The Italian Football Thread

Pogba reminds me a lot of Balotelli.

Just because he's black...

Four goals in five games for Pazzini now. Getting back to his best hopefully.

^ His second yesterday was very nicely took.

Poor do for Roma last night, pretty flat performance. Inter without Milito and Cassano were definitely there for the taking but we didn't play well at all. The goals have dried up of late too. Pjanic was a big miss last night.

His hair cut and way he reacted after his goal.

Riccardo Garrone, President of Sampdoria has passed away.

One of the more sane presidents. His son's been handling most of the day to day running for a while now but dad's always run the club well and resisted the urge to pump in silly money to try and compete with the top sides.

Juve 1-0 up over Lazio, Peluso with a good header.

Finished 1-1, advantage Lazio

You guys are so well organised. Annoying! Your squad isn't as good as some but being as well drilled as you are, where every player knows their role, can get you far.

Apparently Juve have beaten us (and probably many other clubs) in the race to sign 16-year-old Vajebah Sakor. One of Norway's most promising talents I'd say.

Aye, Petko's done a great job with essentially the same group of players Reja had, it'll be interesting to see where he takes us between now and the end of the season.

A Rome derby Coppa final could be on the cards! That'd be top.

Typical Zeman match today. Don't know how much more I can take, it isn't half frustrating to watch. 6 goals conceded against Bologna this season is just unacceptable, could have been 7 too, Diamanti hit the woodwork in injury time.

We'll probably stick a few past Cagliari on Friday night but so what? The last few games have shown nothing's going to change - we'll end up 6th or 7th.

Looking at livescore, Samp leading 6-0 and Icardi has scored 4 goals

Prandelli said he's spoken to Icardi about representing Italy rather than Argentina. I think the kid's going to be getting another call soon.

A couple of places are crediting Sansone with Parma's goal against Napoli, either way it's still nice to see yet another young Italian forward breaking through.

It's also worth pointing out Icardi was raised in Barca's youth system and Sansone in Bayern's.

Hope he plays for the Azzurri.

I see Napoli became the first team this season to win at Parma, Cavani scoring late on. They're only 3 points off Juventus now - still think Juve will win it but at least they've got a decent challenger.

Catania have gone above Roma now, sweet Jesus......

Cavani's frighteningly good.

That'd be quite a turn of events, considering Samp pulled him from the Argentinian U20 national squad just a month ago.

Samp only paid Barca €400k for him, they could probably get 10 if not 20 times that if they sold him today.

I love Mauro Icardi

Zeman's apparently on thin ice at Roma. It'd be a shame if he does go, I've rather enjoyed his time there so far.

Tranfer agreement for Balotelli signed with Manchester City. Medicals tomorrow in Milan, then personal terms until 2017 signing

— Umberto Gandini (@UmbertoGandini) January 29, 2013

It's done.

Good, all that nonsense about a Juve bid was getting annoying.

On the transfer front, we've actually done a good job of clearing out our rubbish/reserves:

Matuzalem - Genoa (loan)
Rocchi - Inter
Scaloni - Atalanta
Sculli - Pescara
Zauri - Spezia (not done yet)
Alfaro - Al Wasl (not done yet)
Kozak - Pescara (loan, maybe...)

Signing someone is proving a little harder, Kuzamanovic was being linked with a move but it seems he's off to Valencia. Other than that it's been rumours with little to them.

Edit: I forgot that we'd bid for/signed Diago Laxalt who's coming off a great U20's World Cup with Uruguay, not sure what sort of impact he'll have though.

Amazing finish to the Lazio- Juventus semi final. Vidal scores to get the draw in injury time after a Gonzalez goal early in the second half, seems like game will go to extra time. Though floccari scores the winner from a corner a minute later. Marchisio then goes missed a chance which was easier to score, all this happening in added time. Great finish to the game.

Yep, now we just need Roma to do their bit and we're in for the ultimate final.

Amazing end to the game that, couldn't believe it. Not a clue how Marchisio put that wide. Would rather Lazio get through, don't like either them or Juventus but a Rome derby final would be magical.

Was a top atmosphere too. Thought I'd been transported back to the night Pazzini ruined Roma's scudetto chances in April 2010 when I turned the game on and saw the Olimpico so full!

Mauro Zarate's close to an €8m move to Dynamo Kiev, with that money we're looking to bring in Bruno_Pereirinha, Diego Laxalt and maybe Felipe Anderson from Santos or even Granit Xhaka.

\o/

Bologna's kit-man just got a heart attack