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Serie A Predictions – Round 35

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Spezia-Napoli: the Aquilotti have not won in four rounds but took home two recent precious ties with Inter and Verona. Napoli got pipped at the post by Cagliari last week, failing to take home the third straight W after the convincing ones against Torino and Lazio. The Bianconeri have not lost in six matches on their own turf and have generally given fits to the top sides: 2-2.

Udinese-Bologna: the Friulani led most of the Juventus clash but still suffered the fifth loss in the past seven matches. The Felsinei are coming off a 3-3 tie with Verona, the second in the last three games, and have prevailed just once in the last six contests. It is a tilt between sides that have not much to play for: 1-1. Continue reading →

Serie A Injury and Suspension Report – Round 35

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Atalanta: Pierluigi Gollini was red-carded last week. Rafael Toloi picked up a thigh strain and will miss some time. Joakim Maehle was limited in practice late in the week due to a sore Achilles, but he is good to go.

Missing: Toloi, Gollini. 

Benevento: Gaetano Letizia (muscle fatigue) and Alessandro Tuia (calf pull) are back from their muscular issues. Gabriele Moncini underwent ankle surgery and will not return this season. Marco Sau (thigh strain) is unlikely as well. Daam Foulon is out, while Iago Falque has a sore adductor but made the squad list.

Returning: Letizia, Tuia; Missing: Moncini, Foulon, Sau, Falque. 

Bologna: Nicola Sansone (muscle fatigue) and Mitchell Dijks (thigh strain) are expected back this week.

Returning: Sansone, Dijks; Missing: Santander, Dominguez, Medel.  Continue reading →

Jose Mourinho is the new coach for Roma but club slip out of European contention

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The only news that seemed to matter this week for Roma is that Jose Mourinho will be the new coach for next season. The ‘Special One’ will come in and try to take Roma to the next level just like he did with Inter and this will be the first time that Mourinho will return to Italian football in 11 years.

The last time Mourinho was in Serie A will never be forgotten. He won the treble with Inter including the 2010 Champions League and that was the clubs first European Cup since 1965.

His appointment has been met with mixed reaction though. Inter fans are not happy obviously but some of Roma’s fans aren’t quite sure either. He is welcomed and more so given that Paulo Fonseca the current coach has not done the required job. But are Roma getting vintage Mourinho or a coach who is to stuck in his ways and hasn’t moved on? That’s the problem and although Mourinho did win trophies at Chelsea and Manchester United both of those jobs quickly turned sour and he was sacked. Of course Tottenham sacked him just a month ago and he left empty handed. If anything his time at Roma is going to be roller coaster drama and his presence in Italy will be filling the column inches no doubt.

As for this season Roma have slipped out of a direct route into European competition. The Giallorossi lost their 11th game of the season this past weekend going down at Sampdoria 2-0 and that was their 2nd loss in a row. Indeed Roma’s last victory came back on April 11th and they are now in 7th place. That position is good enough to be entered into the qualifying stages of the Europa League but not the competition proper. The club are 9 points from that target with 4 games left so the best they can hope for will be the qualifying stages. Even then that is in doubt as they only hold a 2 point advantage over Sassuolo.

The defeat to Sampdoria would have hurt because Borja Mayoral had a goal disallowed and Edin Dzeko missed a penalty. This has clearly been a poor period for the club but they will hope that the announcement of Mourinho as coach will propel the team to have a strong finish in Serie A.

Today Roma will play their 2nd leg in the Europa League semi-finals although that tie feels like a dead rubber given that they lost 6-2 to Manchester United in the first leg. More than a miracle will be needed tonight to turn this game round.

Roma will play Crotone at home this weekend and they will be the odds on favourites to win that game.

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Serie A Probable Lineups – Round 35

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SPEZIA-NAPOLI

Spezia (4-3-3): Provedel; Vignali, Erlic, Ismajli, Marchizza; Estevez, Ricci, Maggiore; Verde, Piccoli, Gyasi.

Potential lineup changes: Bastoni for Marchizza, Agudelo for Verde, Galabinov for Piccoli.

Likely bench options: Saponara, Pobega, Galabinov.

Probable: Farias (fatigue).

Ruled Out: Sena (fatigue), Mattiello (thigh strain), Ramos (COVID).

Suspended: Nzola.

