leakge this! X gool was scored by interlegend Javier Zanetti in an all Italian UEFA Cup final 3-0 victory over Lazio back in 1998. Quite a mouthful for you. Quite a few adjectives, right? Quite a few. I'd like to thank a follower of ours on TikTok at unfunnyguy underscore 17. We think you're funny bro, we think you're cultured as well so please don't go around bringing your ego down like that. Thank you for listening to the full Cannavara one, we appreciate it.
What a legend, what a legend. They come in small doses but they truly are loyal and they truly are the best. So you engage with us guys and we'll deliver. Thank you very much for recommending this intro for us. So what did you make of Zanetti bro? I think apart from him being, firstly what I like about Zanetti is that he seemed from his structure and from his play style, he seemed almost clumsy.
It was like at any second it looked like he was going to fall over when he was running on the ball but he never did. He was always ever so elegant and graceful. His touch on the ball was fantastic, it was always very effective, he was versatile. We saw him play in defensive midfield, we saw him play at left back, we saw him play at right back and his professionalism. Definitely 100% his professionalism is what there is to write home about Javier Zanetti.
He spent until he was 41 years old playing in the top flight and he never had a single ounce of controversy in his career, never. Absolutely not. And that's when he was living in Milan. Milan loved a good controversial news story. You have La Gazetta dello sport with all those journalists sniffing around and they never found anything on him. It's always been quiet, well mannered, modest, a perfect example.
Not a single thing wrong about Zanetti. There was one instance where he was frustrated with a substitution back when Roy Hodgson was the coach for Inter. It seemed as though when Zanetti was coming off he seemed to have a bit of an attitude about him, he was flailing his arms and he disagreed with the decision. But he ended up embracing Hodgson at the end of it. And shaking the player's hand who was coming on to replace him. A great example overall.
Obviously everyone gets moods and everyone has their opinions but it's about being a professional at the end of the day and Zanetti was always that. And that probably came due to his humble beginnings bro. He was born to a bricklayer and a cleaner. Definitely where he was taught to be modest and hardworking. Yeah for sure. And even when he was training to become a professional footballer he was also helping his dad out laying bricks.
He said that he enjoyed it, himself he enjoyed building a house. He said, I liked my father's work but above all I liked the idea of doing something concrete and useful. Building a house is a metaphor that I like. It's at the core of my life philosophy starting from the bottom and reaching the top. So this guy used to wake up at 4am, he used to deliver milk and he took great pleasure in it.
And then he used to train football and he used to help his father as a bricklayer and he made it to where he is today. Yeah and that's because he would continue training right after all that hard work with his studies, with his actual trying to help the family out financially. He also had trials when he was 16 years old with one of the big five teams in Argentina, club atletico independiente. However after a matter of weeks the coaches actually dismissed him for being too slight and too weak.
They seem to have great opinions on football but that is probably where he developed such great physicality on the ball. Because the man used to literally jostle four players off the ball throughout his career. So that's probably, I mean you can't hate these guys for telling him that when probably as a result of that he's developed into such a fantastic player. He had a point to prove right?
Exactly, after that obviously he knuckled down on his training, he even finished his studies and he completed his education. And then at 18 finally he had a call up, he signed his first professional contract with club atletico taleres. In the second division he played 33 games there and he scored a single goal. At 18 years old you're playing in the second division in Argentina, few people would think that you'll make it to the very top.
And it would be a safe assumption to say that this person won't be a world beater. Exactly, it was then a year later where he was signed by Banfield in the top decision. Those do sound like an English club but they are not, they are an Argentine club. He played 66 professional games there and he scored four goals. This was between 1993 and 1995 so he was 21 years old at that time. Clock is ticking and actually within his spell over here that's where he earned his nickname El Tractor.
You can guess what that means. If you're smart. That's obviously for his stamina and his positively relentless attitude so we're already starting to see Zanetti take shape as a player over here. In fact it was at this moment in his career where he entered the limelight he made his international professional debut with Argentina in a friendly match against Chile and then he actually went on to feature in professional knockout games for them as well and group stage games too.
And that's when Inter first noticed him bro. Yep, it was Massimo Moratti in the summer of 1995 so for those of you who live under a rock and don't know who Moratti is, he was an Italian petroleum tycoon turned football club president. He assumed control of Inter in 1995 and over the course of 16 years he's rumoured to have spent 1.5 billion of his personal fortune on football superstars.
These obviously included Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Wesley Snyder, Louis Figo, Patrick Vieira, Samuel Eto, Christian Vieri, Zamorano, Crespo, the Brazilian Ronaldo, Roberto Carlos, Adriano, Maicon. And all these guys were signed in their prime bro, that's the craziest thing about it. There you go. But then there was of course the first signing that he oversaw. It was actually a double signing, the signings of Javier Zanetti and Sebastian Rambert, whichever you prefer.
These were the smaller signings of course, none of the superstar signings that Matthew mentioned earlier. But this would prove to be the most important out of the lot. He bought a player, Javier Zanetti, a legend of the club, retired shirt number, one it all with them, captain's arm and everything. Of course man. Rambert on the other hand was sold to Real Zaragoza in 1996 after failing to make a single appearance. Just a year later man, not playing a single game and leaving a year later.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Heidol. Exactly, with all those superstars it must have been so intimidating for Zanetti actually to enter that dressing room at 21, 22 years old and do what he did. And in fact he went on to spend 19 years at Inter, he broke the record for the most appearances which still stands today at 858 in all competitions. In Serie A he has 618 appearances and that is the third most in the league. It's behind Buffon with 658, Maldini with 648 and he's also tied with Francesco Totti.
So up there with the elites, Man Zanetti. Yeah, he's won the Serie A five times between 2005 and 2010 with Inter, the Coppa Italia four times during that spell too, the Supercoppa Italiano four times, the Champions League once in the treble winning season of Mourinho, the UEFA Cup once in 1997-1998 and the FIFA Club World Cup in 2010. Also in Mourinho's treble winning side Zanetti was the player who featured the most times, the most appearances and he even lifted each of the three trophies.
That's insane, it's actually insane and it's funny that you mention him in the Champions League because at 37 years old he had scored the opener in a match against Spurs when there was that Gareth Bale-Hattrick and Inter had won 4-3 at the Giuseppe Meadza and at the time he had become the oldest player in Champions League history to score in the Champions League naturally.
All of the tabloids were talking about Bale-Hattrick, Bale-Hattrick but they failed to pick up on this and I remember that because we were in a train station in Milan when that was going on. On those fantastic televisions, no? Yeah, on those pixelated pieces of shit. Zanetti got two red cards throughout his entire career. The first one was in 1999 and then won in 2011. Jesus, twelve years apart. A defensive player typically gets more than is expected quite frankly to get more.
That just goes to show how good he was and how good his judgement was. Typically you have to make a foul when you're positioned poorly to compensate for your lack of words. But he always had that mature playstyle about him. We normally talk about strikers being in the right place at the right time but Zanetti was always at the right place at the right time and it didn't result in him scoring many goals. In fact he has around twelve goals in Serie A for Inter.
However, two red cards is just absolutely insane. Constantly positioned in the right place. He was always the last man when they needed him to be the last man. He was always putting pressure forward when he needed to be putting pressure forward. However, he did have a weird career with Argentina. Yes bro, he was quite unlucky to be honest because he was victim to some very poor decisions. The first one of course in 2006 with Javier Zanetti quite frankly in his prime.
Jose Pecerman, the coach of Argentina decided to not call up Zanetti to the World Cup despite playing every single group match game. It's insane how he wasn't called up because he must have been the best defensive midfielder that Argentina had at the time. I don't even think it's a debate. What a miss for Argentina and obviously subsequently they didn't do too well in that World Cup either. Then another bizarre one came in 2010 when a seemingly manic Diego Maradona was at the helm.
He decided to drop Zanetti replacing him with Juanas Gutiárez who was playing with Neil Basel in the championship at the time. Spider-Man, Spider-Man. And Mascarano took the captain's armband. Now that Argentina side was notorious for being totally unprofessional. They were totally unprofessional. It was a mess over there. There was no gamesmanship. There was no professionalism there at all. And in fact they could have really used Zanetti.
He had just won the treble within there. You're not going to leave him out. The man should have been there and he should have been captaining Argentina and he would have set a good example. Obviously they had a legend in Maradona as their manager but we all know that in his later years and not only in his later years but even his later years. Admittedly during his playing years too.
Exactly. He wasn't in the best state of mind maybe to be carrying out such a role and I don't think his CV or his coaching skills proved that he should be the coach of Argentina. And a player like Zanetti obviously suffered because of that. Could it be that maybe there's a bit of Napoli bias but he did call up Cambiasso to be honest? He didn't call up Cambiasso. Oh he didn't call up Cambiasso? He didn't include him in the squad. Oh my god.
So you might be right maybe he was just flexing to the Napolitan fans showing his loyalty. That could have been the case. And letting down an entire country while he was at it. To wrap this up Zanetti retired from professional football in 2014 at 41 years of age and was appointed as vice president by Erik Tohir, a role that he still fills. A role that thankfully he doesn't still fill is featuring on the Indonesian Idol back in 2012.
Pertirtelo ancora, pertirteket, piun bella cosa non c'e, piun bella cosa di te, unica come sei. Hello and welcome back to another episode of Serie A Spotlight, we are your hosts Matt and Jake. It's episode 38. 38, yes. That's as many matches as there are in a season. So we're spoiling you, we're giving you more than there are match days this season.
Exactly. As always guys don't forget to follow us on Instagram, TikTok and Twitter where we post some updates, we post some cool clips and we also post our prediction series. A prediction series that brother has led to yet another victory for me. It was an outstanding 13 to 4. I got 3 exact scores, you got none. Yes, that is correct. And we are now tied at 10-10 in the championship. So if you thought Serie A was close you should check out the prediction series.
We were talking about what should happen if it ends in a draw. We do a best out of three, or no just one FIFA game. One FIFA game and we'll post it. I'm in for that. So check out our YouTube in the near future as well. And alongside that guys don't forget to rate us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or Google Play wherever the fuck you're listening. So another crazy week, brother, what did you make of this week of football?
A mundane weekend was upon us bro. A weekend with no plans. We got on the sofa, we flicked on the TV and Serie A was like... Well what can I say bro? Hell is gone and heaven's here. There's nothing left for you to fear. Shake your ass, come over here. Tonali. Bioli. Onri as well. Nzaghi. Shake your ass and stay the fuck there. We're talking nzaghi.
But as Robbie Williams pointed out this was a crazy week of football. We were highly entertained sitting on the sofa. It stemmed on to Monday as it has been recently with that Fiorentina Roma thriller of a match and unexpected result over there. But we are going to read the results to you to make sure that you don't miss any details whatsoever. The beatboxing has died. That will not be happening anymore.
I think Twice was already stretching it so fuck it. I'm just going to do my best to read them out as well as I can to you guys.
So it was Verona 1-0 Milan 3 as Milan stay at the top of the table. Inter did need to come from behind against Empoli winning 4-2 after going 2-0 down in the first half. Napoli edged Torino away from home in a 1-0 victory. Juve suffered defeat in the most dramatic of fashion with a 2-1 away loss to Genoa with a 96th minute Christiano penalty making amends with the supporters over there.
