Week 14: Inter, Roma Continue to Roll

By: Martha | December 3rd, 2007

Whee! Of the four teams that went into this round within four points of Inter at the top of the table, only Roma won to keep pace with the leaders. On an emotional day in Florence, Inter played their best domestic match in a while to reinforce the growing suspicion that the Viola are mere pretenders (*sniff*), while Roma did enough at home to defeat Udinese, one of this season’s most impressive surprise packages. In addition, Milan held title contenders Juve to a draw at the San Siro.

The big picture result is that Inter and Roma, both of whom have a game in hand on everyone else at the top, inched a bit further away: Inter remain top with 31 points, just three clear of Roma, who are now two up on Juventus, three ahead of Udine, and four clear of the fading Fiorentina, who look very much like they need the winter break sooner than later. Closing the gap on the group at the top, though, are surprising Atalanta, whose stunning 5-1 demolition of Napoli yesterday certainly opened some eyes — and this without Riccardo Zampagna, who was their biggest scoring threat through the first month of the season. Who needs ‘im?

At the other end of the table, Reggina miracle-worker Renzo Ulivieri came rather solidly down to earth when his team were soundly beaten by Sampdoria. (He also got into a shouting match with Antonio Cassano, which would brighten anyone’s workday.) That loss, combined with draws by bottom clubs Cagliari and Siena, left Reggina one of four clubs crowded into the drop zone on a measly 10 points. Those three are joined at the bottom by the hapless Empoli, whose new gaffer Alberto Malesani couldn’t do anything to keep his team from losing to Parma. Oddly, even Malesani didn’t start Auzzurrini pocket rocket Sebastian Giovinco which suggest, to me anyway, that there’s something going on with this kid. The team isn’t winning with the regulars, and he’s been great for the U21s, as well as periodically impressive as a sub — there’s no reason in the world not to use him, right? I wonder if he’s got a massive attitude problem, in addition to those skills.

Full results, top o’ the table after the jump.

Atalanta-Napoli 5-1: Holy shit.
Cagliari-Livorno 0-0
Catania-Palermo 3-1: A derby loss, 25 minutes with 10 men: Probably not the start Francesco Guidolin wanted on his return to the Palermo bench.
Fiorentina-Inter 0-2
Milan-Juventus 0-0
Parma-Empoli 1-0
Roma-Udinese 2-1
Sampdoria-Reggina 3-0
Siena-Lazio 1-1: A howler by Marco Ballotta allowed Siena to draw level (though apparently Alex Manninger was equally unimpressive on his return to the Siena goal). Poor old dude, he’s had so many great matches this season, but two terrible mistakes have cost his team points — not ok when they’re still very much in danger of the drop.
Torino-Genoa 1-1

CLUB GP W L D PTS
Inter Milan 13 9 0 4 31
Roma 13 8 1 4 28
Juventus 14 7 2 5 26
Udinese 14 7 3 4 25
Fiorentina 14 6 2 6 24
Atalanta 13 5 2 6 21