Continue reading →

Serie A Fantasy Preview – Round 35 – Late Games

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BENEVENTO-CAGLIARI

Benevento: they were easily stymied by Milan last week and held scoreless for the first time in three games, where Gianluca Lapadula (2 goals) and Nicolas Viola (2 goals, one assist) had carried them. The coach went back to a more proactive scheme in the past game, giving Iago Falque a shot, who was okay. The Spaniard has a high upside given his past numbers, but he has been unable to stay healthy this year. Also Riccardo Improta, Gianluca Caprari, and Roberto Insigne would benefit if the modification stuck: Caprari has the highest ceiling in the bunch, having tallied five goals and five assists, but a nagging injury has limited him in recent games. Adolfo Gaich instead would drastically lose steam and resume alternating with Lapadula, who is better form right now.  Continue reading →

Serie A Fantasy Preview – Round 35 – Early Games

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SPEZIA-NAPOLI

Spezia: it seems like the Aquilotti always get pretty good production by their subs, and versus Verona it was Riccardo Saponara that rose to the occasion, tallying his first goal of the season. Daniele Verde (5 goals, one assist) and Diego Farias (3 goals) previously contributed in the same fashion. The starter Emmanuel Gyasi (6/5) instead has not picked up bonuses in five matches. M’Bala Nzola is suspended, which will open the door for either Roberto Piccoli (4 goals) or Andrej Galabinov (3). In the midfield, Giulio Maggiore has quieted down a little in terms of scoring (3/1), while Nahuel Estevez (3 assists) has gotten a pair of starts recently and has looked peppy.  Continue reading →

Super League sign up now fan invasion at Old Trafford how will the FA punish Manchester United?

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Sometimes clubs get into trouble and face sanctions when, in essence, it’s not even their fault. Take Manchester United whose ground was invaded by protesting fans at the weekend which led to the postponement of their game against Liverpool.

Protesting fans and in some cases barbaric which included a police officer receiving cuts to the face stormed overwhelmed security at the ground and in droves fans were on the hallowed turf inside the stadium. One could question why the club should be sanctioned by the FA, and it would be a good one. United had security in place there were simply too many fans and one thing led to another. For the FA it is an embarrassment given that the game could  not go ahead and now they will have to find a date in a very congested fixture pile up with the league set to finish in just 3 weeks time.

Claim all the innocence they want United will be charged and they will surely be encouraged to ban the fans caught on CCTV and camera by TV reporters. What should that punishment be? It could well be a ban from playing at home for a few games, there will surely be a fine of some sort but that will be loose change to United. We must remember how the Glazers have stayed defiant and despite protests have said they are going nowhere. Instead they noted that the club were worth £2 billion and they were hoping to increase the value of United during their ownership to £10 billion, it was a classic predictable response from wealthy American owners.

Some have argued that the game should be forfeited and that Liverpool should be awarded 3 points. This would seem farcical given the current situation of the clubs chasing a top four finish. How unfair would that be on Leicester, Chelsea, West Ham and Tottenham?

As for punishments when are Manchester United going to face one from the FA or UEFA over the Super League sign up? Is it even going to happen now. At one point UEFA said that clubs would feel the full force, the full force of what exactly? The one club that didn’t sign up to the Super League was PSG who have now been knocked out of the Champions League ensuring that the final will take place between two clubs who two weeks ago wanted nothing to do with the Champions League come next season.

The longer the FA and UEFA do not respond to what has been a chaotic and lack of due respect to football as a whole the longer they are looking like weak organisations and something certainly needs to be clarified.

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Inter Milan are champions of Serie A for the first time in 11 years

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Finally Juventus’ domination of the Serie A championship has ended and Inter are the new champions! It has been a deserved title and Antonio Conte’s team have been far the best side in the league especially since January. Before then they were neck and neck with Milan but they faded and Inter roared on to win their first scudetto since 2010.

The title officially became Inter’s on Sunday when 2nd placed Atalanta failed to beat Sassuolo with that game ending in a draw. This is Inter’s first title since the glory days of Jose Mourinho 11 years ago.

This is Inter’s 19th league title and in fairness to the other teams they were head and shoulders above them. Since March it became a question of when Inter would win the title and not if. In the end just minutes after securing the title Juventus who had won 9 in a row congratulated their rivals. It would have been painful for Juve not to make it 10 in a row but then again they have had time to contemplate that not happening this season since they were so far behind. The Old Lady may not qualify for next season’s Champions League, though they are in 3rd place now it is still very close.

Antonio Conte explained Inter’s philosophy in winning the title, “The team really developed in that sense, and in a season you must be able to take different approaches to be unpredictable. You cannot always just attack or always defend, it’s about knowing when to push. That’s where we improved, in reading the game and knowing those moments. A team cannot press for 90 minutes non-stop. The opponents in Italy study you and find ways to neutralise your strengths. If you are patient and wait for the right moment to strike, and have a team that is in good shape physically, you know that sooner or later the opposition will lose intensity.”

The player who is arguably Inter’s best of this title winning season Romelu Lukaku had this to say about winning the league. “I am so happy for all the Inter fans in the world, for the team, the staff, the President and everyone. It was a wonderful year for us, I am truly proud to play for Inter. I wanted to come out here and celebrate along with the people. I told my friend this was the best way to experience it, to be there with the fans. For me and many of my teammates, this is our first league title, so it’s a moment we wanted to share with them.”

