Is FC Internazionale’s real Scudetto challenger AS Roma?

By Mirko Corli

This is the question that the past weekend in Serie A puts on the table.

AS Roma defeated struggling side Udinese 4-2 at home with a hat-trick by Mirko Vucinic and a superb game by young French talent Jeremy Menez. Thanks to this win AS Roma is now only 4 point below Inter and next saturday the Nerazzurri will travel to Rome in a clash that smells of Scudetto.

In the meantime, AC Milan was not able to win at home against Napoli: 1-1 the final result with AC Milan deserving maybe a little more than one point but very imprecise in their defensive plays due to the missing centre-backs Alessandro Nesta and Daniele Bonera.

Napoli took the lead in San Siro with defender Hugo Campagnaro and then had some great chances to go 2-0 up. But then, evergreen striker Filippo “Pippo” Inzaghi put a powerful header behind Napoli’s keeper and AC Milan took the control of the game until the end, having some decent opportunities to score.

Inter played on Saturday night a difficult match in Palermo: they took the lead from the penalty spot in the first 10 minutes (17th goal from argentine striker Diego “El Principe” Milito, who became father for the second time just after the game) and then controlled the game until Palermo made the draw with Cavani. After that Inter put the  "Stamford Bridge squad“ on the pitch - as the Italian media keep saying - with Sneijder behind Milito & Eto'o, and Pandev and Thiago Motta in the middle of the midfield beside Cambiasso. 

Inter tried their best to score but they were not able to prosper; they also were facing a couple of very frightening counter-attacks from Palermo (Miccoli, Cavani), so the 1-1 is a good result for both the teams.

The league table now states as follows: Inter 60 points, AC Milan 59, AS Roma 56. Three teams in different states: Inter has been loosing points for a while now (they made 8 points in the last 7 games, not enough to secure the title), while Milan seems to have great chances but not the necessary attitude to win the title, and Roma is now having perhaps the best run of form of the entire championship.

Behind those three teams, Serie A is always amazing in every fight.

I don’t want to stress always the same points, but I have to mention again Alberto Malesani’s Siena. Simply Awesome.

Siena won at home 1-0 against Bologna and successfully put Livorno  behind them (loosing 3-0 in Bergamo against Atalanta means quite certainly relegation for Serse Cosmi’s lads): it’s the first time since months that Siena is no longer last in the league table. 

Now they’re going to face Lazio (good 2-0 win against Cagliari, superb goal by Sergio Floccari) on Wednesday’s special Match Day. If they can secure points also against Lazio, relegation will be quite certainly a ghost fading away.

Chievo vs Catania and Bari vs Parma were another two 1-1 draws with no particular emotions apart from the astonishing performance of Bari’s striker Meggiorini: Parma’s crossbar was almost broken by a powerful shot by the young lad.

Juventus’ never-ending crisis is still on the news: they lost 1-0 against direct rivals for the Champions League spot Sampdoria. Cassano, back on the pitch after two months on the bench, scored a long-drive to make it 1-0 for Sampdoria with a quite of bit of help from Juventus’ third goalie Chimenti. Juventus is now 6th in the league, behind Sampdoria and Palermo. The 4th place is still possible to reach, but they have to finish the championship above both the mentioned teams and - as far as we can see now - it will be nearly impossible for them.

A quick look into Serie B, Italy’s second division: Lecce (52) still first in the table with Sassuolo in second place (49) and a playoff race full of teams still in good positions. Cesena, Brescia, Grosseto, Cittadella, Ancona and Torino will fight until the end: six teams for four places. To mention, of course, is still Grosseto’s striker Mauricio Pinilla, who scored twice in the 2-2 draw against Sassuolo. Pinilla is now the top scorer of the league with 22 goals in 20 games played. 

We now  hear many rumors about Pinilla joining Genoa or even Inter next season.

Time for the best goals of the week now: in third place Lazio’s Sergio Floccari 2-0 against Cagliari; second place for the wonderful play of Mirko Vucinic in Roma vs Udinese; but the best goal of the weekend is, in my honest opinion, the one from Mario Alberto Santana:  look at the heel flick by Gilardino and the superb finish, still with the heel, by Santana.

That’s all folks, Serie A reports will come back on Wednesday night after the special mid-week matchday. Will Inter still have the lead?