Napoli failed to maintain their winning streak in week 18 after they stumble into a 1-1 draw against Bologna at San Paolo, there’s was even controversy around the home team’s goal which comes from Edinson Cavani’s spot kick.

The Partenopei obviously disappointed with the result as getting only a point at home is not something encouraging to continue their Scudetto attempt this season considering they have already wasted several points this season, mainly against weaker team.

Still playing without their Argentinian star, Ezequiel Lavezzi, Napoli once again setting up their front pairing with the likes of Marek Hamsik, Goran Pandev and also Edinson Cavani. The home team had a great chance to take the lead early in the first half, but Hamsik was left devastated after finding out that his shot got save brilliantly by Bologna’s keeper, Jean Francois Gillet.

Hamsik should be ruing his luck especially after moments later, Bologna managed to steal a goal from Robert Acquafresca, who skipped through the Napoli defense and beat Napoli’s keeper, Morgan De Sanctis. The home team tried to make an immediate reaction by pouring forward but a combination of fine performance by Gillet and Bologna’s back-line simply prevented the Partenopei into bagging the equalizer.

However, luck seems to turn back again for Napoli after midway in the second half, they earned a rather bizarre penalty kick after Diego Perez was judged of handling offense. The thing that made the decision controversial was the fact that the referee was actually going to award a free kick instead before changing his mind after receiving info from his linesman that the hand happened inside the box instead of offside.

Despite the protests from Bologna player, the referee sticked to his decision and Cavani thumped the spot kick perfectly and gives Napoli their long awaited equalizing goal. The equalizing goal made things much more interesting as in the last15-10 minutes Bologna also regain their attacking mood, creating an exciting match until the final whistle was blown.

Match Reports:
Napoli v Bologna 1-1

Goal: Cavani 71 pen (Napoli); Acquafresca 14 (Bologna)

Napoli: De Sanctis; Campagnaro (Zuniga 55), Cannavaro, Aronica; Maggio (Vargas 83), Inler (Lucarelli 89), Gargano, Dossena; Hamsik, Pandev; Cavani
Bologna: Gillet; Raggi (Crespo 72), Antonsson, Cherubin; Pulzetti (Garics 75), Perez, Mudingayi, Morleo; Taider; Acquafresca (Ramirez 72), Di Vaio

photo credit: Tanzen80

Having an inconsistent run in their early Serie A matches, both Inter Milan and As Roma looked to get themselves together just before the Christmas break as the two closes the year with comforting victories.

The Nerazzurri trashed their visitor, Lecce, 4-1 at San Siro with Ricky Alvarez providing an inspiration for the home side, while Roma also continue their positive run with another precious away victory, this time against Bologna.

Inter Keeps On Winning Run

Inter Milan continuing to show signs of improvement as they climb the Serie A ladder again just before the Christmas break, sitting at fifth place at the moment after tormenting bottom table Lecce in a pretty convincing scoreline. Things didn’t actually came out easily for Claudio Ranieri’s side as the visitor managed to took the lead after 20 minutes through Luis Muriel, who sprung through the offside trap and placed his shot away from Julio Cesar’s reach right after beating Lucio and Douglas Maicon in the process.

After unluckily hitting the woodword, Inter finally managed to get their equalizer through Giampaolo Pazzini, who flicked in Maicon’s cross passed Lecce keeper, Gabrieli. The 1-1 scoreline spurred the home team even more in the second half and their pressure were rewarded with a goal early after the re-start from subsitute, Diego Milito, who latched on through Alvarez’ fine through pass.

Lecce did gave some fight in the second period as they created several good goal scoring opportunities through Daniele Corvia and Davide Di Michelle. However, the home team simply didn’t want to risk anything and eventually closed the visitor’s effort with two more goals from Cambiasso and also Alvarez, all came from a fine effort made by Yuto Nagatomo.