Let’s take a look at the 3 key players who did that bit extra in ensuring Inter became champions of Italy.

-Milan Skriniar

Milan Skriniar hasn’t always got the plaudits this season but the defender has remained consistent and very solid throughout the title winning campaign. He has amassed an impressive 71 points and been part of a defence that has helped to keep 13 clean sheets. On top of that he has been dangerous at set-pieces and has scored 3 goals this season- all important ones that changed the game.

-Achraf Hakimi

Achraf Hakimi really came into his own in the middle of the season and the latter stages when it really mattered. Hakimi reminds one of Roberto Carlos in that his defending was swashbuckling and determined overlayered with intelligence but he wasn’t afraid to attack either to score goals and set them up. Hakimi has been one of the best defenders in Europe this season no doubt. He has contributed to an incredible 13 goals in Serie A alone, scoring seven of them.

-Romelu Lukaku

And of course there is Romelu Lukaku who has had a glittered career and yet this is his first league title with a club. Lukaku will be a legend now with Inter fans. His runs into the opponents half, his fantastic goals and his overall contribution will live long in the memory banks. Lukaku will probably finish as runner up to Cristiano Ronaldo in the goal scorers charts but he has still won the most important title for sure. Lukaku has scored 21 goals and assisted in another 10 in an incredible season for him and it is fitting that he has picked up 100 points in the fantasy rankings just as Inter have won the league title.

This was a title much like Manchester City’s in the Premier League which was won in truth by the brilliant defence. Attack has been the key of course to each teams titles but the overriding factor has been how the defence has played. In the rankings for example just for Inter we can see that 5 from the top ranked 8 players are defenders and that doesn’t include goalkeeper Samir Handanovic who is currently the 3rd best ranked player in the team.

Congratulations then to Inter for a fantastic title. The season isn’t over yet though and the clubs next game will be at home to Sampdoria on Saturday.

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Old boys to decide Barcelona v Atletico?

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Saturday afternoon sees the most important match of the season in La Liga.

Although Real Madrid and Sevilla, who meet on Sunday, might have something to say about that, the Barcelona v Atletico Madrid match is arguably the bigger game.

That’s because Atleti can boot Barca out of the title race with a win, and keep their noses ahead of Los Blancos and Sevilla with their destiny remaining in their own hands.

Barcelona simply have to win, and then hope that Sevilla can do them a favour on Sunday. Continue reading →

Premier League Game of the Week: Tottenham 4-0 Sheffield United

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Gareth Bale was the hero of the weekend for Tottenham as the Welshman scored a superb hat-trick as Tottenham thumped bottom side Sheffield United 4-0.

Bale was the talk of the game of course and after getting the nod to start by interim manager Ryan Mason he grabbed that chance and did all of his talking on the pitch. Too often this season Bale was used as a scapegoat for some of Tottenham’s poor performances but if he goes back to Real Madrid this summer it is almost certain that he will leave the Premier League being able to look at himself in the mirror.

There’s been a lot of criticism thrown at Bale since his loan back move to Tottenham but let’s remind ourselves that with the three goals at the weekend he has scored 9 times in the Premier League and 14 times in all competitions not a bad record when you read some of the accusations thrown at the 31 year old.

The goals did not start until the 35th minute as the Blades had frustrated the home side up until then. Serge Aurier assisted in the first goal with a fine lobbed pass which caught out Sheffield United’s defence and the ball found a charging Bale who neatly lobbed the goalkeeper. Tottenham deserved their goal and that had been their 5th shot on target for the half against the Blades who had had zero. The half ended 1-0.

Heung-Min Son thought that he had made it 2-0 a few minutes into the second half but his effort was ruled out for offside. However just pass the hour mark Tottenham had doubled the lead when Son broke clear and squared the ball to Bale who only had the keeper to beat, still from 20 yards out Bale composed himself at speed and smashed the ball into the top right corner.

Bale completed his hat-trick seven minutes later with a shot from the edge of the area. Pumped full of confidence Bale was more than happy to take his chances and everything was turning into gold for the midfielder.

Son who had worked so hard the entire game got the goal of the game to make it 4-0 soon after. He turned wickedly beating his defender and smashed the ball home, a fine goal that will get better and better with each viewing.

The win for Tottenham puts them on 56 points and they are 5 points behind 4th placed Chelsea. The club have a small chance of a top four finish and at least with this victory have kept that dream alive.

As for interim coach Ryan Mason that’s 2 league wins from two and 6 goals scored and 1 conceded not such a bad start for him.

Tottenham will try to make it 3 wins in a row in the league when they play Leeds United away from home this weekend.

Sheffield United are relegated already and they will play Crystal Palace at home next. The Blades are 9 points behind 19th placed West Bromwich Albion and look set to finish last in the Premier League for this season.

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