Week 16: Inter Slip Further Away As Cassano Weeps

By: Martha | December 17th, 2007

Who’s a very small pimp? Despite playing like utter crap for an hour, Inter managed a win against the worst club in the league, and increased their lead at the top of the table. They’re seven clear of Roma, who apparently played ever worse that Inter did yesterday, and eight above Juve, who probably looked better than they were this weekend, thanks to the magic of Alex Del Piero. The gap is growing but, given how uninspired Inter have looked lately, is much less insurmountable than it might appear — if they go into the Milan derby with the sort of disinterest they’ve shown over the past couple of weeks, the leaders could find themselves much less comfortable entering the break.

Behind the top three are Udinese (four points behind Juve), who did not look like a team destined for Champions League football against Catania, and Fiorentina, who finally showed some life in Genoa yesterday but, given their recent struggles and decimated defense, will be lucky to get to the break still in the top six.

Milan, who I never talk about in the roundup these days, are lurking quietly, smack in the middle of the table with 18 points, less than half of Inter’s 40. But they also have three games in hand (Reggina, Livorno and Atalanta), and if they had taken, say, five points from those matches — Livorno are looking better (plus the match is in Milan), and Atalanta are periodically good, so I’m being conservative saying draws against those two — they’d be just behind Palermo and sniffing at a UEFA Cup spot, with half the season left to play. Granted, they’ve been unimpressive for most of the season and, at some point, will have to learn to score at home, but they’re by no means out of the running for a spot in Europe.

At the other end, things are already desperate for Cagliari. They’ve taken 10 points from 16 matches, have given up more than twice as many goals as they’ve scored, and just froze out their best player. No wonder Nedo Sonetti — their second coach of the season — looks so freaking miserable, and sounds like he should be put on suicide watch. Reggina, too, are on 10 points, but at least they can cling to the fact that they’ve got a game in hand. That’s something, right? Just above the Duo of Misery are Livorno, who have a game in hand and seem on the way up, Siena, who have neither of those things going for them, and Empoli, who look set to survive just by putting Sebastian Giovinco on the pitch and holding on to his cape.

Full results, top of the table after the jump.

Atalanta-Palermo 1-3: And the calls for Amauri to choose Italy grow louder.
Cagliari-Inter 0-2
Catania-Udinese 2-0: Either Udine aren’t really that great, or Catania are way better than everyone though, because they fully deserve the win. Also, Vargas is fantastic, I can’t imagine Catania will be able to hold on to him for much longer.
Empoli-Genoa 1-1: More brilliance from Giovinco.
Lazio-Juventus 2-3
Milan-Livorno P-P
Parma-Reggina 3-0
Samp-Fiorentina 2-2
Siena-Napoli 1-1
Torino-Roma 0-0

CLUB GP W L D PTS GD
Inter Milan 16 12 0 4 40 27
Roma 16 9 1 6 33 13
Juventus 16 9 2 5 32 18
Udinese 16 8 4 4 28 1
Fiorentina 16 6 3 7 25 6
Palermo 16 6 4 6 24 -2