Footy Speak

Day 2 of the Italian Serie A saw the top four of the league battling each other. Inter Milan was playing AC Milan at San Siro, and Juventus were in Rome at the Stadio de Olympico to play against home team AS Roma.

The Milan derby was won by a thumping 4-0 win by Jose Mourinho’s Internazionale. The match also saw Gattuso red carded for a second yellow in the 40 minute. This left AC Milan with 10 men on the pitch. The damage was already done as the first half had ended at 3-0. The goals were scored by Thiago Motta, Diego Milito (Pen), Maicon and Dejan Stankovic in the 29th, 36th, 45th and 67th minute respectively.

Elsewhere in Rome, Juventus outclassed home team AS Roma, and won the match 3-1. Diego opened the scoring for Juventus in the 26th minute but Roma replied 10 minutes later with a goal from De Rossi. We then saw Diego scoring the winner, and taking the game away from the home team. Felipe Melo scored in the 93rd minute to add icing to the cake. The win took Juventus to the top of the table with 6 points only to be behind Sampdoria on goal difference.

Newly promoted Bari drew at home against Bologna. Both teams have so far drawn both the games they have played. Genoa, AC Siena and Lazio registered away wins against Atlanta, Cagliari and Chievo Verona. Home teams Fiorentina, Napoli and Parma defeated Palermo, AS Livorno and Catania, and in doing so, they also registered their first win of the season. Sampdoria won 3-1 in front of the home crowd against the Udinese, and took the top spot in the Italian Serie A.

A poor run of results at Juventus has lead to the sacking of Claudio Ranieri. Juventus have not won a game in their last seven league games. They now sit in third place, only one point above fourth, with two games left to go. If they slip into fourth, they can wave good bye to automatic Champions League qualification.

“The next two games are our future,” Blanc said. “It is not our style (to sack someone) but we can not miss out on Europe. We wanted to shock the players so they’d take the right path with the right man at the right moment.”