Because of the Italian National Rugby Team playing a game at the Stadio Olimpico in Torino on Sunday, Juventus-Genoa had to be played today. Juventus have been playing well as of late and have been led by the inspirational play of Alessandro Del Piero. Genoa have proved a tricky opponent this season and have seemed almost unbeatable at home.

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(first, sorry for the lack of posts the last two days, we'll be back on scheduled programming starting now)

Daniele De Rossi scored his first ever "doppietta" (brace) in an Azzurri shirt to give Italy the 3 points vs. Georgia. Italy now have 6 points for the first two games and have made an excellent start to World Cup Qualfying, despite their mediocre play.

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Maggio...Bafflingly preferred Campania to Birmingham


Christian Maggio - Napoli - Right Wing/Right Back

Maggio is listed in some places as a defender but if you look at last year's player positioning charts you can see that Sampdoria used him primarily as a right winger. The 26 year old had a superb year and it was a shock not to see him at Euro 2008. Click to continue reading...

Arsene Wenger's efforts to secure the best youngsters in European football could see him make a £6million bid Juventus attacking midfielder Sebastian Giovinco. The 21-year-old, currently representing Italy at the Olympics, spent last season on loan at Empoli and enjoyed a successful season in which he scored six goals in 35 appearances. Click to continue reading...

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Goal.com - Bologna And QPR After Bogdani

Albanian striker Erjon Bogdani of Chievo is getting requests from teams both in Italy and abroad.

Daniele Arrigoni's newly promoted Bologna are still looking for a powerful striker for next season, when they will make their return to Serie A after three seasons of absence. Click to continue reading...

It's already time for Juventus to get together. Ranieri: "I am very satisfied with the transfers. We must be ambitious right from the Champions League qualifiers." Blanc: "Xabi Alonso? The midfielder is a 30 million investment. We need to assess him."

VINOVO (Turin), 4 July 2008 – Everyone concentrated on the league. Click to continue reading...

And that's a wrap folks. Serie A 2007-2008 is officially over. (Cue some graduation song, or some goodbye song). If you don't have time to read the review or you just don't like my musings about Calcio, Week 38 is summed up for you in the title. And in case you skipped past the title and still don't know who was crowned champion, the picture of Javier Zanetti on the left pretty much gives it away.

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And that's a wrap folks. Serie A 2007-2008 is officially over. (Cue some graduation song, or some goodbye song). If you don't have time to read the review or you just don't like my musings about Calcio, Week 38 is summed up for you in the title. And in case you skipped past the title and still don't know who was crowned champion, the picture of Javier Zanetti on the left pretty much gives it away.

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(Summary is not available.) Click to continue reading...

Here we are at the penultimate day of the 2007/2008 Serie A season. It has been a long, interesting season with lots of battles in the table but this second to last day is really becoming more important than the last day, because lots of scenarios can be decided tomorrow after every referee has blown the final whistle.

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Week 36 (I incorrectly said it was Week 37 in the preview) turned out to be an interesting week in this last part of the 2007/2008 season. Here's what happened this weekend:

Milan-Inter: 2-1

In the match everyone was looking forward to, the Rossoneri won their first derby in 2 years after playing Inter off the pitch for most of the match.

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Sorry guys for the late post, but my internet has been down all day (Stupid Time Warner Cable!). So here's the weekend preview:

As you can see by the picture, the main event of Week 37 is the Derby della Madonnina between Milan and Inter. This derby has turned out to become one of the most important derbies in recent years.

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Mancio decided to eschew tactical concerns during Saturday's game in favor of making shadow puppets and/or scary faces.

I'm busy packing for an early flight, so here's your one sentence wrap up for each Serie A weekend game. (The team blogs are more than adequate for the good stuff.)

Inter 1 - Lazio 1: Crespo got it early, Rocchi got it back in the second, and Mancio is going to get it from the media all week.

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Inter v Juventus: Bigger match review here.

Roma 2 - Empoli 1: On a day when the real Alessandro del Piero looked like magic but couldn't finish, Sebastian Giovinco did the same, though he managed to slot home a gimme on a wide open counter.

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Just some video highlights of the best from round 30. Milan only beat Torino 1-0 but truly assaulted their goal during most of the match. Roma vs Empoli 2-1. Inter's lead at the top has been cut short to just 4 points now. Although Giovinco was causing all sorts of problems for Roma, a couple of goals [. Click to continue reading...

Author: Jeremy (That's not him....I think.)
Page: Cagliari

Jeremy gave a little bit of a relegation breakdown last week, for reasons which you can probably figure out, and offers up his take on the week's action from those in danger in Serie A.

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UEFA Cup Spot(s)

Sampdoria 3 - Catania 1: If you missed the train/bus, and didn't show up til the hour mark, you were totally cool, because the fireworks didn't start until the 68th. Four goals in the final 22, and you don't have to look at the scoreline to know who won - Catania was playing away from home.

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It's kinda hard not to feel bad for teams which get relegated (unless they've been immersed in scandal, or something) or at least fight the good fight against the drop. Yes, they're professional athletes and most of their pay checks will buy them many, many boxes of Kleenex to drown their Serie B sorrows in; but still, they work their arses off for a whole lotta nothin' at the end of the year.

