderful Dejan Stankovic goals and Inter Milan move. Apart from that Inter seemed flat and Antonio Di Natale leveled the tie with a tidy finish from 18 yards out to beat Julio Cesar. There was little response from Inter, and Udinese looked rather comfortable. Inter were without the worlds best right back in Douglas Maicon, but Udinese showed their quality in possession with Inler and D'Agostino in the middle of the park. Handonovic did have to save again from Stankovic but it seemed if anyone would break the deadlock it would be Udinese. And, as the game headed towards its close Di Natale had a guilt edge chance to put Udinese ahead but his tame finish and consummate goal keeping from Julio Cesar kept it at 1-1. Low and behold though, Inter stole three points at the death as they so often do against Udinese. Wesley Sneijder converted from a tight angle to give Inter three points they barely deserved. Mourinho of course did not stand on ceremony.

Fiorentina 0 - 0 Lazio
Both these teams were coming off big European victories and went into this fixture with confidence. It was fairly even in the early going with both teams pushing forward, but it did not take long for Fiorentina to take a foothold in the game. It was end to end stuff, but Jovetic and Montolivo both had great chances to give Fiorentina the lead before half time but thanks to lax finishing and solid goal keeping by Nando Muslera kept the scores level. After half time Fiorentina kept applying the pressure forcing Lazio to play on the counter. But it was Lazio that should have gone in front through Pasquale Foggia who unexpectedly found the ball at his feet from 10 yards out but somehow put it over the bar. Moments later Foggia at temped to redeem himself and fired a long range effort on goal that Frey did well to palm out for a corner. Gilardino though that he had given Fiorentina the lead when he passed Muslera and fired on goal but Radu cleared the ball of the line. Replays showed though that Lazio were perhaps lucky not to be 1-0 down. Lazio shut up shop and absorbed the Fiorentina pressure to steal a point.

Roma 2-1 Napoli - Derby Delle Sud
Napoli fans were banned from this match, no surprise after the events of a year earlier where 3,000 of them descended on Rome leaving trains wrecked and reeking havoc across the city. Two clubs that used to have a rapour now have none of that as another round kicked off in Rome. Undoubtedly this is a derby that means more to the Napoli faithful than the Romanistas, which is why this defeat would have left a sour taste in the mouths of the southern outfit. Donadoni's job is on the line, and he would have been delighted to see Eziquiel Lavezzi put Napoli ahead after 25 minutes thanks to poor goalkeeping. Roma though equilised later on as Totti redirected a Perotta shot. After the break, the class of Totti showed as despite an injury he turned and fired a low shot passed De Sanctis to make it 2-1. Napoli switched to 4-4-2 after this and dominated possession but lacked a threat in the final third, giving Roma the points.

Elsewhere
Palermo stunned Juventus by taking advantage of their cramped fixture list by beating the old lady in Sicily. Edison Cavani put them ahead with a stunning finish and moments later Fabio Simplicio beat the offside trap to double their lead. Aside from a Diego effort that hit the bar, Juve had little to offer back, and frankly looked tired. Milan salvaged a point at Atalanta through a late Ronaldinho goal to perhaps save the job of Leonardo for one more week at least. Sampdoria let go of their top spot position after Parma took a point away from the Marassi. Giampaolo Pazzini put Sampdoria ahead but seven minutes later Danielle Gallopa leveled for Parma. Genoa bounced back from their win less streak by beating Bologna away from home by 3-1, with Zapater confirming the win in stoppages. Bari conitined their good form by taking a point at home to Catania and now have eight points after their promotion back from Serie B. Chievo continued their unbelievable form by winning away at a Cagliari team that simply cannot buy a win at home, loosing 1-2 to the donkeys. Siena and Livorno shared the spoils in Siena, as both teams will perhaps given their current place in the table view this as an opportunity missed to move up before the International break.

Serie A By Numbers: Week 7
Home wins: 3
Away wins: 2
Goals: 19
Current top scorer: Antonio Di Natale 9 goals in 7 games
Highest Attendance: Inter v Udinese 47,500
Total Attendance from 9 games: 222,452
Clean sheets: 7 clean clean sheets :)