Week 17: Inter Winter Champions

By: Martha | December 24th, 2007

Woo hoo! With their derby victory yesterday, Inter secured a seven point lead going into the break, keeping that distance despite the wins of both teams behind them. Roma, who end the first half with just one loss (to Inter, in which they played with 10 men for more than an hour) dispatched Sampdoria 2-0 behind a magical Francesco Totti, while third-place Juve got another goal from David Trezeguet and put away Siena by that same score.

In keeping Inter close (more or less), Roma and Juve continued to inch away from the pack, as fourth-place Udinese could do no better than a draw against Empoli, giving away the tying goal at the death despite playing a man up for the last 30 minutes. That result leaves the top three with a six point gap on the rest of the table, with Juve’s 35 points leaving them eight back of Inter and six clear of Udinese, now looking over their shoulders at a resurgent Fiorentina team who drew within one of them by thrashing poor Cagliari 5-1. Milan and their three games in hand are still on 18 points, a daunting 25 from the top of the table, but only six from a European place.

At the other end, things have gone from bad to worse for Cagliari. They got Nedo Sonetti and Pasquale Foggia back, but were crushed by Fiorentina. Not only are they rooted to the bottom and going into the break with 10 points and only a single win, but they also may have lost Sonetti again.

Reggina, thanks to a hat trick by Luca Vigiani, turned in a convincing win over a Catania side that is totally incapable of scoring on the road, moving to 13 points and within shouting distance of safety. Siena’s loss to Juve leaves them on 14 points and in the relegation zone, while just above them are Empoli and Livorno, both on 15 points and both looking very likely to keep moving up the table, even if it is only in one-point chunks. And, speaking of one-point chunks, Torino drew again — that’s 11 of the 17 points from draws which, so far, has been just enough to keep them just above relegation.

Full results, some of the table after the jump.

Fiorentina – Cagliari 5-1: Two goals each from Adrian Mutu, who is well and truly back, and Mario Santana, who quite enjoys being healthy. (Oh, and Bobo played the whole game. 90 minutes of running for the old man!)
Genoa – Parma 1-0
Inter – Milan 2-1
Juventus – Siena 2-0
Livorno – Atalanta 1-1
Napoli – Torino 1-1
Palermo – Lazio 2-2: Just hoping to make it to the break alive a month ago, Lazio must be a little sorry the first half is ending now — they’ve shown all kinds of fight and ability over the last few matches, including yesterday’s fightback, in which they equalized while down a man. (Granted, they’re still only four points clear of the drop, but these are baby steps.)
Reggina – Catania 3-1
Roma – Sampdoria 2-0
Udinese – Empoli 2-2

CLUB GP W L D PTS
Inter Milan 17 13 0 4 43 28
Roma 17 10 1 6 36 15
Juventus 17 10 2 5 35 20
Udinese 17 8 4 5 29 1
Fiorentina 17 7 3 7 28 10
Palermo 17 6 4 7 25 -2