Week 34: Inter Party, Ranieri Shortlisted For Sainthood

By: Martha | April 30th, 2007

Inter partay Despite the fact that there was a game to be played, Inter devoted yesterday’s match to a Scudetto celebration featuring lots of kids and balloons (I guess that’s how they do it in Milan). Poor Empoli — who, you may recall, were once in a Champions League spot and are certainly no pushovers — were sort of the Washington Generals to Inter’s Globetrotters, and the same thing that has been happening all along took place again: Inter won fairly effortlessly, and actually lengthened their lead over Roma, who drew with Lazio. For those of you still keeping track, Inter are now on 87 points, 18 ahead of Roma an astonishing 28 clear of third-place Milan. One point behind Milan are Lazio, who hold a fairly solid six-point lead on Palermo for that last Champions League spot. Palermo, meanwhile, are in no way a lock for a UEFA Cup spot, despite finally managing to win a game this round: They’re only two points ahead of Empoli and the charging Fiorentina, so there will be some suspense near the top over the least four weeks.

At the other end of the table, Parma continue to be one of the most in-form teams in the league (!) and, on the back of yet another win, find themselves — wait for it — THIRTEENTH IN THE TABLE! For a team that was scraping bottom what seems like just a few weeks ago, this is nothing short of a miracle (I think you need two to qualify for sainthood, so Cladio Ranieri is well on his way), though they’re not safe yet. They’ve got 35 points right now, which has them only two above Torino and the playoff zone. Between Parma and Torino are Reggina, Siena and Cagliari, while Chievo are resting four points behind them. In the bottom two spots, probably pretty much resigned to the drop now, are Ascoli (20 points) and Messina (25).

Full results are after the jump.

Ascoli - Reggina 2-3: MASSIVE win for Reggina, who suddenly have legitimate hope of survival. Ascoli, meanwhile, started what is likely to be a month-long crying jag.
Fiorentina - Chievo 1-0
Inter - Empoli 3-1
Livorno - Palermo 1-2: Woo hoo — a win and a Corini goal! If this is what happens without Guidolin, what took Zampa so long?
Messina - Atalanta 0-0
Parma - Cagliari 2-1: [Insert clever song about Claudio Ranieri here. Bonus points for use of the word "Tinkerman."]
Roma - Lazio 0-0
Siena - Sampdoria 0-2
Torino - Milan 0-1: The main things I took from the match are: a)Clarence Seedorf is an ageless wonder, and b)When I buy Messina and start to build my squad for a return to Serie A, I’m buying Torino’s Alessandro Rosina first and building my team around him. That kid is everything a young footballer should be: Skilled, yeah, but more impressively he’s just seething with desire, and simply will not allow himself to be stopped. Awesome to watch.
Udinese - Catania 0-1: Udine had THREE MEN SENT OFF and still only lost because of a 53rd minute PK. Catania are bad.