Lazio got past Sampdoria in easy fashion some might say with a 2-0 victory. Fiorentina got past Roma 2-0 as well. Atalanta went to Spezia and came away with a 3-1 victory. Odineze were held 1-1 by Sassuolo away from home at the mape. It was probably the most glistening match of football played last weekend was Venezia 4-3. I doubt Venezia have even scored 4 in their last 10 matches. Salernitana won, Calieri won with the latest goal in Serie A history in the 99th minute.
He beat Petania's record I believe. He did beat Petania and this time it was to get me correct score. Last time Petania got you correct score. Oh the turntables. Oh the turntables. So anyway bro I think we should kick this off right? Yeah we've been yapping for a while. And these intros are just getting longer and longer.
I think we're going to have half the episode an intro. So the first game we're going to be discussing is Verona 1-Milan 3. Siam venuti fiqua, siam venuti fiqua, per vedere senjare caca.
The previous encounter was Milan 3-Verona 2. Verona actually took a 2-0 lead that game so it's always a difficult task against Verona for Milan. But it was a Samo Castieho masterclass at the time. Castieho and Krunic? I remember Castieho coming on forcing an own goal, a spectacular own goal and even assisted if I'm not mistaken.
Yes, no it was just the last one he forced an own goal I believe. But he played really well. He pressed really well. Milan were coming off their 1-0 home victory against Fiorentina while Verona were coming off a 2-1 victory in Sardinia against Caliari of course.
This is the 60th match between Verona and Milan, 10 wins for Verona, their last one coming back in December 2017 in a 3-0 home win. 21 draws and 28 wins for Milan. Now Milan fans were obviously scared coming into this game and will be relieved by the performance to be honest with you. Milan have had a league title snatched away on two separate occasions at the Bente Gordi against Verona in 1973 and in 1990 thus Verona being dubbed La Fatale Verona.
Verona stopped Gattuso's Napoli from getting Champions League last season as well so they are a team that enjoy a good upset. They're a team that fucks bro. So in the 16th minute Tonali managed to tap the ball in but the celebrations were halted as he had been in an offside position. Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday to Sandro, happy birthday to you. Hopefully now he'll lose his baby teeth.
What's with birthday boys scoring braces? Like even Bonucci on his birthday score the brace. Italy is weird. Italy is weird with these things. It's romantic, right? It's so romantic. It's just incredible. I guess people are more inspired on their birthdays. In the 48th minute it all went tits up for Milan as Faroni managed to score a goal.
He was able to pivot out of the game completely. Lazović got the better of Calabria and not the first time in this game and was played through on the left. He whipped in across to Faroni at the far post whose only opponent was a tracking back Kronish quite frankly. Milan were caught off guard, Theo was nowhere in sight, Kessie was not filling in the hole and Calulo was also oddly positioned. There was a lack of concentration, a lapse in concentration for Milan if you will.
A lapse in concentration but also a fantastic piece of play by Verona. They managed to catch Milan off guard and they managed to leave Milan flat footed quite frankly. And unfortunately for Milan towards the end of the first half in added time, Leo received the ball by the sideline and just effortily glided past Cesale like so effortlessly, completely destroyed.
Slowed down, sped up. And it never looks like Leo hits full speed eh. He is just running at a comfortable pace with a smile on his face. Yeah, he glides. He does glide and he glides way faster than anyone else. This time Leo squared the ball. We've seen him taking a few shots recently quite frustrating but today he seemed very mature Leo.
He squared it to Tanali who managed to finish while he was falling over and this time it stands so that's the best time to score a goal towards the end of the first half. Milan went into half time inspired and they came out inspired as well because in the 49th minute the exact same move occurred. Salah Makars played the ball through to Leo who received it at the half way line. Once again he started gliding his way to the opposing area.
Bro, it seemed like he took like, it looked like he took four touches and he was in the box. It's true. His long strides man. His long strides. Then he stops and he waits and then he accelerates again and so it's bursts of pace. He destroyed Barak. Barak was left eating dust. He squared it past Montepo and once again to Tanali who tapped it in. Tanali upon scoring this goal said that he felt what it means to be a Milanista when he scored that goal. Yes, fucking right, fucking right.
I have to give props to Salah Makars for this goal. He waited and waited until Leo made his way into his path. He could've easily played it down the right and perhaps that wouldn't have been that fruitful but he waited for the right time. He took it. That is the pre-assist assist. Honestly the wingers looked very mature this game and then you pop Kronich in that attacking midfield role. He looked mature too. We didn't have any of that nonsense that is often seen.
In the 86th minute, Florenzi got one just 1 minute and 59 seconds after entering the fray. Quick 1-2 with Messias and a venomous strike into the bottom corner. The fastest goal by a substitute for Milan this season.
Crazy. I fucking love Florenzi so much. He just doesn't appear for a while and then he comes on and he does that. He's dangerous coming down the right. At the moment I could say that in the second half of the season I somewhat do prefer, I do kind of feel safer having him than Calabria at times.
Calabria has been very shaky lately. It seems like Lazovic just beat him every time they were 1-1. It seems like what normally makes Calabria a great player isn't there at the moment. It will take him time to overcome. Obviously he's had quite a few injuries. That halt-go, halt-go can't be easy for him. But it doesn't mean he's a bad player, it just means that Florenzi has been super this season.
Calabria, while we're on the topic, we might as well discuss this, was rumoured to be on Real Madrid's wishlist. 30 million. Well you're never going to make 30 million from him ever. That's straight capital gains. It is. He's a youth player. But no, like. But no is my answer. We don't need to sell Calabria. Keep Calabria forever.
If you had to ask me, I might share the same sentiment. Of course from a business point of view 30 million is irrefutable for Calabria. You have to be dumb. Objectively you have to be dumb to not sell Calabria for 30 million if that offer does arrive. But he embodies everything that Milan's about. He understands what it's like. He's the longest serving player. He came up with the youth system. He's been there through the toughest part. He grew up watching the fucking best Milan side ever.
100%. And I mean the man deserves another season. Milan are now hitting certain heights. I think he needs another full season with the best Milan side possible to see if he is worthy of living up to that level. He knows the team more than anyone. He knows the club more than anyone. It would just be great to have a long servant in the club like Calabria is.
And quite frankly there's going to be Kalulu fighting for that spot too. Especially if Bothman signs. I see Kalulu starting down the right. I don't see any way Kalulu or Bothman get benched next year particularly Kalulu when he's having the performances he's having. And we've seen him down the right which is his natural position to be fair. And he can whip in a deity. He has the pace. He has the strength and he could definitely fill the role at right back man.
For sure. So as we mentioned before Tonali Bro coming in clutch on his birthday. Prior to San Drino's brace of course the last player to score for Milan on his birthday was Stefan El-Sharawi against Genoa back in 2012. How's that for us? Happy. For some reason I think I remember that man. We were definitely watching it. 100%. But yeah like we said the league is kind of weird when it comes to gifting players on their birthdays.
For sure it's the whole romantic thing. Bro what do you think of Milan's press? Milan's press is a secret weapon isn't it? It's the reason Milan are winning games right? It's the strategic pressing. It's not just like you know Milan play with a high defensive line and they have two defensive midfielders that are constantly putting pressure on. We're seeing Kalulu for example manmarking Kaprari.
Oh that was brilliant. That actually led to the second goal. So it's a strategic press and that is something I adore about Piolli. It's the classic Milan Atalanta. Well Atalanta Milan rather in the first half of the season where players were shifting positions when pressing to kind of confuse. To beat the man to man marking.
Exactly. So it's the strategic pressing. It's no Gaggen press of any sorts but it's the Piolli press. It's up there. The Piolli press I love that. We saw Rebic in the last two games forcing errors that led to match winning goals. He's a fucking good guy to bring on man. To maintain a result and to get a result as well. He's fantastic. And it brings a tear to my eye when I remember that Milan recently had Suso on the right, Kshalanoglu on the left and Higuain up front.
My god you remember Kshalanoglu playing on the wing? That was so weird man. Who was down the middle? Who did you say was down the middle? Higuain. I mean of course three good players overall but for the press, tragic. Yeah but it's a bit of a random kind of front three. It's not like they didn't mould together well. It was three individuals to say the least.
And I remember Milan fans saying like imagine Suso feeding Higuain it's gonna be crazy. The only thing he fed them was off the picture the burgers. Both of them towards the end of their Christmas. Remember what was it the thing that everyone spammed Higuain on social media with? Be ready. Or Bredi. What was it? Was it burger? No, Be ready the Nutella biscuits. Oh my god how funny. Because they had a dressing room picture holding a packet of Be Ready.
A fun fact is the Be Readys were officially launched in Malta for Maltese people to try them see if they worked and then they launched them worldwide. Obviously they sent them to the most obese country in Europe and obviously that went down quite well and they made a name for themselves.
So there's been a lot of talk bro about Milan's MVP this season. I don't want to spend too long talking about this because I think every podcast has discussed it. Basically the debate was between Leao and Manián. Who do you think?
I would say this is obviously there's no right answer. There could even be a shout for Tonali and there could even be a shout for Tomori. In fact I'm leaning a lot towards Tomori. I would say when it comes to a massive improvement obviously Leao and then when it comes to bringing someone in the pre-hooks. Strictly MVP this season. No improvement, no age, no how they were last season. Mike Manián. Mike Manián?
Mike Manián I would say so. And it's shit that I have to say Manián because obviously Leao has been insane. He's been incredible this season. But I would say Manián for the overall effect he's had on Milan that is not just his goalkeeping skills. The fact that he is essentially a quarter back for Milan and he's brought that to Milan's arsenal to just make Milan a more dangerous team.
You know I'd have to agree with you. Originally this debate I thought that you replace Leao. You're not going to create as many opportunities out of nothing as Milan have this season. But then you look at the games of Milan 1-1-0. You have Mike Manián had like one incredible save in each of those games.
I would have to agree with you that it's Mike Manián. But someone who's going under the radar when it comes to MVP this season is the man who actually gave Milan the lead in the direct encounter against the rivals. I mean Giroud had that stretch. He was massive. I don't think there was another player that could've done what he did in those games. He stepped up when Milan hadn't been performing at all. And he really made the most out of nothing.
To this day that 2-1 victory against Inter with the Giroud do Pieta is the biggest win for Milan this league. And it is what has essentially put Milan this position. I know you can narrow that to any three points that we're again. But the fact that we've got a direct encounter victory over Inter and a full three points and the momentum that Milan carried after that win was monumental.
For sure man. Verona wanted to get something out of this game bro obviously. Despite their European ambitions right now being quite slim their chances. Tudor looked hype man. Tudor looked so hype when they took the lead. He looked ecstatic running off in celebration pointing his finger. It was like he scored. It's like relax butch. Shut the fuck down. They ran the first half. No disuspected Tudor. He's a fantastic manager. He's got a bit of a mouth on him. But sit the fuck down bro.
What a team Verona are though man. I think out of the touchwood and everything out of the last three games that Milan have. A way to Verona is at the Bente Gordi probably the toughest. One of the toughest fixtures if we're talking about current form and everything. If we're talking about current form definitely the toughest fixture left and the fact that Milan managed to put three past that Verona side is crazy man. Crazy.
