Welcome back to another episode of Serie A Spotlight, this is season 2 episode 39 and we are hosts Matt and Jake here to bring you guys all the happenings of matchday 36 along with a bunch of news that has just come out this week.
Oh yes, what an action packed episode we have bro, can I just make the point that I can't wait until we move away from this whole season 2 episode by the way, I can't wait to go back to just chunks you know, we are on currently episode 78, doesn't that sound way better? It does sound nicer. I think after the season we should go back to the solid number. Yeah and I hate the point colon, you know what I mean 2.38 colon sec what the hell are we trying to do, it's like an algebra fucking formula.
But yeah in theory this is episode 79 bro wow. Yeah 79 huh? It's been fun, I don't know why I'm acting like one of us is leaving. Let's jump into this week's action brother.
Our goal of the week, well we had two goals of the week as you guys heard from the intro over there, we had Candreva's goal, just a bizarre goal the way that he scored that long ball over the top by Coulibaly, he fucking ran to the ball inside the box, extended his leg rose in the air and with the outstep of his foot guided the ball on his first touch into the top corner leaving the keeper rooted to the spot. He channeled his inner Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
Literally it was fucking stunning and then Anguissa just acting like a prime Dele Alli, flicking the ball up with his left, hitting the volley on his right with his back towards goal, smashing the ball into the back of the net, Onana got a good hand to it but nothing he can do to keep that out. Beautiful technique bro but from the celebration everyone's probably wondering who the fuck are Patricia, Noah and Leo. Patricia, Noah and Leo?
Yeah, you know he had the cost, the bandage on his hand, he showed it to the camera and there were those three names on it. Patricia, Noah and Leo. Interesting, okay have your say guys, let us know who you think Patricia, Noah and Leo are. Some honorable mentions for the goal of the week as well. There are so many where do we even begin Zappa Costa had a screamer, Poylund had a good goal, Orsalini dribbled the goalkeeper, managed to get a good one.
There was Dilorenzo as well, stunning goal against Inter, so many were really blessed this week. Every goal was incredible almost. Some things that happened this week bro, so first of all we have three Italian teams in finals this season, so an incredible season for Italian football of course, there's Inter against Manchester City in the Champions League final, there's Roma against Sevilla in the Europa League final, that's Mourinho's sixth final, he's never lost one.
Madonna man, Sevilla have quite a record themselves in the Europa League. It's their competition, it's their tournament. They won three in a row, no mistake at some point, fucking crazy man. And Fiorentina West Ham in the conference league, that's going to be a crazy good game as well I can guarantee because both teams were elated because they've both had disappointing seasons domestically so this is their chance to actually win some silverware.
Even though tomorrow there's the Coppa Italia final with Inter and Fiorentina, and Fiorentina have some chance, they could win the double. They could win the double, yeah, there you go, that's area for you man. We would like to bid farewell to Cremonaese who we recently expressed our deep love for. They have been relegated around 24 points, Spezian 17th around 31, which means that they need a point that is unattainable. Exactly, this came after their 5-1 loss to Bologna last weekend.
They had quite a tough time in Serie A and to wrap things up in a game that was detrimental for them, they faced one of the sides that was most informed while Spezia faced Lecce which made it much easier for them. And they played out the draw. Exactly, pretty much. Thank you for coming Cremonaese, I hope to see you again soon even though I don't think they'll be in Serie A anytime soon in the near future, Serie A bears becoming very competitive but there are many good teams down there.
And very young progressive managers coming through the ranks as well. Some news on Napoli, they won the league, they celebrated but now they've decided that everyone's going to abandon the ship. Spalletti is leaving most likely, he had a disagreement with De Laurentiis. Many people have disagreements with De Laurentiis, I think he's a very difficult person to work with and to prove that, so is their sporting director leaving. Guintoli, he's probably joining Juve as they have a verbal agreement.
Who's next, perhaps it's Ozyman? It's either Gavaro or Ozyman if we're talking about big players that would be on their way out. I don't see anyone else really abandoning ship, especially after a lot of debutantes with Napoli won a league already, got to the quarterfinals of a Champions League as well, which okay doesn't sound that grandiose when you look at the amount of Italian teams that had success in Europe but massive achievement for Napoli. Nice little project man.
It is a nice little project but when it comes to personnel on the pitch because of course everyone behind the scenes is jumping ship. Now the problem I see over here with Napoli is that many of their guys are on 2 or 3 million euros a year. Teams around the world will be looking at the likes of Anguissa, Lobotka, Kim, they can offer these guys way more so they have to be careful. Of course. They can't let everyone leave. Especially now that their sporting director is going to change.
We don't know who the next one is. A sporting director that has gotten them a lot of coupes and a lot of good deals here and there so no wonder Juve were interested in him. Speaking of Juve bro, they have been docked 10 points. Fuck it we said it, let's cut to the chase. Juve have been docked 10 points for their capital gains case. Now bro what do you make of this?
They had the opportunity in reality to remain in the run for the Champions League qualification top 4 positions but they took it terribly. The news broke out by the way Italy is hilarious. It's a disaster. Hilarious. A disaster. Fucking 10 minutes before kickoff the news comes out. Like what are you joking? The broadcast was interrupted like to announce that by the way this game. Juve have been top 10 points. Literally. Shambolic man.
Yeah they had the opportunity if they beat Empoli they'd still be in that Champions League fight because there'd be two points in the case that they had beaten Empoli they would have been two points behind Milan and had a direct encounter with them this match day. So yeah we couldn't have come at a worse time for Juve and do you feel there's a bit of a witch hunt against them right now?
Maybe a witch hunt is a bit of a strong term because in all honesty if you look at the facts there was dodgy behavior by Juve for many years which is why this is considered a capital gains scandal and there should be an investigation on it by all means but I think with the way it was handled when it came to handing them the punishment was just from an outside perspective because again I don't understand this shit too much it just seemed extremely disorganized.
