The Italian Football Thread

2 they've probably secured the Scudetto with this win, which is a shame for the league in general. But regardless of the score tonight I'll be happy if Roma get top 3, will be good progress after two awful seasons.

Roma down to nine men and 3-0 down now.

Antonio Di Natale announced he'll be retiring at the end of the season during the post-match press conference this afternoon.

Hoped he had another season in him but I suppose it's better to go out in Serie A than spend another year in the MLS or the middle east with a hefty wage packet but surrounded by players with a fraction of his talent.


On the Lazio front, we actually played quite well, kept a clean sheet and scraped a win on Reja's return to the bench. God knows where these stories linking Ranocchi to the likes of Chelsea and Man Utd come from though, whenever I watch him over 90 mins he makes 2 or 3 mistakes a youth team player would be ashamed of. It's actually sad to see such a highly rated player during his Bari days has become a total bombscare, especially when you see the so called less talented member of that partnership doing so well for Juve and Italy.

That sucks.

Christian Maldini, Paolo's 17 year old son, has made the first tentative step of his senior career joining Brescia on loan till the end of the season, like his old man he's a leftback.

I can't say I envy the kid, that name must be a millstone round his neck, his father and grandfather not only Milan legends but up there with the very best of their generations.

He should embrace it and try learn from his dad. He probably won't be as good as his old fella, I mean not many have been in the past or will be in the future so that's okay, but he should take full advantage of the chance!!

Excellent 4-0 win over Genoa today including a goal from Il Capitano and, by all accounts, an excellent goal from Florenzi - will check it out later. Good result, Juventus won again but Fiorentina are 7 points behind in 4th so all is good.

Berardi hattrick, Sassuolo 3-2 up now. Very smart business by Juve snapping up 50% of his rights when they did.

Edit: Worth remembering Sassuolo had gone 4 games without scoring before tonight.

Stopped watching the game after 5 minutes.

Regretting that decision now.

Berardi has 4 now, his strike partner Zaza's been excellent as well, no goals but Milan's defenders are really struggling to keep tabs on him.

4-3 now, should have been 4-4 but Pazzini somehow missed.

Milan are so poor, said it loads but don't know how Allegri is getting away with reducing them to mediocrity.

The kid Berardi obviously has some talent though.

Allegri could be sacked tomorrow with Pippo Inzaghi's the favourite to fill in till the end of the season.

Right after the game Barbara Berlusconi was going on about how things had to change and the fans shouldn't have to suffer results like the one they'd just seen then Allegri was informed there'll be a meeting regarding his future tomorrow morning while he was in the middle of an interview.

He's gone.

Yep, now there's a load of stories going about saying Seedorf's Berlusconi's choice to take over as manager...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2548093/First-Calciopoli-Italian-football-chaos-division-Nocerina-thrown-faking-injuries.html

Christ, do people actually read the Daily Fail? Reads like it was written by a dense 10 year old...

That was just the first one I could find. Read about it on a phone app but couldn't find it online so just posted that one

That wasn't a dig btw, just found it amusing how bad the writing was, especially the stupid decision to shoehorn Calciopoli into it...

Personally I find it sad they took the easy way out, instead of confronting the absurd power ultra have in the south they punished a club that clearly didn't know what to do for the best or who to go to for help.

Nocerina being punished in the strongest possible penalty - being sent to West Ham

Hibee, I'm guessing you're not expecting much from Nocerino/Borriello?

And you're just going to have to accept every scandal will be linked to Calciopoli and every defensive Italian side will deemed Catenaccio.

Nocerino could do a job for them in his limited way, but I'm not sure about Borriello, his record at Genoa wasn't terrible last year but he's not really played this season, add in adapting to a new league with a struggling side and I can't really see him getting up to an effective level quick enough to have a real impact.

Now I've said all that he'll no doubt score in his first game...

Nocerino is a properly talented, hard-working footballer, could be a good loan for West Ham. Wouldn't have any high hopes on Borriello though.

Only just realised that Diamanti has left Serie A to play for Guangzhou Evergrande under Lippi.

Prandelli's said he'll watch him in China but to be honest given his age and the competition for places his chances of going to Brazil weren't that great to begin with. Shame he left the move so late, Bologna get €9m but can't do anything with it, plus their really struggling this season, his move could have doomed them.

From a personal point of view the move makes sense, he'll triple his wages and his wife's parents are Chinese so it's not like he's moving to a totally random country, they probably had plans to live there sometime and this chance came up when Biabany's move to Guangzhou Evergrande broke down.

Better than playing for West Ham.

Better than playing for West Ham.

Always rated Diamanti. Big loss for Bologna.

Rome derby tomorrow, Lazio look better now Reja has gone back from what I've heard but I'm still fairly confident of a Roma win. Then Napoli on Wednesday in the second leg of the Coppa, big games keep coming thick and fast.

Balotelli pictured crying when being subbed off, reportedly due to racial abuse.

More needs to be done, all these penalties and fines are useless, it's not stopping it from happening.