The Italian Football Thread

Where's the self-respect, though? Find it almost just as funny that they (Gasperini, Guidolin etc.) return to the club that sacked them just a few days before. Zamparini probably has his ways of making them feel welcome again. The Sicilian way, maybe.

Where's the self-respect, though? Find it almost just as funny that they (Gasperini, Guidolin etc.) return to the club that sacked them just a few days before. Zamparini probably has his ways of making them feel welcome again. The Sicilian way, maybe.

I don't understand Zamparini. At least when Roman does it, it's because he's in search of this mythical perfect attacking football.

Does Zamparini even know what he wants?

This was a weekend, in other words, which promised footballing fireworks. It began with a more literal kind of explosive being deployed outside Juventus's team hotel. More than a hundred Napoli Ultras took up residence in Corso Vittorio Emanuele on Thursday evening, setting off firecrackers, paper bombs and klaxons outside the Grand Hotel Parker's in the hope of disrupting their opponents' rest. The disturbances continued through the night and into the early hours of Friday morning.

Juventus stayed holed up until Friday afternoon – conducting their pre-game training session in the hotel gym. When the team's bus finally emerged from the parking lot a few hours before kick-off, it became an instant target. Despite the presence of a police escort, a group of would-be assailants tracked it from hotel to stadium on motorbikes and mopeds, launching missiles and insults as they went. At one point a lit flare ricocheted off a window and landed on the roof of a nearby taxi.

Worse was to come as the bus approached the Stadio San Paolo, where another gang awaited with rocks in hand. The window next to Kwadwo Asamoah was smashed, though the player was not hurt. Juventus's general manager, Beppe Marotta, later confirmed that the incident was unrelated to Asamoah's exclusion from the starting XI.