It was form wise the toughest remaining game but I can't help but feel the pressures is going to keep piling and I wonder how the players will handle it.
Shout out to Monty Po for Verona. He did get three put past him but three goals he could have done. Essentially nothing about. Another couple of fine saves by him. He is molding to be a fantastic goalkeeper which obviously hopefully for Verona will be a long servant over there and he'll keep on improving. Yes bro and I really hope they can hold on to this group of players because they really have something nice going on there. Before we move on from this because we often find ourselves spending too long talking about the big games. A company called Redbird.
They're set to be battling it out with Invest Corp to buy Milan bro so these guys are based in America of course the other ones are based in Bahrain so we'll see what happens over there.
Exactly. We'll see if we'll be wearing turbans or we'll be eating hot dogs. It'll be either or. But apparently Redbird seem to have the upper hand at the moment. Yeah that's what I heard. But I think right now we're not going to know exactly what's going on. It's not going to be made official until the end of the season for obvious reasons. Right now Milan are in a Scudetto race. There's no need for any distractions.
For sure. Milan are currently first with 80 points. My god. While Verona are 9th with 52 points. Obviously two massive games remaining. We're actually going to be up there next week and hopefully we'll get some vlogging done for you guys. You could follow that on Instagram. Excited as ever and let's see what happens.
Now the rivals on the other hand Inter beating Empoli at home the score of 4-2. So the previous encounter there are actually two of them this season. There was in the Serie A where Inter won 2-0 away from home and there was also in the Cup where Inter won 3-2 at home as well.
So Inter were coming off a 2-1 away win against Odinese following their loss to Bologna so bouncing back nicely over there. Empoli on the other hand coming off a 3-1 home loss to Torino. So Inter are unbeaten in their last 14 Serie A meetings with Empoli winning their last nine averaging two goals per game.
But it was a shock for Inter as Empoli took the lead in the fifth minute through a Pina Monti goal. There was a low cross by Zurkowski which was perfectly placed between Devri and Skriniar and executed perfectly by an outstretched Pina Monti who refused to celebrate upon scoring against his parent club.
There was then a goal cancelled out for Empoli I believe it was Zurkowski who was in an offside position, correct me if I'm wrong, but the goal didn't stand but then in the 23rd minute there was another VAR called or a couple of these in this game guys.
It was no penalty for Inter contrary to the referee's original opinion Parisi's tackle on Barella was a perfect one and it was in fact a great tackle. The commentator got so pissed off when the referee pointed he was like that was a good tackle same to me. Beautiful tackle man it was a beautiful tackle I could see why because the referee was positioned behind the player so he saw the ball flying but at the end of the day it could have flown off the interplayers legs but it was in fact a perfect tackle.
Nothing wrong with that. In the 28th minute Empoli made it 2-0 after Fiamozzi launched the ball over the top to Aslani. Aslani controlled it perfectly and finished it below Handanovic it was his first goal in senior football. 28th minute Empoli 2-0 up I even put a bet on Empoli win or draw myself at that point. You know that's why Inter didn't lose this game because of your bet?
I know man sometimes I think of that but you know. I've stopped betting entirely I've cut it out of my life completely. Really? Yes I lost the house my children. I won a 95 euro bet recently and choo choo baby. I stopped simply because of superstitious reasons like it seems like whatever I bet on the opposite happens and I used to do it I used to bet against Milan every time just so Milan would win. No I never bet around Milan I normally never bet around Inter as well but this time I was like kind of trying to disrespect Inter but obviously it didn't work out.
In the 32nd minute there was another VAR call it was no penalty for Inter I'm not gonna get into these too much guys. It was however in the 40th minute and then that Simone Romagnoli put the ball into the back of his own net so it was some intricate play by Inter eventually leading to Di Marco spanking across dangerous into the area only for it to be turned in by Romagnoli.
The poor guy tried to clear it in an outstretched manner and it didn't end well. Yeah not at all not at all. It was just after the break in the 45th minute that Lautaro equalized thanks to an assist by Hakan Barella played the ball forward to Chala Noglu who squared it into the area to Lautaro who struck it with a vengeance into the top corner beautiful finish by Lautaro picking the ball up and running into the center.
At this point it seems evident that Inter are just gonna run away with it now. It was then the 64th minute that Lautaro bagged his second Barellas cross was cleared clumsily into the part of Lautaro by Fiamozzi. Lautaro made no mistake with the finish and went on to celebrate shirtless he took off his undershirt too something Tonali hadn't done. Yeah we should make a list man I think it says a lot about their personality if they remove their undershirts or not.
Do you think they're better people if they keep their undershirt on? I think they're more maybe they're less confident or they're less flashy. Exactly a bit more humility perhaps. Exactly I would agree with you. In the 92nd minute Zekko hit the post was some nice solo work by himself but his effort was denied by the far post. It was then two minutes later that Zekko assisted for Sanchez.
Zekko was in the mood and he was taking his man on like a 54 year old layout and squired it to Sanchez who tapped it in. Zekko was dancing on the ball. He was he was he was feeling it man coming off as a sub. He'd have that energy at least he's not a fast there but obviously he'd have energy everyone else would be dead and he certainly made the most of it.
So to start off I'll ask you you know what do you think of this game? Empoli were winning 2-0 Inter managed to win 4-2. So typically bro we crucify managers for trying to park the bus way too early right? Like we've criticized Spalletti, Mourinho, Inzaghi for these things you know. While here on the other hand we have to do the opposite. I think Andrea Azzoli needs to be criticized for being 2-0 up and still attacking with eight men.
Do you want I tell you the difference between Andrea Azzoli and you know Allegri, Mourinho and Inzaghi? Allegri, Mourinho and Inzaghi are the managers of Juve, Roma and Inter. Andrea Azzoli is the manager of Empoli. You're winning with Empoli you put 11 men behind the ball, you put that in the box and you park the bus. If you're Roma, if you're Napoli you could continue with some firepower, you can hold possession, you could move forward, attack is the best form of defense at times.
But not for Empoli, for a side like Empoli park the bus. Park the fucking bus and bring the legs. You know these guys have a second wave in them. In fact in the 17th minute that second wave occurred. Vidal, Dzeko, D'Ambrosio, the army on Sanchez came on. You know that they have had their disposal. Just hang in there. That's what they should've done. But obviously they are not the first team to concede four at the Giuseppe Meazza to enter the season.
Who knows maybe they won't even be the last either. Aslani seems like hot property at the moment. He's dubbed the next Ben Nasser as he was bought from Empoli of course. First Richie, now Aslani. Empoli are just excellent at developing players aren't they man? For sure bro. We were all excited about Richie at the beginning of the season. Of course he went to Torino and he's actually been playing quite well there as of recently.
Aslani emerged out of nowhere and he's been fucking good for them too. In fact we heard that Milan were interested at one point. The new Ben Nasser perhaps. They've always been a factory for talent you're right. I wouldn't be surprised if one of the higher end teams pick him up. Maybe a Fiorentina, maybe a Lazio, someone of the sort. It certainly seems like he could be a good squad player Aslani. And what about Pena Monti bro? 13 goals this season. Madonna 13 goals is crazy for Empoli man.
It's the same amount as Dzeko has scored for Inter and it's three times the amount that Correa has scored for Inter. Do you think he'll stay at Inter next season Pena Monti? It just depends because Inter are oversaturated as fuck with their strikers. They've got four at the moment and they've got four world class strikers. They've got Correa, very good rather. Correa, Dzeko, Lautaro and Sanchez will probably be on his way out because of his massive wages and Inter's finances so that's one down.
Do you think Pena Monti should settle for being third fiddle? I think at his age it's only natural. He's going to be called upon eventually and he just needs to take those chances. I think a transfer to a smaller big team where he could potentially start would be on the cards for him. Imagine a side like Sassuola for example should they lose Skamaka or maybe Bologna if they lose Arnautovic, something like that. A slightly mid-table team.
Perhaps but I'm not sure Inter would want to lose him. We'll see. It depends on their finances right now. We're talking about a 22 year old guy over here. A 22 year old guy who's just scored 13 goals in his first season starting. For sure but is the man going to settle for fucking playing third fiddle man? He probably will be third choice but with the squad rotation he can't. You can argue would he be settling for Sassuola when he could be competing to play for Inter.
But normally the way it goes with these players that are progressing is they need a progressive step first before going to the top before impressing at Inter. He could do it two ways. He could either fight for his place at Inter which would be no easy task whatsoever but this opinion could bite me in the ass if Inter decide to offload a load of strikers because Lautaro's being rumoured away.
Sanchez is being rumoured out as well. Even Dumfries has been rumoured to be leaving. But of course a pinch of salt. I guess what you're saying does make sense if you look at for example Petania who had a very similar season with Spal. He was their only good point to be honest. Mendy Francesco back then. They got relegated in fact. And Lazary. He went to Napoli prematurely in my opinion. He was playing third. He was alright and I was even earlier.
So yes it could be a bit too early or too soon rather for Pena Monty to make that step to Inter. Maybe another loan deal is on the cards. We'll see what happens over here. Plus as we mentioned financial issues might cause them to sell basically. We mentioned Lautaro Martinez Friday night and I like the way you move. Lautaro Martinez. Five goals in six games played on a Friday this season. What is it about the SESH gremlin? I don't get it bro. I guess it's just happy that the weekend's here.
Weekend means work for footballers. Weekend means blow dryer and hair dryer. Lautaro has just been massive for Inter this season. Obviously he has had that slip up in form. But after losing Lukaku someone had to step up and I feel like he did it at the right times. He did. He had a dry streak in the middle of the season but he seems to have overcome it now. Inter's mentality of course hardly ever seemed to slip up. So that Bologna game Milan really do need to take advantage of it quite frankly.
Empoli had nothing to play for this game of course bar perhaps revenge for Inter relegating them two or three years ago. I can't quite remember right now of course there was that game. We often talk about it because it was a crazy game. Handanovic kept them in it. Empoli were all over them. One of the best sides of SING get relegated. They had Caputo, Traore, Bernaser, Kronish. They were stacked with talent. Insane.
And of course they couldn't get it done against Inter and Inter got Champions League and Empoli got relegated that year. So revenge was not on the cards for them. Exactly. Now it was a very different encounter as Inter also have two matches left. They seem somewhat more straightforward than perhaps the Milan games but obviously with Caliari fighting for relegation and Sampdoria being somewhat in the mix as well. Those could get interesting very quick.
There's also breaking news right now that states Inter will play this Sunday's game at 3 o'clock whereas Milan play at 6. It was originally scheduled for 8.45 so a bit of weirdness over there but I don't have the details down to a tee. Inter find themselves in second place two points behind Milan whereas Empoli find themselves in 14th on 37 points for ahead of Spezia. The next game we're going to be discussing is Torino nil Napoli 1. The previous encounter was another 1-nil win for Napoli.
Napoli were coming off a 6-1 spanking to Sassuolo while Torino were coming off a 3-1 away victory to Empoli. So safe to say both teams came into this game inspired. Torino's lost win in Serie A against Napoli came back in the March of 2015 in a 1-nil victory thanks to a Kamil Glick goal. You might remember him recently playing with Benevento in Serie A. Now I remember. In the 61st minute Insigne missed a penalty.