Roma Picked Up Another Away Glory

Following a surprising 3-1 victory over Napoli in the weekend, Roma faced Bologna with high confidence, despite the home team are pretty good when playing in front of their fans. The away team controlled the ball possession and finally took a deserved lead after 17 minutes through Rodrigo Taddei’s vicious volley right in the edge of the penalty area.

The goal made things much more comfortable for Luis Enrique’s side as they managed to boss around the match before eventually doubling their lead through Pablo Osvaldo’s fine strike, which came from Eric Lamela’s pass. Nothing really changed in the second half as the Giallorossi continue to control possession, making things difficult for the home team in creating chances, although Marteen Stekelenburg in Roma’s goal was forced to make several saves from Alessandro Diamanti’s efforts.

Match reports:

Inter v Lecce 4-1
Goals: Pazzini 34, Milito 49, Cambiasso 73, Alvarez 84 (Inter); Muriel 20 (Lecce)

Inter: Julio Cesar; Maicon, Lucio, Samuel, Nagatomo; Faraoni (Cambiasso 46), Zanetti, Motta, Alvarez; Forlan (Milito 46), Pazzini (Obi 72)
Lecce: Gabrieli; Oddo, Tomovic, Ferrario; Cuadrado, Giacomazzi, Obodo (Pasquato 75), Olivera (Piatti 46), Brivio; Muriel (Corvia 54), Di Michele

photo credit: .a_dit.

Struggling Bologna have fired manager Pierpaolo Bisoli after just four months in charge and appointed Stefano Pioli. Pioli, whose short reign as coach of Palermo ended last month before a Serie A ball had been kicked, inherits a side bottom of the league with one point from five matches.

“Bologna FC 1909 have removed Pierpaolo Bisoli from charge of the first team,” the club said in a statement on their website. “Our thanks for his professionalism and conduct.”

Bologna, who are bottom of Serie A having taken one point and scored only two goals in their first five matches wasted no time in replacing Bisoli with Pioli.

“Stefano Pioli is from today the new coach of Bologna,” the club said in a statement hours after Bisoli’s dismissal was announced. “He has signed a two-year contract and will be presented to the press tomorrow (Wednesday).”

The 45-year-old Pioli, who has previously coached Salernitana, Modena, Parma, Grosseto, Piacenza and Sassuolo, led Chievo Verona to 11th place last season before replacing Delio Rossi at Palermo.

Inter Milan and Napoli’s victories on Saturday puts Ac Milan under a little bit pressure in securing the Scudetto title but the Rossoneri come away with a deserved victory, despite having a rather nervy and lucky end to the game against Bologna this Sunday.

A rare goal from French midfielder, Mathieu Flamini, early in the first half decided the game as the Rossoneri were guilty of being wasteful once again nearly giving a live line for Bologna, who maybe feel a bit bitter after having a player sent off in the later stage of the game.

Playing in a full packed crowd at San Siro, the Rossoneri’s intent to take all three points that would bring them even more closer to the title were visible right from the start as the home team looked very sharped in pressing their opponent. Completely dominating the game, it only took eight minutes for Milan to take the lead as a lovely move from Flamini ends up in the back of the net despite being blocked by Bologna’s keeper, Emiliano Viviano at first, but the goalie spilled the ball and the Frenchman simply didn’t miss out on his second attempt.

After the goal, the Rossoneri gets even more confident as they simply outplayed the visitor and keeps on creating several goal scoring chances, notably by Antonio Cassano and Kevin Prince Boateng, unfortunately despite leading, the nerves seems not completely gone from the Milan players. In the second half, things started out in almost similar to the first period especially in the early part which still say the home team missing out several good goal scoring chances, that simply giving a life line for Bologna, that suddenly came to live in the last 10-15 minutes of the game.

The Rossoblu seems to pile on the pressure and started to create several chances, albeit most of them came from dead ball situation, still it kinda worried the Milan fans, who have been singing all day long. The relief almost arrived though for the Milanisti, but once again in the final minutes, the Rossoneri players were unable to convert several good chances that they good, resulting in several comedic errors in front of Bologna’s goal. During having a good spell of pressure, a rather unfortunate event happened for the away team as they lose a player, Della Rocca, who received a rather harsh marching order.