How can you initially hand a 15 point penalty to someone halfway through the season? That already seemed a little bit odd but then there was the investigation and after the sorry the appeal and after the appeal they're like okay so let's give them back the 15 points for the time being and then three match days before the last game sorry three matches before the season ends you hand them a minus 10. It doesn't make any sense. It's weird.
Mourinho expressed his disagreement with this as well he basically said that it's ridiculous that throughout the season you don't know where you stand. Exactly. The table is constantly changing because of these off the field issues like sorry sort this out after the season ends you know exactly just let them play it out normally and then sort it out. Exactly.
This is weird because at the end of the day if you give Juve the points back the points lost against Monza and Empoli were literally due to the decisions. And you look at for example Roma who put all their eggs in the Europa League basket in the hopes that they win it in order to get Europe next year because there's Juve and Milan above them and they couldn't close that gap because it was out of their hands so they put all the eggs in that basket.
Had they focused more on and had they not jeopardized their squad too much to focus on the Europa League they would have had more success in Italy probably for a fact. Jeopardize is a crazy word. Rotate would have been fine. But that was an entertaining game to watch Juve against Empoli of course particularly Vlaav which had a bit of a shocker this game and then Empoli's Henderson mocked him mid-game and you can literally see him saying oh 80 million wow straight to his face.
And in the post match interview Zanetti, the Empoli manager said that he was worried that his players would get destroyed today because they've all been celebrating their survival and he was worried that it would all be hungover. Little did he know they were going to go and put four past Juve. Literally I thought Juve would come out all guns blazing. Same I thought that news. But I understand it a bit more now that I've sat with it and thought about it a bit longer.
Why would they have a fire in their stomach? If it were me as a player at Juventus, fuck if it were me, Vlaavic, Di Maria, Chiesa, Miretti, Fagioli, all these guys at this point in time are thinking fuck Juve. Basically because it is the people behind the scenes that are putting them through this. It's initially the fault of Juve that the players are going through what they're going through now. Why the hell would you want to stay at a club like that? That's totally true bro.
That's like all the ministers at the Labour Party towards the end of their reign. So Mers Mjerou ended his gold drought by bagging a hat-trick. That's an interesting talking point. We'll be getting more into that later on but it's good to see him back in action. This is an interesting one bro. Adult subscription site My.club have offered Inter 80 million to put themselves on their kits for the Champions League final.
My.club vice president Mike Ford said, here at My.club we're all about penetrating new verticals. Much how Inter players squeeze their balls into tight spaces in the box and score, we're looking to the other side. No way. I say they should do it bro. They've got financial issues, they don't have a sponsor right now because the crypto market crashed and they couldn't basically pay them. It's like they sold Lukaku all over again. Let's make another 80 million.
Your team looks cheap as fuck in the final. My.club it's not even obvious. That's true. It's not like you have Brazzers or Pornhub. I was wondering the opportunities because obviously it's big news at the moment because for advertisers what they're seeing right now is a team entering one of the largest stages in sports for the year and seeing a blank billboard, 11 blank billboards. So a company would be willing to spend that amount of money to get that opportunity, a one-time payment.
Yeah, why not bro, it makes perfect sense for both parties over there. Just wish it were blacked bro. You know that would be a hilarious sponsor. It would be so funny. We're leaving Seria for a second. Deserbi takes Brighton to a historic European, European Madonna. European. European. Deserbi takes Brighton to a historic European qualification. Yeah. Amazing manager. We of course were obsessed with him and he was with the Swallow who covered their team in quite a lot of detail last season.
It's good to see that he's found success in the Premier League and let's hope that he keeps winning. Absolutely. I've seen a lot of people say that obviously it's because of the work that Potter put in. I'm not saying that didn't help but a change up in management typically sends a team spiralling and Deserbi did a good job maintaining whatever form they had playing to their system and getting the best out of these players. So shout out to Deserbi. Definitely bro. That's it for my rundown.
Okay. Our betting segment. Oh yes. We placed a bet that Inter would win or draw against Napoli. It was a bit of a selfish bet. Look, we know we often don't win our bets. In fact, we're betting less and we're just doing it for the segment but we thought might as well make top four a bit more interesting. No? If we bet on Inter win or draw, they'll definitely lose. Yeah, we're being a bit selfish at the moment guys. We're controlling the league. We're manipulating the league guys.
Also, we're violating Article 4 right now. Exactly. That's it. Like so, you're Paratici and I'm Anielli. Exactly. There we go. Wax your eyebrows, bro. So last season we did the prediction series which I enjoyed a bit more than the betting segment. Yes. I think the betting segment could have been handled a bit better in many ways by us. I think maybe we put some more thought into it. We could have made it a bit more entertaining.
We could have made some rules and made it a bit more exciting because at this point I feel like it might be a little bit repetitive. What do you guys think? Do you prefer the prediction series? Last year it got very tight towards the end. It was exciting. Do you enjoy seeing us suffer with the betting segment? Or if you have any additional ideas, Jake and I already have a few in mind, but if you have any ideas, any suggestions, feel free to send them our way and we'll implement them.
One of our ideas is literally next season, 10 euro budget each period, nothing else. And we compete every week. Merging the prediction series and the betting segment. So who finishes the season with the highest amount of money wins. Exactly. And that's a fun one. I won bet a week and that's great. Our Patreon, bro. Yes, so we're happy to announce that we have opened our Patreon account.
We mentioned it last week and it has since been implemented and we've already got a few patrons in who obviously we are very, very grateful for and we hope to have some more of you coming in soon. We've got Ed and Alan. Shout out to Ed and Alan by the way. Thank you very much. Our patrons so far guys. We love you. Thank you very much for supporting our content. From the bottom of our heart, we put a lot of work into this and it's nice to see you guys support.
On our Patreon, what we'll be doing basically to make this worthwhile for you guys is we'll be providing you guys with behind the scenes content. So be it during recording sessions, watching Serie A in our living room or even if we're out and about in Italy watching Serie A, we'll make sure to give you guys some content of that and some behind the scenes. Like in two weeks time, I'm going to go watch Milan's last game of the season, touch wood. That's the plan.