There was a harsh penalty given on it but the replay showed that he made just enough contact with Mertens. So harsh this penalty. Insigne stuttered. Slowed it down. It looks really bad. Insigne stuttered in the line-up as he usually does. He went left as he typically does. Berisha guessed correctly as they typically do and he saved it. Another missed penalty for Insigne. He had a good run. He had a very good run. So it was a loud one now I think. I wouldn't call 8 out of 12 a good run.
I mean he got his last 2 or 3 I believe. I have a problem with Insigne bro I'm going to say it. What that he's off to Canada? Oh it's a combination of things. He's right. I mean you look at a player whose entire personality was based about being loyal and loving Naples and being from there and wanting to take them to the top. And then the one opportunity he had to actually fucking fight and work for his team.
In January he's rumored to be off to fucking Canada and all of a sudden they were confirmed. They signed the contract and everything. Some crazy deal making millions and millions whatever. You know how the Neapolitans feel about that. So that was already a massive slap in the face. That and the fact that he's only scored I think one open play goal this season. Two now. Two? It's shit. He's scored 8 penalties out of 12. Like he's missed quite a few as well. He's not passing man.
When the pass is on he doesn't. Pass he goes for the dribble or the shot. He's playing selfishly man. I still think he's instrumental for the Neapolit team. I think it can't be underrated how he dictates play down the left. He cuts in. He creates a lot of space for his teammates. But as you're saying I have a bit of a problem with Insigne right now as well because I mean club captain you confirm that you're leaving in January.
And you know his performance since then he hasn't been as sharp as he was for example last season. He hasn't been contributing as much as he hasn't been last season. We blame the tone the stick he was getting from fans and the situation that he's currently in. But at the end of the day to be honest he has had a slump but he is going to be missed by the Napoli faithful. I don't know about that bro. To be honest with you they have their legends over there in Naples. They've got their Maradona.
They've got their Mertens. I think Insigne is going to actually be viewed in that Higuain light. That traitor light. That we could have won the league if you played a little bit better. If you didn't have your head up your ass and in Canada whatever. I guess maybe. Different opinions. In fact shortly after Insigne was played through and after waiting so long to shoot that the defender caught up to him and blocked it. That Lozano was visibly frustrated. He was wide open. Ozyman just frustrated.
You can't help but feel that it's not just the fans that are frustrated with Insigne's form. It's the players around him. They're often swinging their arms around flailing them around whenever he's on the ball. Because when he plays badly he plays badly. There's no in-between performance for Insigne. It's either spectacular or he's horse shit. The winner came in the 73rd minute shortly after being subbed on. Pobega casually attempted to flick the ball past Ruiz in midfield.
Ruiz read it well of course and intercepted it. He drove into the area firing between Berisha's legs and into the back of the net. It's frustrating bro when a lone player that already knows he's going to be at a bigger club the next season does something like that right? It is frustrating. Then again you won't pull this shit off if you try but there's just time and place to try these things. I guess Torino have their own little battle within that top ten region. And yeah he did let his team out.
They could have come out with a good nil-nil victory to Napoli. And he really killed the vibe quite frankly because I couldn't help but notice how calm Torino fans were prior to the goal bro. Watching it on TV it was daytime. It was sunny. The weather was beautiful. Everyone was smiling. Everyone was laughing. They could have done it. They've been in great form man Torino. They could have done it but it was individual error that lost them this game.
And a few lucky calls as well within Sydney are fucking up twice as well. True true. But these fans bro they seem to believe in Juric. And they're happy with the trajectory of the club I think. They became so cocky after Berisha saved the penalty. They were so cocky bro smiling and waving at the cameras. They're forced to be reckoned with man Torino this season. They had their slumps. They had a terrible season last season. But they're looking much better now and I think next season bro.
Next year they're going to be even better. When Juric builds the team that he can if they give him the liberty to do so. Hopefully they're going to be top eight potentially. Top nine potentially. They're going to be good. Nopoli pretty much bro have secured third place after Juventus faltered against Genoa. It's a good season for them. Is it though? I don't think so. When they found themselves in the situation they were in they were first for quite a long time.
They had a fantastic start to the season. Then they got a bit fucked over with injuries. They seemed like they were going to get out of that well. But then they just slipped up on a couple of occasions. They had a couple of bad spells throughout. I think if they reassessed in January saw what they could do and found out that at the end of the season they're in the situation that they're in. That'd be very disappointed man. Maybe. I mean they could have won the league.
They could have won the league. That's true. But you know for example Milan could have won the league last season. But qualifying for Champions League was the most important thing right. And at the end of the season Milan fans were satisfied. They said look this was our objective. Granted it was a plain crash landing. You know what I mean? Like in the Caliari game, then the Atalanta one, whatever. But this time Napoli have qualified for Champions League.
That's the reason why Spalletti was brought on. Of course something Gattuso couldn't do. And for them this is a step in the right direction. A step in the right direction for sure. And they showed us what they can do and next season hopefully for them they could do it more consistently. But again I think if you find yourself in a certain situation and then when it comes down to the boiling point you bottle it once again.
Like alright this is a new look Napoli with a new manager, new players as well in Sydney are leaving. Next season Ozymen up front. Yeah I still wouldn't call it a totally successful season because their ceiling was not reached. And they settled for their minimum goal so to say. Fair enough. Fair enough. Okay. Itso had a great tackle. Lost the tackle in the area on Ozymen. These things aren't often mentioned of course in the highlights. I thought it would be cool to mention that.
Itso's an animal. Any other observations from this game by any chance? I mean the game was pretty tight. I think Torino showed that they can battle with some of the best teams in the league this season. Beating Juve, they did bits in this game against Napoli. They held Milan as well. Ten shots for them to Napoli's eleven but unfortunately due to human error they didn't manage to get away with the victory. Napoli sit in third with 73 points while Torino find themselves in tenth with 47 points.
The next game we're gonna be covering is the biggest upset that happened this weekend. Probably it was Juve travelling to Genoa and coming away with nothing. It was Genoa 2, Juve 1. The previous encounter was Juve 2, Genoa nil. Quite frankly that's the way these games are supposed to go. Quite frankly, I mean when you have teams that aren't as uninspired as Juve are right now. We'll get down to the slander very soon. Exactly.
Genoa are coming off a derby loss to Sampdoria with the score of 1-0 obviously with that heart-breaking 96th minute penalty miss for Krishnetov. Juve are coming off a 2-1 home victory against Venezia aka Bonucci's birthday bash. Happy birthday baby! Coming into this Juve had won each of their last five Serie A meetings against Genoa. They last embarked on a longer winning streak against them between 1957 and 1960 where they got 7.
In the 48th minute Keane dispossessed a defender and played it to Debala just outside the area. Debala took a touch and placed it cleanly into the bottom right corner beating an outstretched Sirigu. Debala then went for a similar shot this time with his left only moments later to hit the post. In the 68th minute Zakaria continued to hit the post while in the 83rd minute there was a Varchek that indicated no penalty for Juve. Now this is where shit went sour for Juve.
It was in the 87th minute that Amiri played the ball through to Goodmansen who took a touch and finished with his right foot. The Icelandic winger had come off the bench. That was quite a nice goal. He took the touch with the outstep of his right foot and shot it with the laces. Yeah, exactly. Great finish by Goodmansen. Moments later it looked like Genoa were actually going to take the lead when Rabio misplaced a pass and Amiri's seemingly easy goal was denied by Varchek-Szezny.
There was then, moments later, Morata squared the ball to Keane who had an open net but shot wide. A terrible miss for the Italian man. And then in the 96th minute De Silio fouled Ekoban in the area and bravely Krishito stepped up to take the penalty. He then stepped up and atoned for his error in the derby della lanterna as he converted the penalty and ran off in celebration.
He took off his shirt but this time bro just make a note over here because he left his undershirt on so just add that to your note. You think it's because they're a bit flabby here? I don't think so bro. I think it's just pure instinct to take something off and fucking run. I was grateful to never do shorts unless you're a bot. But what a moment for Genoa, what a moment for Krishito, what had Romagnoli taken off his shorts? Romagnoli would take off his shorts at any opportunity he got. Really?
Yes, it's a very Italian thing. Remember the 2006 World Cup they were under a tighty white. I remember that. But as I was saying what a moment for Genoa as it seems like they suddenly have a glimmer of hope. What a moment for Krishito who was distraught in the last game and now the way football works is beautiful. They lose the lanterna but then they beat Juve at home the next week. Why did Juve lose this game bro?
I think Juve right now don't have anything to play for. They're qualified, these three games have vibes. They don't even know who their manager is going to be next season and Allegri is tasked with this infuriating job of keeping his players motivated while knowing that he might not even be at the helm next season. Special players like Debala knowing he's out next season for example.
Exactly, so there were a lot of lapses in concentration. There were many people who seemed unmotivated to be honest and distracted. They're in the middle of a lot of bullshit. Like Keynes miss that wasn't, granted it happens but that goes to show that he wasn't focused at the time. Rabio's error in the back who just passing losing the ball in the box. Amiri's one on one with the goalkeeper that was a fuck up. Not to mention Decilio's clumsy ass tackle at the end. These guys are distracted.
100%. They only had four shots on target. Genoa had fucking six dude. So it goes to show how this game went. Vlaović again just totally isolated. I saw a stat recently that said that in the past two games he managed to take one shot and he basically had to fucking go to Hellland back to get that shot. He beat three players and it was more of a hallelujah more than anything.
Simply this doesn't seem to be the system for him. I understand that by just having him there as a striker, as a forward, it does make them a better team. But he is one of the most prolific goal scorers in the league. Please play him in like. He costs 30 million more than Holland bro. That's fucking nuts like when you think well I'm not denying Vlaović's ability. I'm just saying. Holland is not a 60 million football player. Holland is a generational talent right? Exactly.
I think bro from this Juve team there is a positive about it. So first of all watch how tomorrow's game, Wednesday's game, sorry against Inter the final. It's going to be a completely different Juve. Probably when you're listening it will be today's game. But like Jake said it will be a different Juve man. For sure they rise to these occasions as fuck. Right. Going into this game, Miretti bro, he's been playing really well right? This 18 year old midfielder. I saw a hot take on Twitter.
Someone said that if Locatelli isn't fit then Miretti should start in the final against Inter basically over Arthur. What do you think? Potentially man. Potentially. He has come in, he's shown great positional awareness. He's playing the ball around nicely. He's stepping up to take set pieces. And I think as a direct replacement for Locatelli he makes sense as a player. And I think he brings a breath of fresh air to Juve rather than Arthur who is a lateral passing king.
Miretti is not shy to pass the ball forward. He passes the ball forward loads. He's way more of a positive player in the midfield than Arthur. Obviously Miretti still has a lot to learn. But that raw talent in Juve's team in the midfield is a nice breath of fresh air man. The question is why is deploying someone like that in a final in 18 year old? The pressure is so high, the stakes are so high and you're against Inter. It could be a make or break moment.
It is a make or break moment and in these situations Allegri must have a higher football IQ than us. And he knows him, he actually knows his character. Exactly, I don't know what he's like in the dressing room, I don't know if he's a leader. But it seems like he's not bad under pressure. He's playing like you said for a weird Juve team at the moment and he's been doing well man.
