071026: Napoli 3 - 1 Juventus

Napoli 3 - 1 Juventus on Juventus.com
Napoli 3 - 1 Juventus on Soccernet.com
Apparently, Napoli won this game through two dubious penalties. Enough said really. If only I can watch Juventus games too!!

071026: Man Utd 4 - 1 Middlesbrough

A game that Man Utd scored four goals yet again for the 4th consecutive time, thus equalling a 100 year old record, that will not be broken next week against Arsenal (I hope otherwise!).

To be honest (I watched this game from a coffeeshop), Man Utd just scraped through this game again with only the two Tevez goals worthy of being called team goals.

The first two goals were somewhat opportunistic goals caused by some slack defending. Not to take any credit away from Nani's beautiful 30yard screamer (which eclipsed his first goal against Tottenham) nor the way Rooney coolly slotted home the goal that gave Man Utd the lead after Aliadiere punished Ferdinand and Vidic with an equaliser, but it was not really vintage Man Utd as they played the ball around waiting for things to happen instead of truly creating chances.

It could be that Middlesbrough defended deep and tried to cover up any gaping holes in defence with 8 or more men, but Man Utd were simply not excellent last night. But before I start to criticize more....

One encouraging sign was the crisp and pacy interchange of passes, which reminded me of Arsenal's free-flowing style. Another was the telepathic understanding between Rooney and Tevez. Lastly, but not least, was Hargreaves' presence in midfield.

Middlesbrough, unashamedly, knew their weaknesses, given the squad at Southgate's disposal. There was no creativity in midfield and there were some haphazard tactical discipline.

071013: European Championship Qualifying: Group B - Italy 2 - 0 Georgia

Italy 2 - 0 Georgia
From the way the report describes Italy's match, I wonder what is new. It seems that my favourite national team will always be stuck with tags such as "dull", "lacklustre", "pathetic", "defensive" blah blah blah. Critics are never happy with Italy.

Nevertheless, an important victory was secured and Italy need only to win against in-form and leaders Scotland next month and destiny to qualify for the 16-team event is in their own hands. And a "lacklustre" performance is enough for me.

Italy: Gianluigi Buffon, Andrea Barzagli, Fabio Grosso, Massimo Oddo, Christian Panucci, Massimo Ambrosini, Gennaro Gattuso, Andrea Pirlo, Antonio Di Natale, Fabio Quagliarella, Luca Toni

071007: Fiorentina 1 - 1 Juventus

Fiorentina 1 - 1 Juventus on Juventus.com
Fiorentina 1 - 1 Juventus on Soccernet.com
With league leaders Inter winning 2 - 1 against Napoli in a Saturday game, Ranieri returned to his old club hoping to lead Juventus to what will have been another impressive win and kept pace with Inter.

As it turned out, Mutu returned to haunt his old club and snatched a point from Juventus with a penalty in the dying minutes (which Buffon nearly saved as pictured below) after Legrottalie had been deemed to handled the ball in the box.



Nevertheless, they remained second in the league.

Scorers:
FIORENTINA: Mutu (88')
JUVENTUS: Iaquinta (23')

JUVENTUS: Buffon; Grygera, Legrottaglie, Chiellini, Molinaro; Salihamidzic, Nocerino, Almiron, Nedved (71' Palladino); Iaquinta (77' Del Piero), Trezeguet
Subs: Belardi, Birindelli, Zebina, Criscito, Tiago

071006: Man Utd 4 - 0 Wigan

Man Utd 4 - 0 Wigan on ManUtd.com
Man Utd 4 - 0 Wigan on Soccernet.com

It was a match billed as the game when Man Utd will finally get the truckloads of goals for the first time this season and it was duly confirmed when the final whistle blows. However, there was a point in the game when I thought it will end up like the first game of the season when Reading resolutely defended against the champions and left Old Trafford with an invaluable point.

For the whole of the 1st half, Wigan put on a defensive set-up that played hard, tackled hard and defended well. Due to the physical nature of the game, Man Utd were forced to reshuffle their defence twice as Vidic first, followed by O'Shea (who started the game in midfield) left the match due to vision problem and a dead leg respectively. As a result, Rio Ferdinand (in central defence) found a 3rd defensive partner in young hopeful talent Pique, who started at right-back, and all in one half!

It wasn't a dirty game, to be honest, but there were some unsavoury moments, especially in the first half, that Mike Riley, the referee, failed to address properly, though he did a decent job overall.

A goal-less 1st half failed to highlight Man Utd's dominance. However, it was evened out by Man Utd's fruitless wing play and lost-cause corners, which missed Vidic's aerial dominance.