Milan against Verona, the Sun Zero and I might just shoot a bunch of content over there and show it to the patrons. So that might be quite cool. We'll be doing a Serie A spotlight question segment as well. This will be a segment at the end of each weekly episode dedicated to our patrons. So our patrons will send us questions.
We'll give them a shout out at the end of each podcast, at the end of each episode rather and we'll answer their questions accordingly so we can engage a little bit over there. And the third one and the one that I'm most excited for is going to be so cool is FIFA content. So ever since Drake and I were like five and three years old, all we do is play FIFA against each other. That's our thing. Like when we hang out, we just play FIFA. Yeah. And we play like Palermo Genoa. Literally.
We're always choosing these obscure Italian teams with the same stars. Now be it in Serie A, be it in Serie A, we're typically three and a half stars or less because we're fucking. Welcome to this year's edition of the Champions League final. We've got Askeley against Palermo. And we just want to show you guys some of it. We're becoming streamers. Yeah, we're literally becoming streamers. It's highly competitive. You guys will choose your favorites. You let us know who you think.
And maybe you can bet on us. Who knows? Who knows? Maybe we'll just merge everything together. Yeah, well, if you guys want to be a part of this extravaganza, help us grow our platform and in return get some cool content over there, we'll highly appreciate it. It's the price of four McNuggets a month. So it's 3.99. Thank you Ed for coming up with that analogy, but hopefully we'll see a couple more patrons on board and hopefully we could build a very good relationship with you guys. Yes, bro.
Now enough of the chit chat. Let's get down to it, bro. Let's get down to it. So obviously the first game we're going to be covering this episode is Napoli 3-1. Napoli are the champions. Inter are the champions league final. They go head to head. Bam. The champions prevail. Milan 5-1 Sampdoria. It was a great opportunity for Milan to get some form before their game against Juve coming up this weekend. And they did exactly that. Giroud Hatric, Milan 5-1 Sampdoria.
Udinese nil Lazio 1. Lazio doing absolutely everything they can to remain within that top four. Little favor here now with Juve being docked points so they're a little bit safer. Now speaking of Juve, 20 minutes after they were docked the 10 points, they were fielded to play against Empoli. Demoralized. Clearly they lost the game 4-1, but what a performance by Empoli. Roma 2. Salernitana 2. A highly, highly competitive game over here.
Some lovely football, two very, very different, stylistically different teams going head to head. And yeah, it resulted in what I thought was quite a masterclass this week. Atalanta 3. Hellas Verona 1. Verona remaining within that bottom three remit. Torino 1. Fiorentina 1. A very, very even game over there. Sassuolo 1. Monza 2. This team just keep looking better and better and better. Monza.
Cromanese 1. Bologna 5. The Orsolini show before he got sent off and let Cennil Spezianil in a mad relegation six pointer. Bravo bro. The first game is yours after all that. Yes. Let me have a sip of whatever it is that I'm drinking. Little bit of that fancy Cristal am I right? Oh bro you disgust me. We need a drink sponsor guys. I wonder how many of our listeners is tuned out. Bro that's gonna get us sponsors. You'll see we need a drink sponsor. We're always drinking.
I'm sure right now the last thing the fans want is like more sponsors. More sponsors. You shouted out our Patreon. Come on. You ain't the same guys. The fame is getting to you. Napoli 3. Inter 1. The previous encounter was Napoli's first loss of the season right after the World Cup. It was Inter 1, Napoli nil. Now Chucky Lozano, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Milan Skriniar were sidelined with injuries. Carboni was also unavailable as he was participating in the U20 World Cup.
Inter also rotated their squad quite significantly between a Champions League semi-final win over Milan and an upcoming Coppa Italia final against Fiorentina. Napoli lined up in their 4-3-3 formation with Alex Marettengold and a backline of Olivera, Minjay, Rachmani and Di Lorenzo, Lazielinsky, Lobotka and Anguissa in the midfield, with Gvarackelija and Elmas playing wide of Viktor Ossimen. For Inter it was their 3-5-2 formation with Onana in goal and a backline of D'Ambrosio, Devri and Bastoni.
Bellanova played out on the right and Robin Gossens played out on the left with a midfield three of Barella, Aslani and Gagliardini. The strikers in this case were Correa and Lukaku. Now in the 41st minute Roberto Gagliardini received his marching orders after a second yellow card for a sliding challenge on Anguissa, reducing Inter to 10 men. Gagliardini is on his way out of Inter at the end of the season and he gave them a little something to remember him by in this game.
He left a bad taste in everyone's mouth over there and it's not like he was a fan favourite. At one point he had kind of that crunish reputation where he was dependable and deployable when you needed him but towards the end people viewed him as deadweight and this will tarnish his reputation for Inter. And being 0-0 and then going a man under in the 41st minute Napoli smelt blood. 66th minute Napoli took the lead through a stunner by Zambo Anguissa, one of our goals of the week.
He flicked the ball up with his left and fired a ball into the back of the net on the turn with his right, Onanag did manage to get a hand to it but the strike was far too powerful. It's funny he tried it before in the game as well and he hit the side netting. In the 77th minute Denzel Dumfries had his header cleared off the line by Rahmani.
On the resulting counter attack Napoli had the ball in the back of the net as Simeone tapped Nakvara across but Zielinski's efforts to regain the ball after tripping in the counter attack was deemed a foul by the ref. Very strange he was running with the ball, the ball went kind of loose and was going to the Inter defender and he slid in to well he fell into the part of the Inter defender but got the ball first. The ball fell to Kvara, he crossed it to Simeone who tapped in.