With just three minutes of extra time and finishing the game with a player advantage, Milan just see through Bologna’s resistance and kept the ball on the away team’s half in the final minute. Just as the referee blows the final whistle, the Rossoneri are getting closer on achieving their main target this season, which is securing the Serie A crown back after being dominated by their rival neighbor in few last season. With three games left in the league, Massimiliano Allegri’s team only needs one point to secure the title that they haven’t won since 2004.

Milan v Bologna 1-0
goal: Flamini 8 (Milan)

Milan: Abbiati; Abate, Nesta, Thiago Silva, Zambrotta; Flamini, Ambrosini, Seedorf; Boateng (Pirlo 81); Robinho, Cassano (Beretta 86)

Bologna: Viviano; Moras, Portanova, Britos, Cherubin; Mutarelli, Mudingayi; Meggiorini (Della Rocca 54), Ekdal (Gimenez 72), Rubin (Ramirez 54); Di Vaio

photo credit: bhhardinge

Veteran striker Marco Di Vaio will stay at Bologna after agreeing a new two-year contract with the club. The 34-year-old’s existing deal was set to end at the end of the season.

“I have reached an agreement with the club,” Di Vaio said. “There were no problems. I wanted to remain and the club wanted to keep me. I am delighted because my dream of ending my career at Bologna is realised. I want to thank the club, which at times of difficulty, has found the financial strength for my new contract.”

Di Vaio joined Bologna from Genoa in 2009 and earlier this year turned down an option to return to Juventus. The veteran striker is Bologna’s top scorer with 18 league goals this season.

“At Bologna there is passion, great history, a lot of respect,” Di Vaio said. “I owe everything to this city and this club.”

Bologna are tenth in Serie A with 40 points from 30 games.

photo credit: zipckr

The title race in Serie A gets more interesting especially after Napoli continue to threaten Ac Milan’s throne at the top of the league after picking an important three point against Bari this weekend.

Not only that the Partenopei are currently pulling some gaps with the teams behind them as Lazio dropped points again after losing against Bologna, allowing As Roma keeping their third place position after their win yesterday.

Napoli Pulls A Gap at Second Place

After having a rather inconsistent results in previous weeks, Napoli, gets themselves back on winning ways with a comfortable 2-0 victory against bottom half Bari, that were playing with 10 men midway in the second half. The Partenopei fans should really thanked their two South American stars, Ezequiel Lavezzi and Edinson Cavani, who got the two goals that gave the all important three points that Napoli needed.

Looking for a victory to stay closer to Milan in the top of the table, Napoli started the game on the attack and their intensive pressure finally paid off in the 38th minute when Lavezzi scored a wonderful goal with a flick of his heel. The goal pushed Bari’s spirit to improve their game in search of the equalizer, however their job gets really difficult after the home team had one of their player, Alessandro Parisi, sent off after picking up his second yellow card midway in the second period.

Having a man advantage allowed Napoli to take full control of the game and eventually sealed the game four minutes before the final 90 minutes after their current top scorer, Edinson Cavani, who tapped in Lavezzi’s cross to score one of his easiest goals of the season. The victory allowed the Southern Italian side to take a breath in maintaining their second place with 40 points, two points away from Roma that jumped into third place with 38 points.

Lazio Loses Ground Again

One of the reason that Napoli had a breathing space in the second place is because of Lazio’s failure to secure the three point they needed after being beaten by Bologna 3-1 at Renato Dall’Ara. Sergio Floccari’s early strike failed to push the away team’s spirit as the financially troubled Serie A side showed their comeback strength by replying with three goals from Gaston Ramirez and Marco Di Vaio’s brace.

Playing away against a troubled side like Bologna, Lazio should have had their head held high especially after the Biancocelesti managed to take an early with Floccari’s goal five minutes into the game. However, things went wrong for the away team after that as it was the home side that had the upper hand especially after Ramirez equalized in the 36th minute.