And congratulating him maybe with a performance in the final, with starting in the final, then maybe bringing on Arthur later on, might be a good shout man. I wouldn't bet that Allegri starts him in the final. I wouldn't bet so either. He'll go for Arthur. He'll use the mentality of yep, this is the only thing we're playing for this season. Might as well deploy my most experienced players. Players that have proven themselves and he'll end up choosing Arthur I'm quite sure. Yeah, most likely.
Genoa bro, of course, they refuse to die, right? Cremonez and Lecce have been promoted to Serie A. By the way, we should make a post about that. But it's still unknown which of these Serie A teams will face relegation. That's crazy, right? Not a single team has been relegated yet. Next weekend we'll see some relegations. Venezia could have been the first ones to get relegated, but they scored the last minute winner. Yeah, exactly. Crazy league this year. Everything is beautiful this year.
What's this about Debala apparently preferring Milan to Inter? Who said this shit? Il Giornale, it's an Italian newspaper. Of course, they said that Debala would prefer a move to Milan over Inter. The question is, would Milan prefer a move for Debala to them than to Inter? It's a question you need to ask Maldini. The answer is probably a resounding no. He just doesn't seem to fit what Milan are trying to do at all. But he's free, man. He's fucking free, eh, dawg?
And I mean, Milan have bought older players. They've bought older players with a similar salary like Zlatan. He has experience in the league as well. His wages are quite fucking crazy though, no? Aren't they? They are, yes. Is it nine million a season? Something like that, bro. Personally, you know how I feel about Debala. You know how I don't like the fact that he can't get a full season out of him. You can't rely on him for stretches of the season.
But then he's so good, man. He's so good then. He is, he really is. He is really good. Like who's been doing shit for Juve in the past couple of games? Him, Debala. It's true. Debala's been performing. So it's one of those that probably right now I'll say, ah, there are better options out there, even if Milan need to invest some money short term and then save in wages.
But then again, if Milan were linked to him and he was close to signing, I'll be excited to watch him put on the kit and perform. Yeah, and that's the thing. Quite frankly, it'd have to be a bit of a doofus to say no to Debala on a free. Exactly. Maratta posted a picture of Quadrado on his story, bro. Do you know who else was in it, man? No. Kialini and his monkey dick bro again. This is the second time Kialini's been changing at work and he's naked on the internet.
Seriously, it was another one. It was another one. What the fuck, guys? Be careful. Oh, Kialini's just fucking getting naked. He's at work. He's just changing. I don't get fucking naked at work. You're not an athlete. How weird. You have the photo. I do. It's probably been taken down of everywhere. I highly doubt it. On Twitter, man, you'll find it for sure. In the meantime, I'm going to let you know where these teams stand while Drake looks for Kialini's monkey dick, apparently.
So you were in fourth on 69 points. There are four points. It was actually Bonucci's monkey dick. It was Bonucci's monkey dick. Now all we need is Barzalli's and we have completed the BBC. It's three monkey dicks. So as I was saying before you rudely interrupted, Juve are fourth on 69 points. There are four behind Napoli and seven ahead of Lazio in fifth. Whilst Genoa are on 28 points in 19th. Two points from safety. Three ahead of Venezia.
The next game we're going to be covering is Lazio 2-Sampdoria nil. The reverse fixture was a 3-1 away victory for Lazio. Lazio were coming off that mental 4-3 victory against Spezia while Sampdoria were coming off their Derby de la Lanterne victory thanks to a penalty save by Audero and Krishito at the end as we discussed literally five minutes ago. Lazio have only failed to find the net in one of their last two, say, meetings with Sampdoria, losing only two of those games, bro.
The last Sampdoria, say, win at the Olympico against Lazio came back in 2005. So the game kicked off, of course, and it was in the 41st minute that Patrick managed to score thanks to a lovely Louis Alberto free kick. It's funny to see Patrick, you know, he ran between two defenders and was next to Omar Colley when he scored the goal. But, you know, the two defenders who are at fault here pointed to Colley and they kind of threw him under the bus when in reality it was their fault.
You know, they lost their man. Yeah, it was miscommunication in the defense. I don't think it's fair to just blame Colley for that one. So funny seeing them pointing their fingers and flailing their arms when he just ran past them. In the 59th minute, Lazio tore Sampdoria a new one. Lazardy intercepted the post and burst past Augiello and two midfielders. He played the ball to Louis Alberto who took it round the goalkeeper, paused it and tapped it into the back of the net.
Paused it, paused and tapped it into the back of the net. It was a fucking great goal by the wizard himself, bro. Mesmerizing composure. Even when he was completely stopped and he had all those bodies around him, just calmly tapped it into the back of the net between a couple of players as well. He's just magic when he's on this guy, man. Not bad to have him and Milinkovic salvage in your midfield. Not bad at all, quite frankly. In the 90th minute, Kualirella hit the post.
Macross came in and he found himself perfectly placed right in front of the goalkeeper as he kicked the ball into the post very uncharacteristically. Yep, well, he hasn't had the best of seasons, Kualirella. There was a shout that maybe he's not being found and if he's being found he's gonna score. He was found here and unfortunately he didn't manage to hit the back of the net. It's always nice to see players who don't often score, eh bro, eventually when they score. With Patrick, eh.
Sprinting, screaming, tapping the Lazio badge, you know, crazy scenes. It means a lot to them and this shit is literally their life. And for Patrick to come in, I mean, I think even we talked some smack about how is Patrick in your starting eleven, you know. For 120 games. Yeah, and he got a goal and he celebrated like it meant the world to him. So happy for him and happy for Lazio. Yeah, Sanpedoria this game bro showed some good fight.
No, they were attacking early on, they forced the goalkeeper into a few saves but it wasn't enough to get anything over here. Lazio basically won due to a training ground routine and a moment of magic by Luis Alberto, right? That's what it is. I mean, Lazio are a well-versed side under Maurizio Sarri. They have a couple of moves up their sleeves.
Aside from that they have some magical players like we mentioned Milinkovic Savic, we mentioned Luis Alberto, there's obviously Ciro, Moblez, Felipe Anderson on his day. So they definitely have a couple of tools that could hurt teams. In this case, obviously facing a Sanpedoria side we didn't expect any different. If a 2-0 victory was in fact correct score for me. So, yeah, just a bit of a flex over there for you. Thanks bro. My pleasure. Which was better this season?
Sanpedoria under Daversa or Sanpedoria under Gianpaolo? I think they were both shit, to be honest. I think Sanp under Daversa had some good moments, some very rare good moments. And under Gianpaolo some rare good moments, to be honest. I would say I think Daversa edges it ever so slightly, but it's because he had more time than Gianpaolo. I think Gianpaolo still has a lot of work to do. He needs a transfer market and all that. Of course we're not talking about Gianpaolo's first stint, guys.
That stint was obviously objectively the better one. We're talking about this season. And quite frankly I do think that they look better under Gianpaolo. They look better under Gianpaolo when it comes to the way they play. But I'm not sure if the results have been better. I'd like to see a stat. Yeah, I'd like to look back and see who has fared better over there. But I think that's what I was about to say.
I think Daversa managed to get more out of his players, whereas Gianpaolo gets more from his system. You know what I mean? It doesn't allow individual brilliance. He also has Sensi, which Daversa didn't have. Sabiri has been making appearances as well. He wasn't really under Daversa. So Gianpaolo has added a breath of fresh air, but at what cost when you lose a player like Candreva contributing so much? Your best player arguably, well definitely, clearly something's wrong over there.
So Lazio currently stand in fifth with 62 points, while Sampdoria are in 15th with 33 points. It seemed bizarre to me that we covered Lazio against Sampdoria before we covered Fiorentina Roma, but obviously we do this in order of the standings. This game was Fiorentina 2 Roma nil on a Monday night. The previous encounter was Roma 3, Fiorentina 1, so they are now level on aggregate.
Roma were coming off a nil-nil home draw to Bologna and a 1-nil home win to Leicester midweek to reach the Conference League final with Sommar in the Ointiers and some beautiful moments for the city of Rome. Fiorentina coming off a 1-nil home loss to Milan, which they played the best team in the league so that was gonna happen.
Roma had won each of their last five Serie A matches against Fiorentina and could become the first team to win against the Viola in six matches in a row in the competition, since Milan in 2008 and 2011 with 7. Obviously this did not happen as Fiorentina got away with a 2-nil victory. This was a massive match in the context of Europa League qualification, but unfortunately for Roma they just failed to show up.
To be fair to them, there was a weird call instantly in the fifth minute as Guida possibly awarded the softest penalty of the season in my opinion. No penalty whatsoever. Mancini with the slightest of contact on Nico González on the line of the area. It looked way worse slowed down. Honestly guys, he tapped his shin with his toe. Even slowed down didn't even look that bad. I'm so surprised he gave it. Apparently Banti was in the vatrum and he was the one who pushed for it to be given.
The Bantisaurus Rex. In fact Mourinha had a lot to say about in the postgame. I'm sure. It was on the line and according to the rulebook of penalties, that is a penalty, Patricio ended up diving way too early as González simply went the other way. It was González who won it and González who stepped up and converted. It was just six minutes later in the eleventh that Bonaventura made it too. It was pretty much a solo goal even though it is listed as a Cabral assist.
Bonaventura pretty much set it up himself with all the touches that he took. Zalefsky just defended poorly in my opinion. He was looking to defend the overlapping run instead of the man on the ball. It's in the fucking rule 101 of being a defender. It's interesting. That's what you get when you play these youngsters, these young players. That's why in Italy they're so despised. When it comes to making a decision sometimes, they're a bit slow.
They're either going to give you a world-class assist in Europe like Zalefsky did. He has all media talking about you, including the English media, which is so typically harsh on an Italian team. So when they're praising a player, it's always good. Or else you're going to get an amateur mistake like this. This was a rookie mistake. You have Bonaventura running towards goal. He was just going to mark the overlapping run.
He gave him so much time to tee up the shot and have it with his left perfectly placing it into the bottom corner. That was all Zalefsky's fault. It was. It was totally Zalefsky's fault, but probably knowing him, he will learn from it and he will be bigger. Later on there was a disallowed goal for Bonaventura. There was an offside in the build-up play. Obviously that would've been his second. Bro, I mean, from the get-go, it just seemed like Fiorentina's game.
And it wasn't even because Fiorentina were outstanding. I think Roma looked uninspired. They looked out of ideas. They normally thrive from set pieces. It just seems like they didn't really get set pieces. Veretou seemed to be imposing himself a lot of all people in this game, trying to make something happen. While Zaniolo wasn't at the races, Tammy Abraham wasn't at the races, Pellegrini wasn't at the races. What did you make of this?
So Mourinho started ten players who had featured on Thursday against Leicester. Mourinho said that the Leicester game on Thursday was physically and mentally exhausting. Of course, it's a European semifinal, right? Of course. He's right. About the penalty call, Mourinho was furious. You know what I mean? He said the game was decided by that penalty. And I actually think that Mourinho does make quite a few excuses typically, but this time I can't help but agree with him, bro.
He said that the game plan coming into this game for Roma was to control and dictate the tempo at a slower pace due to the fact that they were exhausted. Now when something goes against you like that, the injustice, you can't help but feel fucking rubbed. Of course, man.