I didn't think it was a foul. It was harsh to call back the goal for that. Yes, I thought it was very harsh. But it was and then this could have changed things drastically as moments later, five minutes later, Inter found an equaliser with one man down. It was Romelu Lukaku who tapped in at DeMarco cross as Jesus was caught napping. DeMarco initially won the ball of Raspadoori out wide and played a dangerous ball in the middle. Vieri said, you saw what he said today.
Watching DeMarco cross makes him want to play football again. But then he gets off the sofa, feel his knees hurt and he gives up. He's basically me. So that was 1-1, great effort by Inter being down to 10 men and managing to get back into the game. However, moments later Napoli regained the lead with a fantastic curling strike from outside the area by Giovanni di Lorenzo into the top far corner leaving on Ana Routet to the spot, reminded us a bit of Handanovic over there.
Fantastic goal and again so quick after conceding a goal, very good reaction by Napoli. Captain fantastic. Spalletti said you have some players in the locker room who give you a little bit more. And di Lorenzo is one of those. Yeah, he's one of the unsung heroes. Fantastic leader, great guy, great person, he gives you that more than his footballing ability and his work rate, there's that something special about him.
Absolutely. In the 94th minute, Napoli made sure of their three points as Gianluca Gaetano finished cleanly after linking up with Simeone, he looked good, he looked very good. Napoli 3-1, what did you make of this game brother? It was a very good game, completely ruined by Gagliardini to be honest with you because it could have gone either way.
And at the end I thought Inter managed to actually get a point out of it and I was impressed by their resilience and I was impressed by how they managed to contain Napoli and then hit them on the counter attack with Di Marco just bursting down the wing and whipping it in for Lukaku. And then of course Napoli demonstrated their resilience and their killer instinct in just confirming the victory over here so late on.
With only a bit of time left and I felt like Napoli thought it was all done and dusted when they got the red card because they had chances with Raspadouri particularly where they were squandering them, they were over complicating things, it was almost like they were being a bit laxadaisical with their chances. And then the goal shocked them and suddenly they bang into. They're like, let's get serious again.
I think Inter reacted very well after getting the red card, they obviously ended up adapting into a more defensive formation and they reverted back to that low block that gave Milan so much trouble and then they were bursting on the brakes like you said, really utilising the wings, cutting in early and getting those balls in for Lukaku and they did a great job at that.
They conceded but they were resilient and in the 82nd minute they managed to get an equaliser but then it's a 90-minute game and the pace that Napoli have so late on in the game is frightening man. It really is frightening. It is bro and particularly their substitutions, we've praised their squad depth before but bringing on Raspadouri, Poletano and Simeone off the bench, they're good players you know to bring on.
Yeah and I felt like Raspadouri and Simeone did a fantastic job at the end putting so much pressure on that back three of Inter. If you notice one of Inter's whenever Inter are struggling, you notice that one of the key places they're struggling is the distribution from the defense barring people like Bustoni who are fantastic at that and when Brozovic is on the pitch he drops super deep to carry that ball out himself.
They tend to struggle over there and Napoli attacked that and they were putting so much pressure on those defenders especially after they went a man down. They really increased their tempo over there and they kept on putting more pressure on the defenders. Yeah bro, for me the fact that Enzaghi started with Bellanova and Gosins actually worked out well for them judging by how the game panned out.
It was in the 41st minute they got the red card and that allowed them to actually make substitutions in the second half that actually increased their pace on the wings and they needed that to remain in this game. The introductions of Denzel Dumfries and Federico Di Marco really kept Inter alive here. 100% that was Di Marco's key work higher up the field that ended up getting that equalizer but despite that Inter came away with a loss. How much would this affect Inter?
Do you think how badly would they have wanted that? Oh man, I think they would have wanted this so they can just focus on the cup finals without thinking of anything else. But as it stands right now they've got 66 points. Juve's points deduction will help them out of course. Loads. They're going to be like thank god.
But Milan are lurking, Atalanta are lurking, Roma are kind of relevant still because Inter have 66 points, Roma have 60 there's two games left and then it depends on direct encounter. I can't quite remember now. No I can't either. I don't know what their direct encounter is but it's very much still alive and Inter, Milan, Atalanta and Roma any of these teams could finish top 4. I think so. I agree I don't think it's too detrimental for them. They still have tough games left.
They have Atalanta this weekend and I forgot their last game. Torino was it? I think it's away to Torino. It is away to Torino. So they still have a couple of tough games left so their minds are going to be a bit maybe elsewhere but yeah I think they can get it done. They're in a good position nonetheless. No yeah they're definitely favorites for top 4 out of those guys. Although the teams mentioned simply because of their points advantage at this point.
Yeah I think so and they just look much better than most of the teams that are competing there at the minute as well. Monopoly obviously first place champions 86 points whilst Inter are interred on 66 points. Yes nice to see Gagliardini once again adding fuel to the fire that is in Zaghi's idea that if you're on a yellow card you should be substituted immediately right. Exactly. Absolutely proving his point right. Probably went in and half times I fucking told you. That's why I take you out.
Milan 5 Sampdoria 1. Milan have actually won their last four games against Sampdoria and Serie A and have achieved more consecutive victories against them than in the past two decades. Sampdoria keep breaking these records all in the wrong way though. Milan had struggled in recent matches against teams in the bottom three of Serie A with no wins in their previous three encounters. Sampdoria have accumulated fewer points this season than in any other season in their history.
We already mentioned that Stankovic is the worst coach of all time for Sampdoria statistically and these obviously indicate the challenging campaign for the club. Milan lined up with Stefano Pioli's genius 4-2-3-1 formation with Mike Manon in goal, Theo Hernandez as the left back, Calabria's right back with Tomori and Malik Chao as the center back duo.
Tanali and Krunic played in the midfield double pivot, of course Benassir is still out in injured, Lea was out on the left, Messias on the right with Brahim Diaz playing that Czecho-Artista role with Giroud up front. Ravalje was in goal for Sampdoria under 4-1-4-1 formation with Zanoli on the right and Augelo on the left with Bram Noiting and Gunther at the back. Rincon was the holding midfielder, they're very effective.