The tides surely turned after that equalizing goal as three minutes after Ramirez’s striker, Di Vaio started the misery for his former club as he puts Bologna on the lead with a wonderful unstoppable solo run before smashing Lazio’s net. The home team’s lead frustrated the away team as they lose their temper in the end of the game resulting in a sending off for the Biancocelesti’s defender, Andre Diaz, after getting involved in a brawl.

Playing against 10 men makes things easier for the Rossoblu as they immediately scored the third goal after the sending off with Di Vaio successfully capitalizing Lazio’s defender, Giussepe Biava’s mistake. The former Parma striker waltzed pass Biava before sending the ball home and ensured Bologna’s victory against one of the Scudetto challengers that started to lose their ground in the top position in the league.

Match Reports:

Bari v Napoli 0-2

Goals: Lavezzi 38, Cavani 86 (Napoli)

Bari: Gillet; A Masiello, Belmonte, Glik, Parisi; Alvarez, Pulzetti (Almiron 46), Gazzi, Raggi; Rudolf (Rivas 78), Kutozov (Okaka 46)

Napoli: De Sanctis; Campagnaro, Cannavaro, Aronica; Maggio, Gargano (Sosa 82), Pazienza, Zuniga; Hamsik (Yebda 63); Lavezzi (Dumitru 89), Cavani

Bologna v Lazio 3-1

Goals: Ramirez 36, Di Vaio 39, 90 (Bologna); Floccari 5 (Lazio)

Bologna: Viviano; Moras, Portanova, Britos, Rubin; Perez, Mudingayi (Mutarelli 94), Della Rocca (Casarini 75); Ekdal; Ramirez (Meggiorini 86), Di Vaio

Lazio: Muslera; Scaloni (Kozak 77), Dias, Biava, Radu; Ledesma (Gonzalez 53), Brocchi, Mauri; Hernanes; Sculli (Zarate 41), Floccari

photo credit: Tutto Calcio

Italian Serie A starts the second part of the season this weekend and controversy once again surrounded some of the final outcome as questionable decisions led to the goals scored by few big teams such as Inter Milan, Roma and Lazio.

Inter kept running on the winning track under their new coach Leonardo after Bologna 4-1 at San Siro, while the other Scudetto candidates such as Roma, Lazio and Juventus have to left it late before taking the three points from their opponents.

Fourth Win For Leonardo
In San Siro, Inter celebrated Javier Zanetti’s special record with another special victory as Samuel Eto’o once again proved his importance for the Nerazzurri by bagging two goals in the game. Despite being a deserved winner, there was a slight controversy earlier on as the home team’s first goal that was scored by Dejan Stankovic saw the midfielder put the ball from an offside position.

The controversial first goal makes thing easier for Inter in the end as they added three more goals that comes from Diego Milito and Eto’o doubles to make the home side take a four goal lead before Bologna finally pulled a goal back with Gimenez’s goal. The result pretty surely give more confidence for the defending champion in retaining their title bit this season despite already loosing some ground from the current leader, Ac Milan.

Late Win For The Big Guns

Contrary with Inter Milan’s easy win, few other big guns such as Lazio, Juventus and As Roma have to leave it late before finally getting the important three points they needed in keeping pace at the top. Those top three teams were forced to fight their socks off until the final whistle as their opponents kept on troubling them until the end.

In Turin, the Bianconeri needed a late super volley from their summer signing, Alberto Aquilani, before taming the stubborn performance of Bari that previously managed to cancel out Alessandro Del Piero’s opener in the first half. The match looked like ending in a draw before Aqualini pulled off the final blow just around 10 minutes before the final 90 and pretty much securing Juve’s title challenge that seemed slipping away after losing their last two games.

