Loyalty has become such a rare items for football players this days but for Sampdoria midfielder, Angelo Palombo, that might still be an important factor in his career as report suggested that the player is willing to stay at his club despite the Blucerchiati are set to compete in Serie B next summer.

Palombo, an Italian international, who have lots of admirers in the league including big clubs such as Ac Milan, Inter Milan, Juventus, Napoli, etc reportedly is willing to even take a paycut in order to lead his team back into Serie A.

The news from Secolo XIX even suggested that Palombo, who shed a tear while apologizing to the club’s fans after Sampdoria got relegated, might actually sign a new contract that would pretty much tied his remaining career with the club. Should this news really true, than the captain pretty much shows his commitment and loyalty towards the Blucerchiati as rejecting several interesting offer with supposedly bigger wages from Serie A clubs just because of Sampdoria is really a brave act in this current time of football.

Surely this decision might eventually endangered Palombo’s future in the Italy’s national team as normally players that are playing in the top division are the ones that gets call up. However, it seems that the midfielder’s love and passion towards the Blucerchiati is stronger than anything, having an ambition to bring the team back into Serie A in just a season after getting relegated would definitely be something worth doing.

One thing for sure, should Palombo stayed with Sampdoria next season, the captain would pretty much be the main witness of how fast can fate twist you, especially when the club pretty much lose their ambition. The Blucerchiati started the season as one of Italy’s representative in Championss League football, and not only they failed to reach the group stage of the European club competition, the Genoa based team also ended the season by getting relegated.

photo credit: The 1billionhungry project

Juventus has completed the transfer of Reto Ziegler from Sampdoria on a Bosman move, with the left-back signing a contract until the summer of 2015.

“I am very happy with this transfer. This is a big step forward for me and I am honoured to have joined Juventus. I get the chance to play with great champions here and I am looking forward to proving my worth,” the player said of the move.

Juve have been searching for help on the left side of its defence, as Paolo De Ceglie was injured for much of the season and Fabio Grosso didn’t play well when given the chance. So the signing Ziegler makes sense, especially since he did not cost them a transfer fee.

Ziegler is the second player that Juventus have signed on a free transfer this week. Earlier, they announced the signing of playmaker Andrea Pirlo from AC Milan on a three-year deal.

photo credit: _bianconero

Having already got the Scudetto title ensured last week, another important agenda in Serie A has also been decided in week 37 as Sampdoria become the final relegated team this season after the Blucerchiati suffered a 2-1 defeat against Palermo this weekend.

Aside from the relegation battle, the Champions League spot also getting close to conclusion as in the final match day next week only Udinese and Lazio, who still have a mathematic chance in securing that important spot.

Sampdoria Complete Relegation Trio

The transfer blunder made by Sampdoria in the January transfer window by selling their two forward stars, Antonio Cassano and Giampaolo Pazzini, proved costly for the Blucerchiati as they have to end their journey in Serie A and started their summer competing in Serie B. Two goals from Fabrizio Micolli and Mauricio Pinilla was more than enough to send Alberto Cavasin’s men packing to the second division football in Italy as the Genoa based team only managed to pull one goal back through Angelo Palombo.

Sampdoria’s defeat bring a sight of relief for Lecce and Cesena, who now can sit back and relax next week as they’re officially safe from relegation danger that troubles them for weeks. Surely the Blucerchiati’s downfall can be called as a tragic episode as last season they are actually one of Italy’s representatives in the Champions League after finishing fourth in the table. However, since January their path seemed to head into different direction especially after losing their two talisman, Cassano and Pazzini.

As Roma’s Champions League Hope Ended

Meanwhile, in the Champions League spot race, As Roma have officially left the competition this week after the capital club suffered a shocking 2-1 defeat in the hand of Catania, while their other competitor, Udinese and Lazio were all victorious. Storing a very high ambition with the premise of a heavy investment in the summer, Roma are very spirited in getting the fourth place seat, however it seems like the pressure really hits them hard in the last few matches as they doesn’t seem able to keep pace with the two teams above them and finally surrender their fate today.

Goals from Gonzalo Bergessio and Gomez canceled off Simone Loria’s early goal that for a moment spurred the Romans’ spirit in keeping pace with the likes of Lazio and Udinese. However at the end of the day, it seems like the capital club have to settle themselves for a Europa League spot battle in the final day with Juventus, that if the Giallorossi still have any interest in playing in European competition next summer.

In all, this Sunday would pretty much a week that both Sampdoria and Roma fans hated especially for the first, as after en euphoric season last summer, the Blucerchiati fans got everything upside down. As for the Giallorossi fans, for few seasons they have been the closest team that can challenge Inter Milan’s domination, including last summer, but not only failing to sniff the Scudetto winner, this season they can’t even make it into the Champions League season. Something that could pretty much jeopardize a supposedly mega project made by the capital club’s new owner for the upcoming season.

However, both clubs fans should probably hope that they haven’t finish their roller coaster ride as just yet because. who knows, maybe next season they could be riding back on the top of the track instead of staying in the bottom.

