For the past few days, many newspapers have been making predictions about what Roberto Donadoni’s final roster for Euro 2008 will look like. These rosters are purely speculation and shouldn’t be trusted at all. Although yesterday, the newspaper Informazione reported that television channel Antenna 3, a television station based in Lombardia, “discovered” Donadoni’s real preliminary roster of 29 players. So without further adieu, here is Antenna 3’s “discovery”:
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Week 37 turned out to be a very interesting round of Serie A. It was filled with some much joy and so much drama. Inter, as we know by know, did not win the Scudetto. The 2-2 draw at home was not enough for the Nerazzurri to claim the title. Roma went -1 with a win over Atalanta at home, which makes next week very interesting. Then there is the score of 3-1, which has an effect on Fiorentina and Milan. The score of 3-1 was good for Fiorentina, who defeated Parma and reclaimed the 4th Champions League spot. The score of 3-1 was bad for Milan, who were defeated in Napoli and surpassed by La Viola and now have a really high chance of missing out on Champions League action next season. On the bottom side of the table, Livorno say goodbye to Serie A after a 4 year stay. Reggina complete another salvation miracle, while Empoli and Parma have to send fruit baskets to Alessandro Del Piero, as his last minute goal against Catania saved the two northern clubs from automatic relegation and give them a chance on the last day. Let’s go through each match:
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Here we are at the penultimate day of the 2007/2008 Serie A season. It has been a long, interesting season with lots of battles in the table but this second to last day is really becoming more important than the last day, because lots of scenarios can be decided tomorrow after every referee has blown the final whistle. Of course we all know Inter can win their 16th Scudetto with a win over Siena at home, but their are other things that can be decided as well. So let’s start the preview:

Inter v. Siena

As we all know, with a win at the San Siro vs already safe Siena, the Nerazzurri will win the Scudetto (Last season they won the Scudetto vs. Siena as well). Various Siena players and coach Mario Berretta have been promising all week that they will give it their all and look to defeat Inter tomorrow. It will be no easy task, as Inter want to finally wrap up the Scudetto and win it in front of their fans. Inter looks set to start the duo of Mario Balotelli and Julio Cruz up front and see if they can score some goals to close the Scudetto saga.
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Roma-Catania was a match where both teams came in focused on other objectives. Roma, of course, are still alive in the battle with Inter for the Scudetto, while Catania are in relegation trouble and are focused on saving themselves from the inferno of Serie B. Roma came into the game leading 1-0 on aggregate and I don’t think many bet on Catania to win this match, but the fans still packed the Stadio Massimino to see the Elephants of Sicily take on the Giallorossi.
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For another consecutive year, Inter will be in the final of the Coppa Italia. The game finished 2-0, with goals coming from Pele and Cruz. Inter started the game with a 4-5-1, with David Suazo as the lone striker and and a young central midfield pairing of Francesco Bolzoni and Pele. Lazio started with the usual 4-3-1-2 with Goran Pandev supporting Tommaso Rocchi and Rolando Bianchi. Lazio attacked from the first whistle and immediately Lazio hit the post on a Ledesma free kick. Lazio kept attacking and went close on many occasions and Pandev really was playing well. Inter then had their chances, mostly through Jimenez, although Chivu missed an easy chance from a free kick.
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Cassano and Del Piero can still hope for call-ups to Euro 2008. Why? Because players going to Euro 2008 need an anti-tick vaccine (haven’t they ever heard of bug spray?), so the FIGC has contacted the clubs of 48 players that Donadoni has on his possible selection list and has told them to administer the vaccine to these players. The article doesn’t give the full list (if anyone can find this list they will get some kind of grand recognition, because I’ve been searching all day), but it does mention some names. You can forget about the third keeper being Torino’s Matteo Sereni, as he is not on the list. Morgan De Sanctis and Christian Abbiati are on the list, so it looks like one of those two will be the 3rd keeper. There are even some surprising names, like Aimo Diana and David Di Michele of Torino, Marco Marchionni of Juventus, and Dario Dainelli and Manuel Pasqual of Fiorentina. Which brings us to the striker news- Antonio Cassano, Alessandro Del Piero, and Pippo Inzaghi are all on the list, so it means Donadoni hasn’t forgotten about those three. Also on the list is Alessandro Nesta, but that must be some kind of typo or Nesta may just want the vaccine anyway to protect himself from ticks this summer.
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Here is todays main news from around the Peninsula:

- First let’s start off with news that can severely hurt two teams. The Disciplinary Committee handed out it’s weekly suspensions and it doesn’t look good for Livorno. Livorno, who will most probably be relegated on Sunday, had a few players suspended who did some bad things after the Atalanta game on Sunday. Alessandro Grandoni is suspended for 5 games, Emanuele Filippini is suspended for 3 games, Giovanni Pasquale is suspended for 2 games, and Antonio Filippini and Simone Pavan are suspended for 1 game. I think we can safely say, “See you in Serie B Livorno” (Sorry Marco). The next team that got hit was Fiorentina, who lose Adrian Mutu for the rest of the season after he received a 2 game ban for his protests against the referee at the end of the Cagliari game. Nothing is going right for La Viola in this end of the season.
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There is no denying that Christian (Bobo) Vieri in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s was one of, if not the deadliest striker in the world. The Aussie-born striker was a goalscoring machine, and scored with such ease. He would just power past defenders and put the ball into the net anyway possible. He was one of my favorite players to watch and I’m sure many others enjoyed watching Vieri as well.

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