Lery was on the right, Gabiadini was on the left again, what the fuck is going on? Jurjen Cinc and Winx were playing behind Fabio Qualiarella. Now this is a finished team, this lineup's next level finished. He tried to do something specifically for Milan, it worked really well. He put Gabiadini to contain Junior Messias. I don't get Gabiadini on the wing, I'm sorry, I've never understood it.
Milan showcased their attacking intent from the start of this game, they wanted that top four finish, they pushed for it, of course everything back then was up in the air, no one knew what was happening, Milan had to win this game and they were coming off that loss in the semi-final of the Champions League against Inter. Yeah, and they lost to Spezia.
In the ninth minute Milan took an early lead as Leao scored the opening goal after a crazy dribble and through ball by Ibrahim Diaz, if you watch the dribble he literally trips the ball over the Sampdoria man, takes it down and plays a perfectly weighted through ball to Leao who finished coolly. I love when Leao finishes while falling. Yeah, it's cool. From 80 yards he scored. The 20th minute Fabio Qualliarella equalised for Sampdoria, Sampdoria gave Milan fans a taste of familiarity.
Yeah, that's it, Qualliarella's first fucking goal of the season obviously comes against Milan. And his 18th consecutive Serie A goal, that's mad, 18 seasons in a row scoring, he almost finished this season without scoring a goal and he didn't even celebrate his goal, I think it's because of the fact that they've been relegated, he respects them too much to actually run around smiling because he hit a milestone when the club is in ruins.
Shout out to Alessandro Zanoli, the Napoli loanee, he absolutely destroyed Theo Hernandez. Oh yeah man, when I blink I see Zanoli at the moment. Now in the 23rd minute Giroud restored Milan's lead with a glancing header and he was assisted by Ibrahim Diaz who crossed after a corner kick, it was a short corner and Ibrahim crossed Giroud header.
In the 29th minute Giroud scored the penalty after a layout was taken down by Gunther, the funny thing about this was on his way down, Giroud smacked the back of Gunther's head, carefully, go and check that out, very funny. Expertly taken by Giroud, he's so good at penalties. And then in the 63rd minute Milan scored their fourth goal through Ibrahim Diaz, Giroud provided a slide rule pass to Sandro Zanoli who pulled the ball back for Diaz to finish the demonstrated great football.
We haven't seen this in a while from Milan, it was good to see. Multiple attacking threats from different areas, one trick penalties. Players from the midfield running in attacking, it's nice. In the 68th minute Giroud completed his hat trick scoring from close range after winning a wrestling match with Bram Nuitic.
Now it had been a while since we'd seen Giroud out muscle another centre back and bully a centre back because at the end of the day that's what you want from Giroud, you're not your target man, you want him to bully someone to the ground. Bram Nuitic I think is bigger than Giroud probably. I think so. His frame is larger as well.
I think he's stronger, I think he's definitely stronger than Giroud but Giroud did well the way he placed himself up against him, he had a good centre of gravity going into that duel. He did, he did. He scored and completed his hat trick, his first ever Milan hat trick ending his goal drought. Now this was a really good game by Milan, they exploited some of their defensive vulnerabilities particularly in the wide areas, you know, of course you saw Liao and Brahim running rampant over there.
The striking movement was actually clinical. Now I think, look, everyone talks about how Milan need a new striker and I agree of course. However, a striker of a similar profile to Giroud might limit Milan. Now I'm saying this because Giroud is still deployable, you know, and you come up against these teams that play a low block, you put Giroud in there, he can find your solution.
But the problem is when you're up against the Napolis and the Inter who will attack you, you would need something different, a different type of number nine, someone who can stretch the lines, someone like Victor Oziman, someone like Dusan Vlaović. I think there's something you don't know. What don't I know? Best in the world, his name is Firmino. Bobby Firmino.
Genuinely in a false nine Bobby Firmino with Liao on the left and then maybe a replacement on the right hand side for Milan might actually be a breath of fresh air, not saying that Firmino should be the starting number nine and that's what Milan should base their project on. However, with his style of play being quite Karim Benzema, you know what I mean, does a lot of kind of that midfield to attack work, smart movement and Klopp just hails him as a very intelligent player.
So he might be someone good for Milan to bring in to shake things up over. He might be and he's only 31 and he's free. Now we were saying the same thing with Divocko Rigue, you know, so look how that worked out. But yes, there are quite a few profiles Milan are allegedly looking at. There's the likes of Arnautovic, Skamaka apparently is a hot name that keeps coming up. Milan have the link in the midfield to Seiko Fovana as well. I'm very excited. I hope that does.
I like the idea of Skamaka as like a direct replacement starter for Giroud or even on a rotation basis because similar profile, very big, very strong. And then he has moments of explosion. He's great in the air, but he's the guy that can turn and shoot at any point around in the area and the box. He's very direct and very dangerous. It does provide a new threat. That's true. But it would be nice to see Skamaka back in Italy. Now Milan totally dominated the midfield.
And of course, when you look at the likes of Tonali Kroonij-Diaz, they're obviously going to destroy Wink's Juricic Andrii Kon, so not much to say over there. But yes, Milan demonstrated that their squad depth is okay for this level, but not for the level of Inter because it's crazy how Milan's bench options looked so good against Sampdoria and the exact same bench options that we were complaining about against Inter.
Yeah, but yeah, Deceit Alare came on late on, seemed to have quite a frustrating time once again. I was thinking about Deceit Alare recently because obviously there are two games left and he only has one assist to his name this season after being bought for 35 million. And obviously quite a bit of hype being generated around the signing of 35 million since Milan don't splash cash.
I think one thing he needs to kind of think about is that not every move he makes needs to lead to a goal and assist. It feels like he has so much pressure on him that every time he gets the ball he's like, okay, how am I going to make it work? Rather than just being in the zone and flowing and trying to link up with his teammates, trying to set up a pre-assist assist by playing someone into a dangerous area out wide rather than going for a direct ball.