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Sampdoria’s poor recent result has give them plenty of problems not only in the league table but also outside of the pitch as after the team’s bus was being attacked by fans right after the Blucerchiati’s defeat against Ac Milan, reports in Italy revealed that the angry tifosi strikes again by invading the team’s training ground.

The news even stated that the fans were involved in a brawl and argument with Sampd’s coach, Alberto Cavasin, and also several players, causing the security staff taking an action to separate the conflicted parties.

The brawl reportedly happened after the fans asked Cavasin to step down from his job, this request made the coach approached the fans to talk with them, unfortunately things seems to get carried away during the discussion, leading into confrontation. Beside arguing with the coach, the devotees also argued with some of the players, who were obviously defending their current tactician, who was actually hasn’t been long appointed as the replacement for Stefano Pioli.

The fans anger were the effect of Sampdoria’s free fall this season especially in the last few matches which have now lead them slipping down into the bottom three clubs in the league, which could see them relegated by the end of the season. This anarchy actions seems to be the ultimate reaction from the tifosi that since the start of the year have been disappointed by their President that sold the club’s most important players, Antonio Cassano and Giampaolo Pazzini in the same transfer window.

The sale of those two important players have been indicated as one of the main reasons, Sampdoria have been very disappointing this season, falling from a Champions League spot team into a relegation battler in just one season. This condition surely angered the fans, who expected more from the team this season, considering they are very close in joining the top European teams this summer in the number one club competition in the continent.

Sampdoria relegation battle will continue this weekend as they host fellow bottom table club, Bari, nothing more than a win would be enough to calm the fans raged that have really been reaching concerning condition at the moment. The fans and club’s war have been happening frequently this season in Serie A as before the Blucerchiati, clubs such as Juventus, Bari, Fiorentina and As Roma also had the same issue earlier this season, the passion and high hopes of die hard tifosi in the league towards their clubs often the case behind such a over the top reaction.

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Sampdoria’s team bus was attacked with sticks and stones by the club’s own supporters when it arrived back in Genoa following yesterday’s 3-0 defeat by AC Milan/

“No sporting result, however negative, can justify actions like those which happened on the team’s return from Milan,” a club statement said. “The situation is delicate but the only way we can get out of it is by remaining united.”

It’s been a really disappointing season for Sampdoria fans. Last season they finished fourth in Serie A and this year they are only one point above the relegation zone with five games left.

Top strike duo Antonio Cassano and Giampaolo Pazzini left in January for Milan and Inter Milan respectively after the former fell out with owner Riccardo Garrone and the latter was let go to raise funds.

Replacements such as on-loan Manchester United forward Federico Macheda have been a major disappointment and now Samp fans face the very real possibility of relegation this season.

For a club that once reached the European Cup final that is unthinkable.

AC Milan moved a step closer to winning the Serie A this season with a 3-0 win against Sampdoria, with city rivals and defending champions Inter Milan were beaten 2-0 at Parma.

Milan, who were playing without the suspended Zlatan Ibrahimovic, took only 20 minutes to break down the Sampdoria defence as when Clarence Seedorf curled a free-kick from over 25 around the wall and into the bottom corner.

Milan doubled their advantage nine minutes into the second half when Antonio Cassano scored from the penalty spot after Massimo Volta was adjudged to have intentionally handled the ball inside the area.

Cassano then set up Robinho for the third, crossing for the Brazilian to head in after exchanging passes with Seedorf. With the win Milan moved six points clear of Napoli, who host Udinese on Sunday.

Two points behind Napoli, Inter suffered a huge blow to their title defence after a fourth loss in five games in all competitions. Eliminated from the Champions League in midweek, Leonardo’s men were beaten by goals from Sebastian Giovinco (35) and Amauri (85). Victory lifted Parma to 15th, four points above the drop zone.

Also on Saturday, Roma’s hopes of grabbing a Champions League qualifying place took a hit when they lost 3-2 at home at Palermo. Roma are now four points behind fourth-placed Lazio who play Catania on Sunday.

photo credit: americanistadechiapas

Both AC Milan and Inter Milan remained on course to meet in the final of the Coppa Italia as they both won their quarter-finals ties Wednesday. Two clinical first-half strike from Alexandre Pato helped AC Milan beat Sampdoria 2-1 while Inter needed penalties to get past Napoli.

Brazil forward Pato put the Rossoneri ahead after 17 minutes when he met Thiago Silva’s nod-down from a corner with a rasping first-time shot and doubled his side’s advantage five minutes later with a skilful turn and shot into the top corner.

Stefano Guberti gave the Sampdoria fans hope of forcing extra-time with an equaliser soon after half-time, but Massimiliano Allegri’s side held on to reach their first Coppa semi for four years and maintain their dreams of a treble.

Milan handed debuts to their pair of new Dutch midfielders, Mark van Bommel and Urby Emanuelson, and it was Emanuelson who impressed the most. The 24-year-old, signed from Ajax earlier in the week, supplied the pass to Pato for his second goal of the match.