A turnaround in the 2nd half, though, beckoned as Wigan were stretched by Man Utd's incisive and swift passing, which culminated in the first goal of the game courtesy of a brilliant interchange of play among 4 players beginning with Ferdinand, who carried the ball out of defence in his usual calm manner to Rooney. Rooney then played a superb pass to Anderson, the replacement for Vidic. The young Brazilian then stepped forward and threaded through a slide rule pass in the heart of Wigan's defence and found Tevez in the 53rd minute. With the trickery that he was partly bought for, Tevez danced around the Wigan's defence before finishing with a cool shot with his weaker foot.

This goal was reminiscent of Ronaldo's goal against Birmingham last week.

Wigan were increasingly losing their tactical discipline and Anderson was starting to exert his influence, which was useful as Paul Scholes was strangely subdued and did not impose himself as much as the young Brazilian.

As Wigan tried to recover, they suddenly found themselves with a 2-goal deficit 6 minutes later as Wigan's GK, Kirkland could only parry a deflected Giggs cross weakly into the path of Ronaldo, who was at hand to head into an empty net.

It was then Gear 1 as Man Utd took a casual approach, which almost allowed Wigan a way back into the game when shortly after, Wigan's substitute Valencia, almost pulled back a goal only to be denied by the save of the match produced by Kusczak, who was seeking to extend Man Utd's clean sheet and winning run to six.

If Kusczak keeps producing such performances, van der Sar will definitely be having it tough to dislodge the Pole a regular starting berth upon his return from injury, though chances are Sir Alex will re-start with the Dutchman.

That save lifted Man Utd's game again and a 3rd goal was the result as the impressive Anderson linked up defensively with Pique to nick the ball of Wigan's Brown and the ball subsequently made its way to Rooney on the left wing, who delivered a great assist to Ronaldo in the 76th minute in the 6-yard box and Ronaldo made no mistake and promptly celebrated the goal with Rooney.

A 4th goal ensued in 82nd minute, as league debutant Danny Simpson, replacement for O'Shea, swung in a beautiful lofted cross for a contender for the man of the match, Wayne Rooney who equally matched the cross with a menacing and clinical header.

The goal was the icing on the cake for Simpson who capped off his impressive debut performance and was duly congratulated by the more than equally deserving Rooney.

When the final whistle blew, there were bad news in that Saha had injured himself before the match started, Vidic and O'Shea suffered knocks that threatened to derail the result of this game and the fact that Wigan came to play for a point.

It was more than compensated, however, with the thrilling positive news that the ability of Pique, Simpson and the effervescent Anderson shone through in a game that could have been a real baptism of fire had Wigan really came to play football.

This great result puts Man Utd at the top of the table pending Arsenal's result against Sunderland on Sunday. It is still early days, but Man Utd will definitely want to head to Ashburton Grave on 3 November to face the Gunners by leading the table.

071003: Champions League Phase 1 Rd 2 of 6: Man Utd 1 - 0 Roma

Man Utd 1 - 0 Roma

In a very important match, Man Utd were fortunate to come out of this match with another slender victory and take a huge step in qualifying for the next phase.

They were troubled all night by nippy and fast offensive movement produced by Roma and the central figure of it all was Francesco Totti who was pulling the strings. However, due to Man Utd's hidden forces at play, they kept Roma at bay.

It took the type of football Roma had produced all night for Man Utd's Rooney to score the winner in the 70th minute, and what a winner it was with superb team play that started from the left of midfield that began with Ronaldo who made a pass to Carrick in the center. Carrick laid it off for Nani, and the Porugese winger who started the match in place of Giggs, threading through a brilliant ball to Rooney who struck goal with much aplomb.

If Nani continues to develop the way he did in this match, then surely his season will prosper to Man Utd's advantage. John O' Shea didn't do too badly at right back but he was marshalling a handful Mancini. Saha started in place of Tevez, and he had a somewhat disappointing night without (if I recall correctly) a single shot at goal.

Man Utd are still finding their stride and if they can produce more of the football that produced the winner, then they should be able to come up with more convincing displays, though of course, there are teams that won't play open attacking football the way Roma played last night.

Credit to Roma, who can definitely leave Old Trafford with heads tilt high as they bounced back from the embarassing 4 - 1 defeat against Inter last weekend. Their football was really the type of football most observers won't expect from an Italian team and club.

070930: Juventus 1 - 0 Torino

Juventus 1 - 0 Torino

Trezeguet continued his and Juventus' astonishing return to Serie A with another impressive goal and win respectively against bitter local rivals, Torino, albeit with a goal in the dying minutes! Trezeguet beat the Torino goalkeeper with a superb volley.

Torino hasn't beaten Juventus since 1995 and the streak continued today.

With this win, Juventus are now second in the league with 13 points from 6 games behind leaders and champions, Inter Milan, who has 14.

Scorer: Trezeguet (93')

JUVENTUS: Buffon, Grygera, Legrottaglie, Chiellini, Molinaro; Palladino, Nocerino, Cristiano Zanetti (Almiron 69'), Nedved; Trezeguet, Del Piero.
Subs not used: Belardi, Birindelli, Criscito, Salihamidzic, Tiago, Olivera