Meanwhile, two capital clubs earned their slight victory in a rather similar scenario as both Roma and Lazio’s winning goal came from a controversial process which could caused some harsh words from their opponents after the game. At Stadio Olympico, the Biancocelesti needed suspicious looking late goal from their substitute, Libor Kozak, in order to beat Sampdoria, that were more than equal opponent for the current second place holder.

As for Roma, last season’s Serie A runner up can consider themselves very fortunate as not only looking controversial, their late goal also came from Cesena’s player own goal right at the final minute of the game. The own goal arrived after Fabricio Simplicio’s cross received a wicked deflection from Max Pellegrino, but the controversy arrived a little bit earlier as before Simplicio made the cross, Adriano was actually caught offside in the process that led to the former Palermo’s player action.

photo credit: americanistadechiapas

Samuel Eto’o scored twice as Inter Milan beat Bologna 4-1 as the champions made it four consecutive wins under new coach Leonardo. Inter are up to fourth in Serie A, with two games in hand, are just five points behind second-placed Napoli, who drew 0-0 with Fiorentina, and eight points adrift of AC Milan ahead of the leaders’ trip to Lecce on Sunday.

Dejan Stankovic, thriving in place of the injured Wesley Sneijder in Leonardo’s new 4-3-1-2 formation, made the San Siro breakthrough after 20 minutes when he poked in Eto’o’s pass. Striker Diego Milito, who hit the post with a header early on, netted his first league goal since November after 30 minutes before setting up Eto’o with a backheel just past the hour. Camerooon striker Eto’o soon curled in a great freekick for the fourth before Henry Gimenez lashed in a consolation.

Captain Javier Zanetti, 37, was again inspirational in midfield as he equalled Beppe Bergomi’s Inter record of 519 Serie A appearances, helping limit Bologna to just one first half chance when Luca Castellazzi saved from Marco Di Vaio.

Napoli, who beat Juventus 3-0 last week, struggled for break down Fiorentina at home without suspended midfielder Marek Hamsik. Napoli’s task became even harder when defender Gianluca Grava had to be replaced in the first half after suffering a potentially serious knee injury.

Walter Mazzarri’s Napoli improved after the break and piled the pressure on at the end but a winner always looked unlikely.

AC Milan extended their lead to six points in Serie A despite a 4-4 home draw with Udinese, though SSC Napoli will be hoping to close in on the Rossoneri when they host Juventus later.

Fans at San Siro were treated to an eight-goal thriller as Milan came from behind three times to force a 4-4 draw. Pato cancelled out Antonio Di Natale’s 35th-minute opener on the stroke of half-time only for Alexis Sánchez (53) and Di Natale (66) to put the visitors 3-1 up, but the hosts rallied through a Medhi Benatia own goal (78) and a second Pato strike (82). Germán Denis (89) then grabbed what looked to be the winner with a minute remaining, yet the league leaders salvaged a point via Zlatan Ibrahimović in added time.

It proved a crucial draw as second-placed Lazio lost 2-1 at home against lowly Lecce to slip further adrift of the summit. Fourth-placed Roma also tasted defeat, losing 2-1 at nine-man Sampdoria after losing Júlio Sérgio to a 55th-minute red card, though their hosts finished with nine men following the late dismissals of centre-backs Daniele Gastaldello and Stefano Lucchini.

Inter came from behind to triumph 2-1 at Catania and lift themselves to seventh, while an even more dramatic comeback ended with Fiorentina turning a 2-0 deficit at home to Brescia into a 3-2 win.

Elsewhere, there were victories for Bologna and Cagliari at Bari and Parma respectively, while Palermo and Genoa were held to 0-0 draws at Chievo and Cesena.

photo credit: Jan S0L0

Ac Milan looks set to keep their top stop just before the winter break as after the results in Serie A Week 16 favors them especially with Lazio slipping away in Turin which allowed the Rossoneri to take a 6 point lead over three teams in joint second place positions.

Massimiliano Allegri’s side went on to grab a convincing three points away to Bologna with another fine performance resulting in three wonderful goals, while the Biancocelesti last minute howler cost them a valuable one point against Juventus.