Holders Inter rode their luck at Napoli to win on penalties after drawing 0-0 after extra-time. Ezequiel Lavezzi blasted over the only missed spot kick as Inter prevailed 5-4 on penalties and kept alive their dream of a second straight treble.

Hosts Napoli had much the better chances in the 120 minutes with Marek Hamsik going closest when his shot was saved and his subsequent header was cleared off the line.
Inter battled hard without much penetration and lost Dejan Stankovic and Ivan Cordoba to injury.

Juventus host Roma on Thursday in the last quarter-final. Palermo were the first team through to the last four after beating Parma on penalties on Tuesday will play AC Milan in one semi-final and Inter will play the winner of the Juventus v Roma tie.

The Italian Cup sparked an interesting matches this Wednesday as As Roma and Sampdoria successfully get through into the next round after both teams managed to beat their opponents after a hard fought game.

In Olympico, Roma once again won the Derby game against their fierce city rival, Lazio, after goals from Marco Borriello and Fabricio Simplicio only had one reply by Hernanes. Meanwhile, Federico Macheda got his first goal in his new experience in Italy that helped the Blucerchiati ousting Udinese in a penalty shoot out drama.

Roma’s Derby Success

Despite playing in the Italian Cup, the Derby between Roma and Lazio still sparked a blistering sparks between the two capital clubs as the match was played in a heated manner just as it was an important league game. The fiery encounter didn’t materialize in a goal fest in the first half as the period ended in a goalless draw but things went sparkling in the second half especially after the Giallorossi took an early lead through Marco Borriello’s penalty in the 53rd minute after Stephan Lichsteiner handled John Arne Risse’s cross.

The lead doesn’t last that long as few minutes later Lazio got their equalizer from the same situation as Hernanes successfully converted from the penalty spot right after Mauro Zarate got hacked down by Juan. The 1-1 scoreline made the game more interesting as both teams keeps on getting plenty goal scoring chances but it was Roma that got the breakthrough as in the 77th minute, Fabricio Simplicio scored the winning goal after capitalizing on the slight defensive error made by Stefan Radu.

10 Man Sampdoria Escaped Udinese’s threat

In the other game, Sampdoria have to give out all they had including their sheer of good luck in beating Udinese as the home team needed a penalty shoot out before clinching a place in the next round of the competition. Newly signing from Manchester United, Federico Macheda, scored his first goal for the club to put the Blucerchiati on the lead in the first half. Just as the goal could be the match decider, the away team managed to equalize right at the end of the 90 minutes normal time through Mauricio Isla’s goal.

The 1-1 scoreline brought the game into extra time where things seemed to get harder for the home team after they concede a goal through German Denis’ header in the early minute of the extra time’s first period. Few minutes later, things got more worse for Sampdoria after the home team were forced to play with 10 men after Danielle Dessena received a red card for sarcastically applauding the referee. However, just as it seems that Udinese are going to clinch a place in the next round, Giampaolo Pazzini wiped away the potential glory after the striker equalized from the penalty spot.

The 2-2 scoreline didn’t change until the end of the extra time period which means that the winner will be decided by the penalty shoot out, which ended in a dramatic win for Sampdoria as they only had one kicker, Reto Ziegler, that missed. Meanwhile, Udinese, that almost had the victory in the shoot out after Ziegler failed to do his job tragically went out after Denis and Islas’ penalties were saved by Sampd’s keeper, Da Costa.

Match Reports:
As Roma v Lazio 2-1
Goals: Marco Borriello, Fabricio Simplicio (Roma); Hernanes (Lazio)

Roma: Julio Sergio; N Burdisso, Mexes, Juan, Riise; Brighi, De Rossi, Simplicio; Greco (Menez 46); Adriano (Vucinic 46), Borriello
Lazio: Berni; Lichtsteiner, Biava, Dias, Radu; Brocchi (Bresciano 81), Hernanes, Ledesma, Gonzalez (Mauri 86); Kozak (Floccari 75), Zarate

Sampdoria v Udinese 2-2( 7-6 on pens)
Goals: 32 (S), Isla 90 (U), Denis 92 (U), Pazzini pen 109 (S)

Sampdoria: Da Costa; Dessena, Lucchini, Gastaldello (Volta 52), Ziegler; Mannini, Poli, Palombo (Pozzi 93), Guberti; Macheda (Tissone 73), Pazzini
Udinese: Belardi, Angella (Armero 39), Zapata, Coda, Cuadrado; Badu (Isla 76), Inler, Abdi, Pasquale; Di Natale (Sanchez 46), Denis

Penalty Scorers:
Sanchez (Udine, goal), Mannini (Sampd, goal), Abdi (Udine, goal), Pozzi (Sampd, goal), Inler (Udine, goal), Guberti (Sampd, goal), Armero (Udine, goal), Ziegler (Sampd, miss), Denis (Udine, saved), Pazzini (Sampd, goal), Isla (Udine, saved), Tissone (Sampd, goal)

photo credit: Abdullah AL-Naser

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

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