Yes, he tries to overcomplicate everything, man. He's either going to pass back, not even sideways, just back or try something extravagant. He hangs onto the ball on that man. I just think he needs that break, he needs a full pre-season, he needs to get back into his groove. I think the worst thing he can do with CDK right now is like blow him out or sell him. I think you need to keep him there, you need to show him that you believe in him and you need to give him another season.
He's a 35 million euro man, he's a big investment for Milan. Give him his second season. We've seen how Blaeu and Tonali burst into the scene on the second season. Yeah, absolutely. I agree with you. I heard that Alanta are interested with a loan option to buy. Send them there if you want them to become a monster and say they're for you. Literally, especially after he has a very similar profile to Iličić. If Gasparini could turn him into that and send him back our way. Thank you, mister.
I think Iličić had absolutely no productivity and was just, you know, just… But there might be… 2023 Iličić. Yeah, it's true. There might be something interesting there with Rasmus Hoiland because obviously Milan are quite interested in him. That's another striker who can stretch the line. Always running in behind. Yeah, so there could be something of potential over there. I heard Milan are going to have around 100 million euros to spend, which for Milan standards is quite big.
Yes, it is and Maldini hinted at the end of the intergame that the squad is not competitive at this level. And of course, yes, with the 50 million from Champions League qualification, the books balanced and everything looking good for Milan financially. Finally, after all these years, they can actually make some investments. They should make some investments. Absolutely. Before we move on, Maldini made an interesting point after the game. He said he mentioned specifically Debala by name.
He said I didn't sign Debala because the project is for… It's against the project. We sign young players and we develop them. That's the idea of our project over there. But why would he mention Debala by name? I think he must be getting criticism for it. Absolutely. I think the media would have been mainly saying, oh, I should have gotten Debala, not Decatelare. What the hell was Maldini doing? And I think that was Maldini's way of addressing it directly and head on.
But I did find it a bit strange. It's stupid. Like, come on, you're going to say he doesn't fit our profile when you brought in Origi, who's the exact same profile. I'm sorry. He's an injury prone player. It makes less sense. But OK, granted, he's got titles and trophies. He's a winner, same like Debala. But Debala has done it in the league. Debala would have been a very smart signing. And Milan have lacked a right winger for ages.
So don't say it goes against the idea of the project when you've brought in the likes of Junior Messias, Florenzi, and Origi, who are all of the same profile. Yeah, that's true. That's true. I was originally seeing people make the same argument as you, and I disagreed. But because they were mentioning examples like Ibrahimovic, Giroud, and Kier, and the project is either buy very old and get a coupe over there, or buy very young and get a coupe over there and get a future investment.
But yeah, like you're saying, there were a couple of players in their prime that were brought in on a free. And I think the ball would have been a great opportunity for Milan to give them that creativity and just an upgrade from Brahim Diaz, really. Yeah, definitely. Milan currently sit in fourth with 64 points. They are three points clear of Atalanta in fifth. While Sampdoria is a dead last with 18 points. Milan and Dacid are off to be.
Apparently the owner of Leeds United, was it, has expressed interest in acquiring Sampdoria. So we'll see. Hopefully there is a future for the team. It's a team of great pedigree, a great team that's always meant to be in Serie A. So we really hope to have them back. And we really hope to have the Derby de la Lanterna back between Sampdoria and Gremio. Not next season, the one after hopefully.
The next game we're going to be covering is Odinese nil Lazio 1, another huge game for top four, especially after you've before you've aware docked the points. The previous encounter was a nil nil draw between the two sides. Odinese had success, De La Feu, Ezebue, Ebosse, Pafundi and Becao out for this game, whilst Lazio had Cataldi out of action and Vecino had returned to the midfield for this game.
Odinese starting at 3-4-1-1 for Misha with Sylvester in goal and the back line of Mazin Abijole and Perez, Lado Doge out on the left and Pereira out on the right with Lovric, Wallace and Arsalan in the midfield and Samaricic playing behind Beato.
For Lazio it was their 4-3-3 formation, classic Sarri with Providel in goal and the back line of Ladzari, Cazal, Aromanio, Leandrisai, Mlinkovic, Savic, Vecino and Luis Alberto formed the midfield tree with Anderson, Immobile and Zaccardi playing up the field. In the 20th minute Immobile's header was saved by Sylvester tipping the ball over the bar.
In the 38th minute Alberto's strike flashed wide of Sylvester's goal, it was a very good chance over there, he was laid off quite nicely by Ciro Immobile. In the 51st minute Vecino's volley from distance went just wide and in the 61st minute Immobile won a penalty and converted it sending the keeper the wrong way, giving Lazio a 1-0 lead which they maintained till the end.
Romagnoli hit the post from a header resulting from a corner in the 63rd minute and in the 84th minute Udinese thought they got an equalizer but it was disallowed for offside. Lazio started the game off very disciplined, they seemed very conscious that losing points wasn't on the agenda for them so they took quite a defensive approach to this game.
They managed to control the game in the first half especially and then Udinese seemed to get into the game quite a bit probably because of that 3-5-1-1 formation that often looked like a 3-6-1 formation, Savardzic was dropping in quite deep and Bertol was staying up there putting pressure on the defenders.
There was a shift in pace, Udinese seemed to start controlling the game and that's when Lazio started being more aggressive, they turned up the heat, they started drawing, well Udinese started drawing a lot of fouls from Lazio but Lazio increased the intensity and once the intensity was increased Udinese seemed like they couldn't keep up which is typically where you see Udinese really kind of get into a game when it starts to get a little bit more heated.
But it goes to show just how experienced Lazio are in this situation not exactly in the fight for a top four but the fact that they've been here before under Maurizio Sarri in similar situations and they just had a formula that when a game got tough they managed to not only overcome it but get the three points. Yes bro and they had a certain secret weapon in doing so as well bringing in 35-year-old Pedro who's a master of retention and keeping the flow going.