So you're suddenly tired, you're one nil down, you have to run more suddenly, because they're just going to sit back and they're just going to hold the ball and pass it around, and you have to fucking press and win the ball back and attack and actually do something with it. I found the quote quite funny, bro. What did he say? He said, Guida had a good game, he said, the referee of course, he said, but that Mr. Bunty from Livorno made a decision.
He said it like three times, Mr. Bunty from Livorno, kind of like an I know where you live, I know who you are, I'm exposing the fuck out of you. What a dig that is. No, but like you're saying, the decision was weird and obviously that set the tempo in the game and really caught Roma off guard. And in fact, six minutes later, bro, a human error and then by an inexperienced left bag that has been performing so well.
But, you know, played on Thursday, played again on Monday, he's been relied on a lot, obviously, because of Spina's injury, and it led to him making a rookie mistake really. So in 11 minutes, Roma were down bad because of a bad decision by the referee, well, by the VAR room and a bad decision again by their left back. So you don't blame Roma for being pissed off about this man. Yeah, even though they never reacted, granted me because they were tired, whatever, but it's true they never reacted.
Yeah, they never reacted, but as well, you have to praise Fiorentina for their capabilities off the ball. If there is a side that can keep their shape, if there's a side that can adapt to situations, it's Italiano, Fiorentina, they're great at defending off the ball, man. Unless they're playing good in airs. They're dark horse.
Exactly. Fucking Tammy Abraham had a bad miss at the end of the game, bro, but that pretty much summed up that Roma display right in front of the keeper with his header, he misses it. Pellegrini had a free kick. Yeah, that was their only shot on target. Yeah, exactly. But at least I would like to see Roma break into fifth because as a culture fan I would much rather have them than Lazio in that position when it comes to club history and all of that. I prefer Roma as a club.
Now this is me making claim on a neutral podcast, but I do prefer Roma as a historic club rather than Lazio. Neutral podcast. Controversial. But it is gonna be nice seeing Fiorentina in Europe again should they make it. This was a massive step in the right direction for them. And hopefully they bring Nintendo back as a sponsor, baby. Let's run it back. As you mentioned, bro, I'd just like to talk again, the conference league scenes for Roma were incredible.
You mentioned Mourinho crying, there's the anthem, bro, the teefoi, the Roma, Roma. I was lucky enough, even you were lucky enough, to witness a packed stadium singing that. I watched Roma destroy Juventus 3-1. Maaadon. Salah, De Rossi, and Nangolan scored. My god. Oh my god, that was peak Roma. It was toti came on at the end. It was Spalletti as manager, toti came on at the end. And Lemina scored for Juve. Yes. And he danced in front of us. There was Rudiger as well for Roma at that time.
Manolas, the Greek god in Rome. I watched an interview with Peter Drury about that. He said he had to win himself some time because he didn't know who scored when it happened. So he just said, Roma have risen from the ruins because he had that listed. He was like, who the fuck scored? And I was like, Manolas! He's fucking Greek, the Greek god in Rome. That's incredible. Peter Drury is fantastic. Recently I saw a TikTok. I saw a TikTok about his day-to-day. I'd like to see more content.
But it's weird because it's with his wife. It's shared with his wife. And it's like a cooking and commentary thing. I didn't see that. I might be using it with another one. But would it be a successful season for Roma if they win the Conference League? Let's say they come in sixth. I mean, Roma and trophies don't often go hand in hand. So any silverware for them is a success at any point in their history. And what do you anticipate for them next season under Mourinho? Better. They'll be better.
They'll learn the Mourinho way. Let it be more that they need a good second pre-season under him. He needs to get a few of those Mourinho players that we often talk about over here. Those players with balls. Those players who will die on the pitch. He would have been so good with De Rossi and Nainggolan and the team come to think of it. But I think we can conclude this. Obviously, we didn't really praise Fiorentina much. But obviously a great result for them. They got the two goals.
No matter how they came, they managed to hang on to that. And they stopped Roma from scoring, which is not an easy task at all. They're currently tied on points with Roma in sixth and Fiorentina in seventh. Both on 59, the only difference being four goals in favor of Roma. The next game we're going to be covering is Spezia 1-Atalanta 3. The reverse fixture was a 5-2 victory for Atalanta.
Spezia, of course, were coming off that 4-3 home loss to Lazio while Atalanta were coming off, I'm not even going to call it disappointing because of the rate Salernitana are going, but a 1-1 home draw to Salernitana. And the rate Atalanta are going as well. The only previous home match for Spezia against Atalanta was the 0-0 draw back in 2020. Jesus. Now, in the 13th minute, Bastoni struck the post. There was a shot from a tight angle that was saved onto the post.
In the 16th minute, Muriel turned it on. He did the thing where he kind of walks the ball into the box and just passes it in and no one seems to stop him. Everyone's like, where's he going to go? He's not going anywhere. You know what I mean? The whole phenomenal thing. In the 30th minute, there was a perfectly weighted through ball by Maggiore which broke Verde free. Verde took it in front of the goalkeeper and beat him with some trickery slotting at home.
Now, this is where things started to get a little bit unfortunate for Spezia because in the 53rd minute, Bastoni went down injured and in the 67th minute, Agudelo went down injured. When they were down to 10 men before they had actually changed the player, they conceded. A free kick crossed by Cook Miners found Demerol at the far post who headed it to Gymsity who headed it home. Atalanta often do this, no? Crossed to a center back who crosses it to a center back who scores it.
It's the balls to the far post squared into the middle on the head one of their big cunts and then just headed in. Literally. In the 81st minute, Boga hit the post from just outside the area. He struck the crossbar which would have been a fantastic goal. Then in the 87th minute, upon receiving the ball in the area, Muriel looked as though he was going to curl it, pulling all the defenders towards him and said he released it to Pasalic who finished it expertly into the bottom right corner.
So bro, what did you make of this game? I think Spezia put up a good fight and they were very unfortunate to go down to 1 the way that they did initially and after that they kind of crumbled and there's not much they could have done to stop Muriel and Pasalic who were just on the right. They were unlucky, however Atalanta's firepower doesn't allow you to be unlucky and quite frankly they're going to capitalize from it. They are, they are.
The typical Atalanta that we all know that will show up against Milan on Sunday. But maybe they'll show up against the Spezia's. They dismantled them. What I said last week is that they show up in games like this so it really had a lot to say about Salernitana holding them because in situations like this Atalanta score 3, they score 4, they go on a riot.
Do you think the likes of Spezia and Sambiduari are in danger bro at the bottom of the table right now considering the form of Giano and Salernitana? Like we've seen teams get relegated with 33 points before and they're both on 33. They are in danger, they are in danger straight up. There are two games left to play. There's potential of 6 points to pick up. They are straight up in danger.
It'll be very odd to see Caliari for example pick up 6 points or Giano pick up 6 points that'll see Sambiduari or Spezia relegated and it would need to take something like that so they're probably fine. But you can never say this league has been so unpredictable. I mean Salernitana are out of the relegation zone. Like that's how unpredictable it's been. They were dead and buried bro. Now in the 20th everyone had them out.
We gave our bottom three so many times and it was Venezia surviving and Spezia going down and Salernitana always lost and it was Giano and Caliari and Giano and Caliari. Now we understand why it was so hard bro because none of these guys want to get relegated. So two games ago we have no idea who's going down, not even one team. Crazy. I love this league. I love it so much. Okay I think we can conclude this game bro.
Matalanta of course keep pushing, they remain relevant with Fiorentina and with Lazio and Roma too. While Spezia of course are in 16th with 33 points. Yes sir, the next game we're going to be covering is the tight encounter between Sassuolo and Odinez in the mape that ended 1-1. The previous encounter in Odine was a win for Odinez with a score of 3-2. Sassuolo were coming off a 6-1 loss in Naples while Odinez were coming off a 2-1 home loss to Inter.
Sassuolo haven't won any of their last eight Serie A games against Odinez now. Their longest ongoing winless streak against a single opponent in the top flight. Odinez will just do this, they just turn into people's bogey teams. I have a note here that says a trophy makes Dionisi look like a smurf. Do you care to elaborate on that bro? So I wrote this because I saw them shaking hands at the beginning of the game and Shofi is massive compared to Dionisi.
Dionisi looked like a weird smurf with like a vest, we call it a tank top at St. Martins. Of course we call it a tank top at St. Martins. In the foye? Oh my god, the piazzetta. Where shall we have lunch today, in the foye or the piazzetta? Ma fuck that. In the sixth minute Skamaka opened the scoring so Raspadori twisted and turned inside the area and squared it to Scammy who tapped it in.
Some brilliant work by Raspadori and again it's those two up front when it's not them two, it's Junior Traore. There just always seems something to be going on for Sassuolo unless they're playing Napoli. In the 77th minute this was weird because I didn't realise that it was a goal, there was no reaction whatsoever. You see a player of Udinez even put his hands to his head. So Noythink managed to tap in a rebound after Sopi's shot, he just kind of accepted that it wasn't a goal.
He maybe thought it was an offside position or something of the sort but the goal stood and should've been scenes to be honest because it's a 77th minute equaliser for Udinez against Sassuolo. Once again nothing really to play for these guys. Yep, true. So when it comes to the talking points, firstly was there someone that edged it in your opinion, someone that deserved three points or was one point shared fair?
So I think that this game was really tight but when it came to actually possession control it was Sassuolo who edged it. They didn't even edged it, they had 60% ball possession. I think they overall played better but then however, Consigli did keep them in it for some time. To be honest same thing could be said about Silvestri because both teams were just trying to get the better of each other and none of them quite managed.
Once again maybe they didn't have that extra motivation to go the whole way but who would you rather have in goal, Consigli or Silvestri? Excluding age, Consigli. I think he's a fantastic man that guy. I think Silvestri is a good shot stopper. Silvestri, Silvestri. What did I say? D. Silvestri. That's hilarious. I think Silvestri is a great shot stopper but sometimes you can question the way he controls his box, how he comes out for a cross, when he comes out and when he doesn't.
I think it's unfair not to mention age because Consigli is way more experienced which points me to choose Consigli. I'd love to see how Consigli was at 31. Well it's just four years ago to be honest. I would still take Consigli. I would disagree with you and say I take Silvestri simply because of the confidence on the guy. I think he actually does control his area quite well, relatively well. Not as well as Consigli.
Not as well as Consigli, no. But to be honest we've seen Consigli run out quite badly this season as well. We saw it at the Mape in person. He gave away a penalty, no? Had he? He foued Zerko. Yes, exactly. But anyway, Silvestri, I just love the fact that he trash-talks. He's a bullshit shithouse player. And he does pull off amazing saves.
Bro, sorry I seem a bit lost. I'm just trying to think of the centre-backs name. Because you know how we say that Consigli doesn't get called Fertile because he wanks in the showers in the dressing rooms? I heard that Juninho is now the manager of Lyon and he was frustrated with a player and then in the dressing room apparently this player, he's a centre-back, he's a big centre-back, something with an M. Can you find out please?
He got dropped. The last throw was when he farted in the dressing room and him and his teammates were all laughing and Juninho fired him like. Oh my god. Was it any of the Diomande? No, no. I think it's with an M dude. Marcello, Marcello, Marcello. So you're telling me Marcello farted in the dressing room and Juninho fired him? Yes. It is exactly what happens with Consigli and his wanking in the shower. I am sure of it bro. It has to be. Consigli have never been called up. Exactly.
