Khedira puts Juve 1-0 up against Napoli after 6 minutes. He just ran through their defence.

Hamsik's goal was brilliant. What a move.

Was a proper game of football.

Dries Mertens runs straight from the bench to score the easiest chance he'll ever get in the Coppa Italia semifinal:

Napoli won 3-2 eventually. Higuain showed why he's world class with his two goals for Juve.

Apparently after his second goal: Gonzalo Higuain pointed at Napoli president Aurelio de Laurentiis after the goal saying: "it's your fault"

Damn, stone cold 😆 😆

Kind of making Higuain look bad when they lost though. 😆

Juve won on aggregate though so they're through to the final

We should try and bring the Belotti guy in. Still only 23, has something special about him.

6 days later

97th minute equaliser for Milan in the Derby!

Great game. Low on quality but both teams were really going at it and the atmosphere was great.

Gotta hand it to Andrea Belotti - 25 goals in 28 games for a club like Torino, in a league where goals are generally hard to score, is pretty incredible. Higuain has picked up the pace now and might well pip him to the golden boot in the end, but I can't remember the last time a 23 year old was this prolific in Serie A. Gilardino?

Klaus, how's your boy Felipe Anderson doing? Could he be someone for us to pick up in the summer?

Klaus wrote:

Gotta hand it to Andrea Belotti - 25 goals in 28 games for a club like Torino, in a league where goals are generally hard to score, is pretty incredible. Higuain has picked up the pace now and might well pip him to the golden boot in the end, but I can't remember the last time a 23 year old was this prolific in Serie A. Gilardino?

Just checked, the last 23 year old was Immobile and for Torino too. We know how that went.

Gilardino only had 1 truly prolific season. Going back a bit, Pazzini was the other Italian that was consistently prolific. Doesn't count for much unfortunately in their careers.

Immobile never scored 25 goals in a single season (and Belotti still has 6 games left to play; his current gpg average would put him over 30 league goals). There are some key differences between them too. Immobile worked hard but was never really good at anything except finishing. Belotti is a good dribbler with some strong holdup play. If he develops a bit technically over the next few years he could end up similar to Christian Vieri.

BWoolley wrote:

Klaus, how's your boy Felipe Anderson doing? Could he be someone for us to pick up in the summer?

Not sure, I haven't seen much of Lazio this season. I think he's got the wrong profile for Arsenal at the moment though. We don't need players who could turn out great - we need players who already are great.

Belotti looks like an absolute superstar. Just an excellent striker all around. What are his weaknesses exactly? Outstanding in the air, powerful dribbler, strong as an ox, amazing awareness (always knows where the ball is, where the goal is, how to get there), uses both feet (even to score), and speaking of scoring, he can't stop doing it.

I don't watch him over 90 minutes that often, but from what I've seen, a good many of his goals come from doggedness and workrate to boot.

Coombs wrote:

Belotti looks like an absolute superstar. Just an excellent striker all around. What are his weaknesses exactly? Outstanding in the air, powerful dribbler, strong as an ox, amazing awareness (always knows where the ball is, where the goal is, how to get there), uses both feet (even to score), and speaking of scoring, he can't stop doing it.

I don't watch him over 90 minutes that often, but from what I've seen, a good many of his goals come from doggedness and workrate to boot.

He's terrible at penalties! 😆 

There's going to big money offers for him and Bernardeschi soon. Also, Patrik Schick is one to look out for.

10 days later


He's so complete. Best all round defender.

Bryant wrote:

There's going to big money offers for him and Bernardeschi soon. Also, Patrik Schick is one to look out for.

Looks quality, but when was the last time we signed someone from Serie A.

That goal from Schick is incredible.

Quality goal but nowhere near the difficulty level of what Bergy did.

Class goal. Bergkamp goal was was way better though because it was all done much tighter and with a lot better control.

7 days later

He's right too. And that's just Muntari; a two-bob workhorse for a nothing team parked at the bottom of the table. Imagine what high profile players like Pogba and Balotelli have had to put up with in the past.

I'm not really surprised by the authorities reaction (exactly what FIFA would do) but i would have expected more from the media and general public.

"The league panel decided that not only would the yellow card – and thus his suspension – stand, but that Cagliari would not be penalised because the chanting was “only from around 10 people” and was only heard due to fellow fans staging a silent protest."

"Pescara, of course, condemned the events and backed their player, but on the peninsula the only real sound was that of heads being wilfully and ignorantly plunged into the sand. Cagliari’s vice president Stefano Filucchi insisted that “nobody here heard anything,” and the Gazzetta dello Sport’s match report accused Muntari of “losing his head” but largely ignored the incident."

Gutter league.

In every sense.

Is the problem the league or the country, Flob?

It's probably the culture within the league. I hesitate to paint the entire country with the same brush. This has been going on forever in Italian football. It's what turned me off their league originally even back when they had superstar appeal.

It's part of the Italian culture, just like the rampant homophobia. It just becomes more noticeable at places where large groups of men are present.

It's wider than just a Muntari taunt, that's for sure. He was warned by a referee despite suffering racist chants. His FA was not prepared to prosecute the offenders because of the ITalian FA's bizarre rule that mandates that prosecution will occur only when over 1% of fans are involved. This FA run by a man who calls people who look like me banana eaters. Black players go through the most in Italy.

Can't remember him specifically getting fan abuse. Only thing I remember is that famous case where he jabbed Costa because Costa allegedly racially abused him.

I suspect that even if he was abused by fans, we are less likely to hear about it. Coverage was not as absolute in those days, and racism was not really a topic.

However, some might argue that racims was less likely to be prevalent prior to the mass migrations to Italy from North Africa and Middle East that have occured in the past decade. That racism in all its guises has been severely exacerbated by this migration making the 'other' more visible.

Of course he heard it. There were 19 teams that didn't like him on any given weekend.

Racism and homophobia are widespread enough to be considered genuine national problems in Italy. It's not reduced to the football audience. There are a number of complex reasons for it, but recognising it is not "painting the entire country with the same brish"; it's stating facts.

Keita from Lazio has been on a tear lately. 6 goals in 3 games, contract expires in 2018. He has a bit of Balotelli in him though, he's clashed w/ management and has wanted to leave several times.

8 days later

Don't know why they put the tallest kid with Insigne 😆

Happens pretty often in Serie A, the home team decides which kid walks on the pitch with which player. Wesley Sneijder especially was always targeted 😆