It helped them a lot and in fact shortly after his introduction the penalty was won and Immobile converted. But I did think that the game was quite even and Udinese actually gave them quite a hard fought battle. In fact it did take a penalty to decide the game here but yeah you see Lazio here that's 61% ball possession away from home, they kept a clean sheet, this is very unlike them so respect to turning around your fortune.
Absolutely, I think you have to highlight the fact that despite Udinese giving them trouble they seem like offensively there's a lot of work to be done for Udinese which is funny when you look at the beginning of the season their offensive output was great especially having De La Feu in the side getting all those assists, you had Pereira who wasn't playing out wide but being played closer to the striker but they just seem like a way
thinner squad than they originally were in the beginning of the season funnily enough. That's true and like Beto, many people shout out Beto as like a potential candidate to go to a top team for example, I don't see Beto as ready man. You don't think so?
I think he's too streaky man, he's too streaky and if you streaky Udinese man you, I don't know, I don't know, he sometimes looks amazing sometimes he can't even get involved in the game, I can't quite, I don't rate him as a top top player yet to go to a top team, he's 25 years old I mean if he peaks late he peaks late but I think this is his level at the moment maybe a bit better but not much better than Udinese.
You look at last season he had quite a long drought without a goal, he had the same thing this season so I think there's a lot of work to be done before he can bank on a massive move the best he could do is be a vice for one of the top 7 teams in the league.
Fair enough yes but when you look at for example the fact that Napoli's vice is Simeone who bags 20 goals for Verona like you know what I mean, that's levels you know but you respect Beto anyway, he's a great guy, he used to work at KFC back in the day, I swear to God. Who?
Beto, Beto used to work at KFC, yes, yes, it's not a big deal, he said it's normal, all my friends worked at KFC and he's right you know when you're young you work at fucking KFC, I worked at the Radisson Golden Sands opening deck chairs and carrying something and getting stung by wasps because my job was to go and spray the puddles of water because they were full of wasps and bees by the way that was part of my job but the difference
is that my salary hasn't improved that much and Beto's definitely has. You know once Gary Neville when I used to work at the Radisson as well and once Gary Neville who was a stakeholder I believe at the Radisson Golden Sands. He had the timeshare scheme.
He used to come and stay quite a bit man and he used to have board meetings over there, he loves Malta, it's known that he loves Malta and once he came into the restaurant I was still a shit server back then before I became a fucking beast at catering but my job was to keep the buffet full so I was the guy that would replace shit, something a robot can do and once there was a cockroach in one of the restaurants and Gary Neville was in the
restaurant and the manager came up to me is like Matt go kill that cockroach. I'm like where is it? He's like you know Gary Neville's table? I'm like ah he's like you see the blinds right behind Gary Neville's head? I'm like ah he's like it's there. I'm like is it on the floor? What is like no it's on the blinds and I'm like oh my god so I had to go behind Gary Neville and just with tissues in my hand trembling because I don't like cockroaches either and I had to whack it.
When I went to whack it I got the cockroach okay and everything was fine but then the blinds hit the glass and it made a massive noise so Gary Neville and his entourage looked back at me and I just pretended like I was resting against the blinds. I'm like damn this guy is unprofessional. I'm like everything okay can I get you anything? They're like no we're fine thanks. So you killed it with your with the tissue in your hand?
I killed it and I crushed it and then when I got back and I let go it was still moving. It was disgusting yeah and I had a bit of a panic attack but that was fine. But moving on a little bit from that this was this penalty that Immobile has scored was his 200th goal involvement in Serie A for Lazio has 162 goals scored and 38 assists. Lazio legend. He is a Lazio legend of course yes definitely.
And he's really found a home in Lazio he jumped around a lot we saw him at Borussia Dortmund we saw him on loan at Sevilla at Torino. He's never scored more than 28 goals outside of Lazio like his best season was his best spell rather was at Pescara for one season where he scored 28 goals that's when he burst onto the scene that was his best season.
After that he had five goals for Genoa 22 goals for Torino three goals for Dortmund two goals for Sevilla five goals for Torino and who would have thought 162 goals for Lazio. Jesus Christ man Jesus Christ. It looked like he tried to get a spell out of Italy quite badly with the move to Dortmund the move to Sevilla but his main success did come in the Italian League. You then see him outside the Italian League again when he plays for Italy he struggles there as well.
So this is a guy that's just a master a master of Serie A. A master of Lazio. Exactly exactly. But that's pretty much it for this game. I'll let you guys know where they are on the table. Lazio are in second place on 68 points who the fuck would have thought coming into the season that Lazio would be second. Udinese in 12th on 46 points. Sari ball baby. The next game we're going to be covering is Empoli 4. You've won. Shocking.
We already spoke about the likely reason as to why this result actually happened. You've been demoralized the point deduction coming out just 10 minutes before kickoff. You've had the opportunity the possibility to fight for their lives and the leg is usually very good at keeping everyone's heads cool keeping everyone calm but this was not the case as they looked completely discombobulated frazzled.
Now Empoli lined up with their 4-2-3-1 formation with Vicario in goal Parisi as the left back and Ebuhe as the right back with Luperto and Ismaily as the center back duo. Bandinelli and Grassi formed midfield double pivot with Kambiaghi out on the left. Akpa Akpro out on the right Fazzini playing as the Czechos start replacing Baldanzi who is currently away at the U20 World Cup destroying the talented U21s team of Brazil. There's another Italian U20. What's his name again bro? Cassaday.
Cassaday. Cassaday. It's probably Cassaday. Cassaday. Cesare Cassaday. He is owned by Chelsea and he currently plays for Reading in the second division. He, or first division I guess is what he's called in the UK. Yeah I think so. The championship. I believe Reading are in the championship at least I'm not sure. This is Serie A spotlight not fucking bangers and mash spotlight. No. No yes.
