Serie A Blog: Fantastic fourplay from Juve while Milan can only fumble at San Siro

The Bianconeri win their sixth game in a row while the Rossoneri are crashing with only one win in the last four.

JOE

Serie A Blog: Fantastic fourplay from Juve while Milan can only fumble at San Siro

The Bianconeri win their sixth game in a row while the Rossoneri are crashing with only one win in the last four.

A stranger to Italian football might assume that the side from Turin were the champions rather than their near-neighbours from Milan, given their respective form during the crucial season-ending period.

Even allowing for the litany of injuries that the Rossoneri have suffered this season, their last four results make for sombre reading; a 1-1 draw at Catania, a 2-1 loss at home to lowly Fiorentina, an underwhelming 1-0 win away to Chievo Verona and last weekend’s 1-1 draw at home to Bologna which was headed for defeat until they were saved by a 90^th minute Zlatan Ibrahimovic equaliser.

On Monday, after the match against Bologna, AC Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri did not pull back: “Nothing is lost, but we need to start winning again

“We’ve got one point from our last two home games and we needed to get more than that,” he said.

“We started well [against Bologna] but then we gifted them a goal and became disorganised. We created a lot in the second half but we didn’t manage to win.

“On Wednesday we have another home game (against Genoa and their wonderful supporters) and we need to try to win regardless of what Juve do, not least because second place isn’t mathematically secure. And you never know in football.”

Meanwhile Antonio Conte’s Juventus have successfully come through a week when their title credentials were scrutinised by both sides from the Italian capital.

First up was the midweek encounter with Edy Reja’s dogged Lazio side who were looking to secure their grip on 3^rd place and the final Champions League qualifying position. Alessandro Del Piero reprised his role as Juventus saviour when he came off the bench to make his 700^th appearance and score the winning goal which allowed Juventus regain top spot following Milan’s win in Verona the night before.

Next up was the visit of Luis Enrique’s Roma, the side with the fewest draws (5) in Serie A, a reflection of their attacking playing style. When it works, they win. When it doesn’t, they lose – with very few games falling in between. Unfortunately for Enrique, this was one of those nights when it really, really didn’t work.

Peerless Juve

Aided by the best 12^th man in Serie A, a bouncing Juventus Stadium, the Bianconeri had this tie signed and sealed and virtually delivered inside 8 minutes following twp early strikes by the in-form Arturo Vidal. A harsh red card for Roma ‘keeper Maarten Stekelenburg in the 26^th minute and the award of a penalty, despatched via a rebound by Pirlo, ended the contest.

Claudio Marchisio added a fourth in the second half and the comprehensive 4-0 victory brought joy to the Juventus tifosi but a not-so-welcoming party to Rome’s Fiumicino airport for the return of Luis Enrique and his players.

The Roma coach received travel as well as team selection advice from those gathered as shouts of, ‘Go back to Spain’ rang out. AS Roma’s General Manager, Franco Baldini, took the unusual step of joining his coach for the Fiorentina pre-match press conference on Tuesday in a show of support but the Giallorossi faithful are quickly becoming agnostic by the day.

Both Francesco Totti and Del Piero were on the bench for this game but while Del Piero was brought on in the 62^nd minute, there would no such introduction for Totti and so the hoped-for ‘Farewell to the Fantasisti’ did not materialise and we may not see these two icons share a pitch together again.

For as things stand, the 37-year-old Del Piero is entering the final two months of his deal with Juventus and it appears he will leave at season end in a manner ill-befitting a player of his standing.

Juve president Andrea Agnelli stated in October that this would be Del Piero’s final season at the club, and the club legend has admitted that he did not expect to hear those words from the Bianconeri supremo.

“Angelli’s remarks surprised me,” he said in an interview with Vanity Fair, which will be published this week. “But a captain must never forget his duties and what he represents.

“Juventus are committed to winning the Scudetto and Coppa Italia (they play Napoli in the final). There is no need for controversy, which has never been present in my career.

“This has been the most difficult season of my life, because I have been faced with a reality that I had not known: playing little or not much at all,” Del Piero, who has made only six competitive starts, added.

“No one thinks they deserve to be excluded, and while I have always thought that if someone is playing instead of you, it is because they deserve it, this does not mean giving up fighting for a place.

“I will be without a contract on June 30,” he said. “I cannot imagine my future, it is a huge change and it scares me a little bit, because it is like leaving your home a second time.

“But I will live this challenge as I did when I was playing a video game as a kid – this is a new level to overcome.”

If Del Piero does leave at the end of this season, he will hope to do so with his beloved Juve once again the dominant side in Italy. The Bianconeri are still undefeated this term with 22 wins and 15 draws. They are now targeting the record set by Capello’s AC Milan side, 42 matches without loss between April 1992 and March 1993.

An undefeated double winning side would befit their magnificent new stadium and would crown Del Piero’s career but coach Conte is nothing if not a pragmatist and with five games still remaining, he will remember the legend of the Argonaut and the Latin proverb, “Multa cadunt inter calicem supremaque labra”*

* There’s many a slip ‘twixt the cup and the lip

Results:

AS Roma 3-1 Udinese, Catania 1-2 Lecce, Fiorentina 0-0 Palermo, Genoa 1-1 Cesena, Inter 2-1 Siena, Juventus 2-1 Lazio, Napoli 1-3 Atalanta, Parma 2-0 Novara, Bologna 1-0 Cagliari, Chievo Verona 0-0 Udinese, Parma 3-0 Cagliari, Catania 2-0 Atalanta, Napoli 2-0 Novara, Fiorentina 0-0 Inter, AC Milan 1-1 Bologna, Cesena 2-2 Palermo, Genoa 1-4 Siena, Lazio 1-1 Lecce, Juventus 4-0 AS Roma

Fixtures:

Tuesday, April 24

Atalanta v Chievo Verona

Cagliari v Catania

Wednesday, April 25

Novara v Lazio

AS Roma v Fiorentina

Lecce v Napoli

Palermo v Parma

Siena v Bologna

Udinese v Inter

AC Milan v Genoa