Another round, another win for Lazio who continue to pick up three points much to the delight of their fans. This time Cagliari were the victims thanks to a superb Sergio Floccari strike and a Stefano Mauri tap in after some good work from Floccari once again. It was not all plain sailing however, far from it. Alessandro Matri showed why he is becoming one of the most lethal finishers around with a well taken header after a Radu error. Indeed, Matri was a constant pain for the Lazio defence and probably should have scored for Cagliari in the first half but balloned wide instead. One of Matri's former clubs, Milan, also registered a win in Naples although again not in convincing fashion. After a fairly balanced start it was Milan who took the lead through Robinho's second Serie A goal in as many games. Massimo Oddo, on for Antonini after a clash of heads, played Robinho into space for the Brazilian Ace to fire home with his left foot. It was Oddo again who turned provider, this time for Ibrahimovic in the second half who headed home the Italian's cross totally unmarked when Napoli were down to ten men. Despite this the closing stages of the game were dominated by Napoli and an absolute piece of genius from Lavezzi got Napoli back in the game, but it was too little too late in the end. The same could be said of Inter, who left it too late to push home their domination of the latter stages against Sampdoria in a 1-1 draw. In the end only Samuel Eto'o, yet again, could save them from their first home defeat in the league since early 2008 against Juventus.
Fiorentina, expected to battle for the champions league places, removed themselves from the bottom of the division with a hard fought win over Bari. Parma replaced them at the bottom soon after but could not remove themselves from the position after a turgid 0-0 draw with Roma. Previously rock bottom Udinese, for the first few weeks of the campaign, secured their third win on the go this time taking Palermo's scalp. Mario Pinilla was again on target for Palermo but this turned out to be only a consolation in a 2-1 reverse in Udine.
One side that has been no where near the bottom this season is Chievo, and this remains to be the case after a 2-1 home win against Cesena. In fact this win now puts Chievo into fourth spot in the table and light years away from the relegation battle that most thought they would be in, for the time being. Another unexpected side flying high are Lecce, the perennial yoyo club that I personally thought would be rooted to the bottom of the table from start to finish this season. Not so however, as they showed character in coming from behind against Brescia at the Via Del Mare to take another three points in casa. Experienced hitman Davide Di Michele scored the winner to move Lecce up to 10th in the table. They remain level with Genoa who, after massive investment over the last few years, were under pressure to win this home game. They delivered a 1-0 win against Catania with Marco Rossi on target. Finally, Bologna picked up another credible point against Juventus this time, with the Old Lady missing a penalty as well during the match. Perhaps the worst part of this for Juve is the expected two match ban for Milos Krasic for diving during the game, the second game in succession. Currently, he will miss the big game against Milan this weekend.
So another round which has done little to unravel the tight an unpredictable nature of this table. Just five points separates 20th place from 5th at the moment, making it difficult to judge who is at risk of relegation and who is on course for greater things.
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Lazzio continues as they won Palermo with 1-0, playing with 10 men at the last minutes! It is really a big surprise and let's hope that they will contiune this way.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, as a Lazio fan myself lets hope so. The league seems more balanced this year, still to early to see who will really challenge for what in my opinion however. Thanks for the comment.
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