By Sunshine
October 18 2004

The only real surprise this weekend was Lazio losing at home to 10 man Chievo. The other big teams all won (including Roma) and set up next weekend’s fixtures beautifully: the Milanese derby takes place, whilst Juventus are away to Siena.
Inter were once again hauled forward by Adriano, a striker who is proving to be as good as Ronaldo and who is substantially younger (still only 22). Adriano notched two goals in Inter’s 3-1 home win against lacklustre Udinese, one a fearsome freekick from 35 yards (travelling at 135 kph) and the second a 70 yard dash (in 11 seconds, beating three players on the way) with the ball at his feet and a great finish. Udinese made the tie interesting by pulling back a goal before Vieri, who hadn’t scored since April earlier in the year, ran through and placed the ball wide of the keeper. Instead of being his ‘usual’ gruff self, the neroazzurro number 32 celebrated and was mobbed by his team mates. The crowd, too, let him feel their affection. An on form Vieri is a powerful weapon both for club and country and Inter and Italy fans alike must be hoping he can recapture the form of two seasons ago when he was simply unstoppable. With Martins out of the frame through injury for a couple of months, Vieri has the chance to cement his place in the team alongside the new king of the San Siro, Adriano.

Milan won 1-nil away from home in an uninspiring game against Zola’s Cagliari. The Sardinian marksmen were having an off day, so Andrea Pirlo’s excellent goal (like Adriano, he also beat three men and unleashed a diamond of a left-foot shot in the first half) grabbed all three points for the visitors. Costacurta could have been punished for fouling a Cagliari player on the edge of the box, but despite the veteran rossonero defender indicating that the foul had been committed outside the area, the referee saw fit to award a goal kick, failing to even acknowledge the foul. All very odd, to be honest. On another day, Costacurta could have walked for an incident which many referees would have interpreted as the last man denying the forward a clear chance on goal by foul means.
Still, three points are three points and the win keeps Milan within touching (one win) distance of Juventus).

The derby promises to be an entertaining affair, as it usually is, with a rip-roaring attack (Inter’s) coming up against what was, on the eve of the season, seen as the best defence in perhaps all of Europe (something which has not proved to be the case in these first few weeks of Serie A competition).

Personally, I think Milan will edge it, but each side has so many world class players that you really can never tell. Officially speaking, Milan are the home team, so the lion’s share of the support will be on their side.

I actually went to the Delle Alpi stadium on Saturday night to see Juventus (well, the tickets were free and they were in perhaps the best part of the stadium) predictably beat Messina. 1-nil up (a Zalayeta header) at half-time, Juventus were cruising, whilst Messina failed to register a single shot on goal. A Nedved strike (after great play by Ibrahimovic, who all-in-all didn’t have a good game, though) just after the interval seemed to put the game beyond reach, but Messina became more adventurous and their number 9, Zampagna, who had castigated Milan at San Siro a few weeks earlier, swivelled and shot to make it 2-1. Everytime Messina attacked, they were at least equal in numbers to the Juventus players defending and sometimes even had the numerical advantage. Unfortunately, for the 9 or so thousand travelling (all the way from Sicily) fans, they were unable to capitalise on this and ended up losing the match. Juventus added another 3 points to their tally, taking them to 16, whilst Messina remain in the upper echelons of the table on 11. On this showing, Messina look like being able to survive their first season back in Serie A, but they really do need to add a bit of quality if they’re to become anything more than also-rans in the future. They kicked lumps out of the Juventus players (Camoranesi in particular, but also Nedved) and even their star so far this year, left back Parisi, sent most of his set pieces/crosses into the stands, even when not under pressure. Zampagna scored a good goal, but he should also have been yellow carded for a pathetic dive in the Juventus penalty box in the first half.

Next weekend sees Juventus travel to Tuscany to take on Siena, a team which plays with Chiesa (past his best at 33 years of age) and Flo up front. Juventus will hope to secure all three points, which looks highly probable, whilst hoping that the Milan derby ends in either a draw or an away win for the black and blue half of this northern city. To open a gap of 5 or 6 points between themselves and the Milanese duo at this early stage of the season, with Capello as Manager, would be one heck of a statement of intent regarding the final victory in late Spring 2005.