But anyway bro, again like you know we saw this Erling Haaland deal go through, 60 million right? The city. That really like makes me question fratese 40 million. Skamaka 40 million. Well that's such an odd occurrence though, a player like Haaland leaving for 60 million. That is, you know, I look at everyone else and consider them stupid for not even stepping in and trying.
Like 60 million for Haaland is a steal. Fratese is not worth 40 million. No, I wouldn't spend 40 million. Not even in today's market. In today's market I'd say his height would be 20k. Especially last summer joining Sassuolo, I wouldn't see him for 40 million at all. Realistically I'd say Skamaka maybe is worth 30 million but even that's a bit stupid. He's done it for, he's done it for a season at all.
Skamaka will go for more than 30 million. Skamaka will go for 40 I would say. I think 40 million is the asking price for Skamaka. Berardi I would say somewhere in the 30-35 million region. Raspador is probably in the 20 region I would say. And Junior Trauer and then he'll be higher up. I think he'd be in the 30s. Something like that. He has a bit more experience and then to the Prem he could go for 50 million. I have the Prem where to go for Junior Trauer that spent 50 million.
They might spend 50 million on any of these guys. Many wasted opportunities this game as we discussed before. Aihon at the end of the game bro received the ball from a corner and folled it. He just went for power and he blasted it over the crossbar. He could have easily scored that I think if he took it a little bit easy. Was it close? No bro he skied it. He skied it and he was really close to the goal so it couldn't have gone too far. Okay I know the one.
So there were a lot of chances for Sassuala. I think I agree with you when you said that they probably were the better side in this game. I think but however like you said it's two teams with nothing left to play except for them to prove that they are the better team over the other team. Particularly a team like Udnes and Sassuala that both want to prove it. Other than that it's players trying to get a good move away for the summer.
It did end up in a 1-1 draw. I don't think there's too much to add about this game. Sassuala find themselves in 11th. They are now under Torino on 47 points and they are 5 points behind Verona. Whilst Udnes are just 3 points behind them in 12th. The next game that I am fortunate enough to be presenting to you is Venezia 4 Bologna 3. And what a game this was guys. It was definitely the game of the weekend.
The reverse fixture resulted in a Venezia 1-0 away victory to Bologna. So Venezia have actually done the double over Bologna this year. Venezia were coming off a 2-1 away loss to Salernitana while Bologna were coming off a 0-0 draw away to Roma. The first Venezia double in the top flight against Bologna since 1942 by the way. In the midst of a war dude. Yes sir. A loss here would have officially relegated Venezia and they looked down and out for a while this game.
This is what we were discussing last time. Whether you'd rather play a team that have nothing to play for or a team that needs something basically. This was that case man. Venezia wow. It all started in the 4th minute when Maempa launched the ball over the top to Henri who hit it first time. Tripping it right over the goalkeeper and running off in celebration 1-0 Venezia. Then in the 19th minute hops was tripped by Skorupski.
Kian took the penalty. It was saved by Skorupski who guessed correctly but the volley on the rebound was calm. That was his first ever Serie A goal quite frankly. It was a good take on the rebound to be honest. He did quite poorly on the penalty but scoring the rebound was off. He followed up well. If you miss a penalty, best case scenario is you get the rebound and he got it so good on him. In the 34th minute there was a tactical change. Orsolini was introduced for Arthur Theot.
Then in the 47th minute in the first half a perfect ball by Barrow from the left onto the head of Orsolini was the reason that they actually managed to get one back. It was a good change by Maja Lovic who was there in the flesh by the way. Lovely seeing him over there. Smiling like such a guy. In the 55th minute Arnautovic of course who else managed to get one back. Another perfect ball by Barrow to Desilvestri who squared it with his head to Arnautovic who tapped it in.
So at this point they're 2-2 and Venezia are thinking oh fuck we're slipping. Then in the 68th minute it was Jeremy Shouten who received the ball just outside the area and took a few slick cool touches before shooting the ball over Mayenpan into the net. He practically chipped him with a shot. That is a sexy goal bro. Everything about it, the footwork to the finish. Insane. Quite possibly the goal of the week. The goal of the week for sure. Definitely the goal of the week I would say.
And then in the 78th minute Medel clumsily kicked Aramo inside the box like no provocation. They just kicked him. Aramo sent the keeper the wrong way. Trademark penalty and trademark celebration by Mattia Aramo. And then while Venezia looked down and out of course Dennis Jonsson scored his first goal of the season. What a goal it was bro. Listen to the commentator.
And then in the 78th minute he sent the keeper the wrong way. Trademark penalty and trademark celebration by Mattia Aramo. What a goal it was bro. Listen to the commentator. I think the fact that that commentator has that voice when he shows energy. It's so funny. Dennis Jonsson! But it's so genuine. It's such a genuine reaction. And what a goal it was. They had every reason to react like that.
He controlled the ball with his outstep at an awkward angle on the edge of the area after only his shot had been saved. In the air bro. In the air. It was beautiful. And then he teed it up and just fucking curled it past the goalkeeper. Literally two really slick touches by him and the ball is in the back of the net from the angle it was in like and the strike that he gave. Wow.
And it took Jonsson a long time to do something like this. It's his first goal in Serie A. But I think he'll go down as one of the heroes in this tragic battle that Venezia are facing. Especially if they manage. Like, Venezia, they must be inspired right now after that. But they're done dude. They're done. I think they're done bro. It's funny because a game like this should show me that they're capable of doing it. They're capable of getting out of it.
Can you find out what games they have left please? Sure. But I think just the teams above them are such a step ahead man. Such a step ahead. Like Salernitana are looking good. Caliari are looking decent man. Genoa, you know, they just got that victory. They have Roma at the olympic. Oh no. And then Caliari in Venice. The Caliari ones, they can do it. They can do it. If they get something out of the Roma game, they take on Caliari head to head in the last game of the season.
What will they get something against Roma? A draw against Roma is fucking difficult but it's attainable if you fucking park the bus well man. Like they have a final. They have a final. Roma have a final in the conference league. I don't know if that's close to the date. I don't think it is. Let's see, this is on the 14th May. Conference League final. Let's see. 25th May. No, it's after. It's properly after. No, I don't think they can do it. If they do, man, wow.
But it'll take a massive slip up from the teams above them as well. Crazier things have happened this year. Salernitana were down way worse than they were. That's true. You're fucking right. You're fucking right. Again bro, I just want to highlight again seeing Mahalović at the game was excellent. It was. It was. He's a perfect example. A true professional, a leader. He prioritises his work over anything, man. And that's honestly, it's beautiful to see his team, man.
You know, he's like their dad. He is. Obviously, I did see a couple of things written that were like they were on a great streak. And then Mahalović showed up and then they suddenly lose to Venet. Is there some things to say about? I don't think so. I think he's basically the man in charge when he's not there as well. Of course, he sets everything up, right? Exactly. And they got close to winning this one. This is one of those occurrences.
And the tactical change was actually who brought them back into the game. Exactly. The Orsolini-Theato swap. Exactly. That was a brilliant decision by him. In hindsight, I thought it was, like in the beginning, I thought it was crazy. But it turned out to work really well. At the point I was wondering, is Arnautovic having his best season ever? And then I checked and yes, bro, he has 14 goals in a season. This is his best ever. His second best was with West Ham and I think he had 11.
He was good at West Ham. I remember people buzzing about him. If we ever wondered where he'd fit in best, bro, being the main man of a mid-table team in Italy is the fucking answer. He's fucking great there. He could probably be, well, either Bologna would be like this next season or, you know. I could see him going to Lazio with a good deal of strikes and he can swap with Immobile at that. But then he's playing a more second fiddle. Exactly.
I could see him at that team fighting to reach Europe. I could see him at Atalanta just as one of their options. Just as one of their many options. They just bring him on. 47th minute, another shot. Muriel out. Exactly. Classic Gasparini. Imagine Zanetti managing Bologna next year. Of course, not Zanetti from our intro. You're talking about the other manager, the Venezia one. That would be very good, bro, I think. He was playing good football with Venezia.
I think Venezia played really well, especially at the beginning of the season, so with a better team. Bolognas have quite a bit of talent. I think Zanetti could do a good job over there. I don't like the sound of it, to be honest, man. I think the turn that Venezia took and seeing Zanetti on the touchline, having altercations with the players as well, maybe shows that he can't control the team in the dressing room, for example. I haven't seen very naïve shouting at Wander in front of everyone.
I don't think I've seen enough to tell me this guy needs to level up. I think this guy needs to go back to Berkline, his way up again, and then fucking try again. Fair enough, he's still young, so it's part of the struggle. Learning curve, exactly. It's part of the process. Everyone's process is different. I think that's the case with him. But anyway, as per their league position... We forgot to ride them this time, guys, so bear with us. And Jake has a thousand tabs open.
I have one million, my god. Why is the episode so long, bro? Two hours in my... Where are you coming from? Two hours in my football, man. What's he talking about me? You don't know what to like. So Bologna are in 13th with 43 points, while Venezia are 20th with 25 points, 4 points from safety. So the last game we're going to be covering is... I was a fan of this game. I think instantly when you see a relegation six-pointer like this between two direct rivals just above each other.
This was a close second for craziest game of the weekend on this one. This was fucking mental. This was insane. I enjoyed this game. And we were watching it and Flynn was watching it. And he actually messaged us and said, are you witnessing this fucking madness? Crazy. Wow. Now we had a moment of aah, Serie A. And all that. The previous encounter was actually the exact same result.
It was Kalieri 1, Salernetana 1. Salernetana were coming off a 2-1 home victory to Venezia, while Kalieri were coming off a 2-1 home loss to Verona. Kalieri are now unbeaten in four Serie A matches against Salernetana thanks to 2-3-1 victories in 1999 and a 1-1 draw on the reverse fixture. The last Salernetana win against Kalieri in all competitions was back in January 2004 in Serie A. Whoa. Mental. I lisped, but I don't feel like deleting it. Keep it then, bro. Embrace it.
Exactly. Four weeks ago Salernetana were done, dead and buried. But a miraculous month under Davide Nicola saw them pick up 10 points from a possible 12 leading up to this fierce relegation six-pointer, bro. Mamma mia, man. Mamma mia. Here we go at this point. I'm like, here we fucking go. I can't wait. Alessandra Agostini's first match in charge of Kalieri after Mazzari sacking. So obviously we kept our eyes quite closely on Kalieri in this one.
Also, before I get into explaining the game, what was with Serpes' eye? Serpes suffered from a head injury in the last game and his eye, one of his eyes this game was black. And you could see when he was talking to the opposition players, they looked terrified looking him in the face. He actually watched a part of this game and when he came on the screen, she went, like, what the hell is wrong with his face? He looked like he was in a music video and he was like a goth demon on a metal video.
Anything not to start. What's his name? The subkeeper of Salernetana. Belec. Belec. Anything not to start. Belec. Poor guy is great though. So the game didn't really open up until the second half. I would say both teams were really feeling each other out and kind of both being cautious in this relegation six pointer. It was in the 68th minute and then that Verdi scored from a penalty for Salernetana. So Kastanos demonstrated some unbelievable skill to be Treppitelli in this one.