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Last giornata 8 teams walked away from their fixture having failed to score a goal. This weekend 8 scored more than 2 and 2 games found 8 goals for a grand total of 35 goals. On behalf of calcio fans everywhere: Thank you.

Cagliari 1 - Lazio 0: You can't root against Cagliari.

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I promise not all weekend posts will reference classic songs. Some, not all.

While it's nice to see all the big fellas get their Saturday in the sun, it's leaves much to be desired on Sunday, when The Other Sixteen get to dust off their booties and kick a ball around. Luckily enough, we've Derby della Lanterna to quench our calcio thirst.

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"Messieurs, rien ne va plus"! Scouts/negotiatiors/investors/sporting directors/club presidents have been working their ass off this past month, jumping from table to table in their endless quest for a last-minute star buy, in the traditional carousel that brings players, agents, and club owners all together in a merry-go-round dance. Click to continue reading...

In the only Coppa Italia match played yesterday, Juve managed to overcome both Empoli and the presence of Jean-Alain Boumsong (He lives!) and Tiago Mendes in their own team to win 5-3, a result that put them through to the quarters by the completely loony aggregate score of 6-5.

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Quite the goalfest in Italy this week. After the thumping 5-2 display at the San Siro this week-end, the fun continued on Tuesday, for the Coppa Italia Round of 16 return leg, Juventus-Empoli. As it turned out, this match revealed the two faces of Claudio Ranieri's reserve side, taking great inspiration from a very famous [. Click to continue reading...

•The Maniche deal now done enough to be officially address by Inter functionaries keeps getting pushed back. For a while, he as arriving last night and having his medical today. Now, while he's supposedly in Milan, the medical and contract won't happen until tomorrow. But he's still joining Inter (without the must-buy clause that was in the original Atletico Madrid proposal).

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Granted, I've only seen three or four matches a week this season, so I could well have missed some awful pitches, but the conditions at Empoli today were by far the worst of any match I've seen. Thanks to a steady rain, there was standing water all over the pitch, no one could change direction, and by the 30 minutes mark, heavily used areas had just turned into mud.

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Serie A teams, get your shopping bags ready! The mid-season transfer window officially opened last week (January 1st), and will remain open until January 31st 19:00 CET. It is a busy time for Italian clubs, who on top of getting ready for the return of Serie A next week-end, have their scouts/negotiatiors/investors working full time [. Click to continue reading...

•Kaka is FIFA's World Player of the Year. Try to control your shock.

•Is Luciano Moggi's phone ever not being tapped these days? Another investigation has opened into his behavior because he continued to "influence" football after his banning. Well.

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Forget the top of the table, Nicola Pozzi scored four times for Empoli. Four freaking goals! And he hit the post! I don't care how wet the pitch was, or how crummy the Cagliari defense were, that is impressive as hell, even if you're not just 21. God damn. Also, it will come as no surprise to anyone who's been paying attention to him that a not fully fit Sebastian Giovinco assisted on the first and the third, as well as the shot that hit the post.

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In the first match of the nearly all-Serie A last 16 of the Coppa Italia (only Ascoli remain from the lower divisions), Empoli hosted Juventus. Shockingly, the home side not only played well, but also managed to come out of the match with a fairly convincing 2-1 win, and head to Turin next month with a fighting chance to knock the Old Lady out.

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For Juve, this was a "mini-Champions League" match, as the Bianconeri milieu had dubbed the Coppa Italia for the 2007-08 season. Unfortunately for Ranieri, the cup adventure was brought to a brutal halt Wednesday night, as his team conceded its 3rd defeat of the season in the first leg of the Round of 16. Click to continue reading...

•Gigi Cagni is shocked he was sacked. Aw. Poor guy he did take Empoli to their first-ever European place, so I suppose it wasn't unreasonable to expect a certain degree of loyalty.

•Brazil's Olympic team has been named, and a certain teenage Rossoneri is the only foreign-based players on the list.

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•Gigi Cagni is shocked he was sacked. Aw. Poor guy he did take Empoli to their first-ever European place, so I suppose it wasn't unreasonable to expect a certain degree of loyalty.

•Brazil's Olympic team has been named, and a certain teenage Rossoneri is the only foreign-based players on the list.

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Late last night, Empoli sacked coach Gigi Cagni.

Despite looking like an utter badass and leading the club to a seventh-place finish and its first-ever spot in Europe last season, the 57-year-old has had a terrible time during the first three months of the season, first crashing meekly out of the UEFA Cup, and then finding himself unable to raise Empoli out of the relegation zone, even with that unbelievable defeat of Milan and the miracle draw with Roma (imagine where they'd be without those four points).

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So the big games of the weekend have been played and the battle for the top of the table fought. Interestingly both of these matches ended in draws and little ground was made for any of these teams. Inter vs Juve ended 1-1 with Inter retaining it's lead at the top and Juve dropping one [...] Click to continue reading...

Shocking. Roma's second(ish) team interestingly, given the recent discussions here, without a single Italian in it Lies! All lies! Millions of wonderful Italians! utterly owned the first half, cutting Empoli open at will and playing the magic, one-touch football for which they're known. They scored two wonderful team goals and had the game well in hand going into the break.

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