Comfortable Milan

Heading into the match after a dissapionting display in an unimportant Champions League fixture against Ajax Amsterdam on Wednesday, Ac Milan took a different approach at Renato Dall’Ara stadium as the away team try to take the lead as early as possible. The Rossoneri’s tactic worked well once again as it took them less than 10 minutes to open the score sheet after their two summer signings, Boateng and Zlatan Ibrahimovic combining well with the Ghanian getting his second goal of the season, once again from the Swedish delightful assist.

Bologna that haven’t lost many points at home before the match against Milan, tried to get themselves back into the game but the Rossoneri’ stood out well and keep on controlling the pace of the game abd finally went on to score their second through Robinho. The former Manchester City player latched on into Boateng’s lovely flick and shrugged off a challenge before beating the Bologna keeper, Emiliano Viviano, with an ease.

Ibrahimovic added Bologna woes in the second half as the big Swede magnificently controlled Andrea Pirlo’s sublime pass before knocking the ball pass Viviano and confirmed Milan’s domination in the game with the third goal. The home team can probably also convinced that it was not their day after all as the troubled club’s best player, Marco Di Vaio, can’t even score from the penalty spot after his shot was brilliantly saved by Milan’s keeper, Christian Abbiati.

Muslera’s Blunder Denied Lazio Precious Point

In Olympico Turin, second place Lazio, failed their bid to keep pressure on Milan after the Capital club were beaten by the home team 2-1, making the table looked much more interesting with three teams sharing the runners up spot. The Biancocelesti’s keeper, Fernando Muslera, can pretty much be the person blamed because of the defeat as the Uruguayan international misjudged Milos Krasic’s attempted cross.

The big match started off in a sparkling fashion as both teams managed to score before the 15 minutes mark in the first half, with Juventus leading first in just the second minute of the game after Giorgio Chiellini headed an Alberto Aquilani corner and beat Muslera in Lazio’s goal. However, the away team didn’t take long to equalize as also from a corner, Mauro Zarate managed to score after the Argentinian capitalizing in the messy defending Juve’s committing in the penalty box. After creating plenty chances, the home team finally get their victory after Muslera mistakenly turned Krasic’s attempted cross into his own net despite it wasn’t really a dangerous ball that the Serbian international put in.

This week’s result puts Juventus, Lazio and Napoli on joint second with 30 points, six points away from the lead leaders, Milan, that are pretty much confirmed to keep their lead until the winter break is over as there’s only one more game left before Serie A takes a short rest. More than that, with that condition the Rossoneri can finally catch a breath as they are starting to make bigger gaps with teams behind them although Juve’s win might potentially lift the Bianconeri’s spirit to challenge Massimiliano Allegri ‘s side for the Scudetto.

Matches Reports

Bologna v Milan 0-3

Goals: Boateng (Milan), Robinho (Milan), Ibrahimovic (Milan)

Bologna: Viviano; Esposito, Britos, Moras, Morleo; Casarini, Mudingayi, Della Rocca (Meggiorini 46); Buscè (Ekdal 46), Ramirez (Gimenez 76), Di Vaio

Milan: Abbiati; Abate, Nesta, Bonera, Zambrotta (Antonini 57); Gattuso (Strasser 53), Pirlo, Ambrosini; Boateng (Seedorf 72); Ibrahimovic, Robinho

Juventus v Lazio 2-1

Goals: Chiellini (Juventus), Krasic (Juventus); Zarate (Lazio)

Juventus: Storari; Sorensen, Chiellini, Bonucci, Grosso; Krasic, Aquilani (Sissoko 88), Felipe Melo, Marchisio (Pepe 66); Iaquinta, Quagliarella (Del Piero 70)

Lazio: Muslera; Lichtsteiner, Dias, Biava (Diakite’ 60), Cavanda; Brocchi, Matuzalem; Mauri (Ledesma 87), Hernanes, Zarate (Del Nero 89); Floccari