So he let the ball run under his legs. It was nuts like, well done. Then he was tripped by Lovatos. He was about to destroy him too. He knew it. He knew it. He was fucking coming. Verdi stepped up as intensely as ever and converts as he wheels away in celebration. He's living his best life. He is. He is. He's really dramatic. He's theatrical. The way he knee slides, the way he reacts. He looks like he should be a theater kid. You know what I mean? 100%. I think theater kids are really cool.
Well done to you guys. I doubt any theater kids are listening. Stupid sports! We have a lot of people at work that are from the theater background and they're insane at everything. In the 73rd minute there was a massive fight, bro. There was Radunovic and Ribéry sent off from the bench. The third keeper of Calliari and fucking Ribéry. Fucking that idiot. Ribéry, we shit on Ribéry so much. We're having him as a guest one day. Ribéry, we're massive fans. Ribéry had the number 7 shaped on his head.
Legendary clip. Ribéry, though, he said he was ashamed to be associated with Salernitano. He wanted to leave in January. He couldn't make his way fucking out. And now he's going to join in the celebration. And even when they need him, in the last two games of the season, they could have used Ribéry. He gets sent off for talking shit. Like, bro, you're like 40, man. I think Ribéry has been upset for a very long time.
I think Ribéry, firstly he had all that drama surrounding him, those allegations rather than drama. I believe he was fucking convicted for it. I don't know. Aside from that. He didn't do time. No, he didn't do time. Either bail, I don't know. Garrett? Shut up, bro. What's this? Trying to make a point here. And then I feel like after he lost that ball on the door that he was sure he won it. He won like FIFA men's best players, like this one's mine, boys. Step aside.
And he stormed out after he kept on saying things. Got a really cool haircut for it. Got a really cool haircut for it as well. Literally. And I think he's been upset since then. I don't think he's recovered from that devastation. It seemed like devastation. And then it was like his free falling slowly. First with Fiorentina he had a good moment, then he got injured. He followed Ronaldo to Serie A because he wanted to prove a point. Yeah, I forgot about it. Exactly, to Fiorentina.
And then he went to Salernitana. I was like, can they stay up with the signing of Ribéry? He's barely ever healthy. Like, he's always fucked. He's always in crutches, man. They should have Diego Costa, man, for shit. But apparently he's really bad nowadays. Yeah, I heard that. But still, I think his character might bring something to Salernitana. We're really getting sidetracked. Seven to sixty minutes, Grassi clips the post with his long-grained effort.
He did play well, Grassi. I enjoy Grassi at times. I do at times as well. Then, you know, they're like, it's done. It's the 90th minute, 91st minute, 97th minute. The VAR was the finale. Exactly. Ninety-third minute. VAR, no penalty for Caliareta. Originally looked as though Sepe had fouled a man in the area, but he had initially been dispossessed as he had both hands on the ball. Therefore, the foul was given the other way.
So I didn't think he had it. Once it slowed down, he had the ball in his hands. He had it for a while. And he was going down, it was probably going to bounce, but let's believe it. It wasn't even a second that he had it in his hand. It was less than a second. And the player ended up kicking the ball out of his hands. Yeah, that's a foul. At this point in the game, that was their chance. And it got VAR'd off, you know what I mean? Fuck!
Then that's the finale. We thought, we're like, okay, we can tune out. No, wait! Let me entertain you! So obviously because of the long time that VAR took to resolve this issue, the game went on until the 99th minute. And remember when Petania got the latest goal in Serie A history early on the season in the 98th minute for Napoli, Altare just scored in the 99th minute in a relegation six-pointer. Stop it, like, stop it.
It was a corner from Baselli. It was headed into the back of the net by Altare. Serpe's touch wasn't enough to keep it out. It was quite a good header as well. Serpe did well to get a touch. You can't really criticise Serpe for it, bro. At all. At all. 99th minute, obviously the scenes were immaculate. Salernetana shouldn't put their heads down. This was a massive chance for them. I'm sure they can recover. What do you think?
I think Salernetana are so inspired right now that pretty much safety for them is guaranteed in my mind. Yes, bro, because they have the easiest fixtures remaining as well if you want to check that quickly. I'm going to check it quickly. I still wouldn't say that they're totally safe, man. No, not that they're totally safe, but it's the fact that when you look at everything, they have a better chance than Kaljeriev saying up, for example, or than Genoa.
Yes, they're the best of the rest at the moment. They're the best of the shit ones. They have Empoli and Odinese. They can do it. They can do it. They can do it. They can do it for sure. Will they is the question, because Kaljeriev and Genoa then have more experience. Kaljeriev and Inter coming up. Ay, ay, ay. Ay, ay, is the infamous three o'clock game, no? Yes. They have Inter coming up followed by Venezia, of course.
Oh, how juicy, man. I just want to fucking fast forward time. I just watch these games, man. I can't. I don't give a fuck about work right now. God knows. I was going to say God knows what's happening at work at the moment. It's really hands on. But I am very excited. So this wasn't a football match, in my opinion. It was a movie. Quentin Tarantino movie. Anemlai Shamelan. Exactly. These notes are brilliant, bro. Thank you. Jake came up with a lot of the humor in this episode.
So thank you to Jake. Everything was really funny. Well done. I have a note here next. That says Ribery can eat shit. He can eat shit, bro. He's the worst, Louis. He's the worst. Brilliant. What did you make of Agostini's first match in charge for Kaljeriev? I mean, at the end of the day, he can look at that match and say, granted, we didn't win, but we're motivated heading into Inter and Venezia. He might ride from this high. He might. They might make him look good.
It's true. It's true. Definitely. And I think now is the time where Juau Pedro says, listen, we're going to have to save them. Belanova's like, this is what I came here to do. There are a lot of side stories, individual stories there to prove. Altari scoring the winner in the 99th minute. You mentioned Juau Pedro. And instantly, as I said, I'm like, fuck it. We need to talk about it instantly. So he leaves at the end of the season. Probably, yes. He leaves.
What kind of side does he go to? Now, it's weird because it seems like a team should play around Juau Pedro's system. He's a bit of like a Benzema. He hangs back a lot. He does a lot of defensive work. He fits into the pockets. But that's because he has to. It's very similar to Bellotti. Exactly. So do you see him, is he that quality as striker that he could go to the top seven? I see him, for example, at fucking Napoli. I see him at Napoli as fucking Fiori team. But they're stacked.
I mean, Mertens, if they don't renew him, they have to bring someone in. He's the perfect candidate. And I would even say at this point, sell Petania for like 10 million. I would do it if I were in Napoli. And I'd get Juau Pedro. This would be his last hurrah. And then he can go back to a relegation team in his later years. He's not the youngest. He's not old either. Juau Pedro, I thought he was old recently as well. I mean, he's like 32. I don't think so. I think he's like 29.
All right, this guy's 20. He's a Juau Pedro with what word? He's 30 years old. He's in his prime. Now he needs to go exactly. He could have another four years in him. He's that kind of striker that can mature nicely. Two years potentially. And then go to a medieval team, then a smaller team. Or stay up. That could be his spot. But the scenes in this game were just immaculate. It's going to be really interesting to see how it's going to shape up on the last match.
It's going to go down to the wire, much like the title. So there in the town are currently safe, but only one point ahead of Kaliyari, who are in the relegation zone with 18 points. Welcome back to our question segment to drop us a question you can find us on Instagram or Twitter. Shall we? Yes, I feel like this is your segment and I enjoy it being your segment. I always seem to open it up. The transfer one was mine and I hated it.
There were a lot of mundane ones. I'm reading who went to Piers V. Eindhoven. You know what I mean? My God. And the names that are so difficult to pronounce as well. Those must be hilarious to Italian people. People thinking we're fucking Jamaican nowadays. Apparently. But anyway, first question comes from our friend Mike who asks, What do you make of the new rule being discussed about VAR?
Now, those of you who don't know, managers will probably be able to ask the referee to take a look at one or two incidents per game. It's being highly talked about. I think personally it's a great idea. You know, there's a lot of talk about referees and I think being able to challenge them is a good thing. What do you think that it's to? I think it's to avoid more controversy.
I think managers are going to need to be somewhat strategic because they blow the first one, for example, for a handball penalty. And then the second one's down to the wire and there's something. You have to tune a lot for example, you either wait for another potential one or do you just snap it up there and then I think considering there aren't that many controversial events per game, unless if they're behind, if they're trailing or draw the lowest contest.
And they need to limit the amount. People just fucking use it all the time for everything for a corner. I think it's a good idea. I think it's definitely a good start. It's going to be interesting to see how the two per manager plays out. But I think that's the perfect way they could have started it. But we'll see. Our next question comes from our boy Chris. He says, Fiorentina Roma Lazio, who is better? I would say out of those.
I'm going to add Atalanta to Chris's question. I'm sure he doesn't mind. I hope you don't mind Chris. This season. Yeah, right now. Right now. Not even the season. Right now. I'd say Fiorentina are the best, which is controversial because there's Lazio. But I'd say Fiorentina are the best out of those. Right now. I'd most likely agree with you. It's between Fiorentina and Lazio, I think. You're right. I think Fiorentina are a good side. Roma are a very good side. And so are Atalanta.
Let's rank them in order of form right now. Not form. Who's better right now? I'd put Fiorentina first. Fucking hell. Fiorentina, Lazio, Roma, Atalanta. Fuck it. It's interesting. I'd probably put Roma over Atalanta. Particularly even because of the direct encounters. They just all went Roma's favour. I believe it was the triple they did on them this year. When it works for Atalanta, it works. When it works for Roma, it fucking works as well, bro. I would say... I'm not copying you, I swear.
But I would say Fiorentina, Lazio because they look better going forward than Roma. I would safely say so. Roma are better defensively. But then Lazio have more weapons going forward. And obviously Atalanta. Okay. I mean the same. Atalanta are two form ridden at the moment. When they're struggling, it doesn't seem like they're capable of being the team that's struggling and still getting points. But they have Donkey Dick Duvon back, bro.
And that's gonna fucking terrorise Milan in front of our very eyes. There's gonna be Luis Muriel, Pasalic, Duvon Zapata, these guys. Coop Miners all again. They're terrifying. They scare me, bro. They scare the fuck. And there's that fucking idiot. That's Tinkerbell on the side. I hate him. I really know what I'm gonna tell him. He looks like... What's his name? The weird guy, man, with the fucking sex chain. Epstein. He looks like Jeffrey Epstein.
He looks like Epstein and every gnome in the world. I really know what I'm gonna yell at him. If Milan win, Touchwood and everything. I'm gonna shout kats out every day. I'm just gonna tell him, balla Gasperini, balla Mr. I'm gonna dance in front of the stairs. But anyways, thank you to Mike and Chris for their questions. Thank you guys if you tuned in and made it this far. If you tuned in, thank you very much. If you made it this far, how much money do I owe you? You know what I mean?
We'll be back again next week. We'll be back with some personal stories of our own from the match. And we might be hoarse. Yeah, we might be hoarse either in a good way or a bad way. But we'll be back on time again and we hope you guys tune in again. Don't forget to follow us. Instagram, Twitter, TikTok as well, please. Rate us 5 stars. Rate us 5 stars everywhere. Thank you very much. That's it. Thank you.