Cesare Cassaday keep your eyes on him he's incredible him and Baldanzi are just tearing it up at the U20s World Cup. There's Parisi at the back as well. They are a very very talented team and they made the U20s of Brazil look like proper children. Where is the World Cup, the U20 World Cup? Maybe enough. Maybe you go. Maybe I don't know man. Probably in like America. Where is the Argentine? Argentine bro we go next week.
Caputo was up front playing with Fazzini, Cambiaghi and Dachbach bro behind him. For Juventus it was a 3-5-2 formation with Wojciech Szczesny in goal. Gatti, Bremer and Sandro were at the back with Barberi as the right wing back, Kostich as the left wing back, Rabio, Lokateli, Amretti in the middle with Vlaović and Millec up front together. You could see there was an intent to score here. There was an intent to play two target men.
For injuries and suspensions Fagioli, Pogba, Decilio, Bonunci, Danilo and Quadrado were all out. Marin, Valukovic, De Winter and Baldanzi were all available for Empoli of course. Now for the play by play in the 12th minute Millec smacked the crossbar with a header and Gatti scored the rebound but it was called off for a foul. A solid start by Juve who would have expected what was to come.
In the 18th minute Empoli opened the scoring with a penalty converted by Francesco Caputo after Millec fouled Cambiaghi. It was great to see the Caputo celebration once again this season. I love the beer drinking celebration. So that was the shock lead by Empoli and then three minutes later Luperto scored from a tight angle after Szczesny made a stunning save on Akpa Akpro's attempt. So that was two goals bang in the first 20 minutes and Juve were shell shocked.
In the 48th minute Empoli extended their lead to a 3-0 victory with a delicate dink by Caputo over Szczesny. What a goal. What a goal. That's another goal of the Vinconti. They chipped the keeper dude. And Szczesny came out quite impulsively I feel over there but he almost got it you know and then what's his name Caputo did he finished it expertly.
In the 90th no in the 85th minute sorry I forgot you've actually scored one Federico Chiesa scored the goal for Juventus his first in Serie A in over 500 days. He smashed an angled drive under Giliarmu of the car. Very Chiesa goal that's you know the type. You can imagine it like it. Chiesa goal close your eyes you see it. You're seeing it right now. In the 91st minute Roberto Piccoli showed that he's not a good friend.
He didn't pause the ball to Stajanovic who was wide open on calling for it and he let him have it after. It was like Stajanovic was screaming at Piccoli like why wouldn't you square it dude. Your 3-1 up it's the 92nd minute. Your teammate is wide open. You've just scored your first goal of the season last week. Give it to Stajanovic. Give it to him. How selfish are you? I guess for a striker he needs to score goals.
I get what you mean it's selfish but Piccoli thought about himself there as a striker. He thought I'm gonna score against Juventus. And then he proved that karma does not exist at all as Empoli sealed the victory in the 92nd minute with a goal from Roberto Piccoli after a one-handed save by Cesny. Good rebound goal over there for Piccoli and he was very happy to have scored it. The cunt. Now yes 10 points penalty we discussed.
Empoli secured yes so coming into this game actually Empoli had already secured their victory. We discussed this earlier on the episode but it's just so funny to think that Zanetti was expecting his team to get smashed because Juve had something to play for and they didn't in reality. And he was right that they were going to be too hungover for the game essentially but in reality little did he know that his players were out there scoring and making beer drinking gestures you know. What a vibe.
But like I think if you look at the beginning of the game Juve were putting a lot of pressure on Empoli and you'd see that Empoli were typically playing the ball back to the defense and starting the attack again by switching the play.
But it was just so good to see the way Empoli handled that pressure that was being put on them particularly in the midfield the way they were playing the ball around and playing it back to the defense and just having no problem with playing the ball back to restart the attack just patient their players the movement into space in the midfielders to create a passing opportunity for the defenders was beautiful to see.
It shows that they are a unit and not a team of individuals they were all working for each other like the midfielders wanted the defenders to have options to pass it to and all the other way around. So Empoli have become this really really intricate team that they've become really dependable and up against Juve for them to wipe the floor with Juve in the way they did even with the fucking scandal and whatever they did a fantastic job and take nothing away from them nothing at all.
Yeah bro totally. They are as we said in the last episode Venezia that one season and Serie A about good. Exactly. Yeah exactly the same manager at Zanetti style it's a system very attractive brand of football but this time it's actually working because of the personnel very talented team again Cambiagui and Baldanzi are just next level and even Parisi. They're just two of eleven fantastic players man so many good players at Empoli. They tend to have good players at Empoli.
It's true it's true they do but this once again further highlights Juventus' defensive vulnerabilities right. It's weird man they had that there was nine games in a row earlier this season where they didn't concede a single goal man. And you look at now granted defenders were out this game Bonucci, Danilo, Quadrado whatever. Danilo is probably the biggest loss of the lot but I'm sorry Alexandro who's just automatically been renewed is not to standard.
No he shouldn't be starting he shouldn't even be on the squad like no why is he playing I don't get it. Why has he been renewed? And now they're renewing Quadrado as well so they're renewing this deadweight I don't know what's going on over here. Respect to Quadrado of course a very good player in his day but he's obviously past it you know.
Yeah and I think it's time for Juve to create this kind of clean slate especially when you see what the players were involved in and one of the scandals and you see what do you mean with when there was Covid that they were all accepting they were all accepting well illegal payments. Well I don't think they had much of a choice I think it was literally Chiellini coming in and saying listen the board are going to pay us we're not telling anyone.
Yeah I know but it doesn't matter because that image of Juve has been tainted by that squad it's been tainted by that management it's been tainted by those owners so a new slate for Juve would a help their brand and b they need it because they have a bunch of good young players which they should keep on too. They look at Quadrado and Sandro that's a dead weight that they need to get rid of bro they need to get rid of that and invest in younger players. Players like Gatti.
Yeah of course no the new generation is looking good at least they have that to be positive about. I anticipate that if they don't make Champions League which it's looking quite unlikely that they do make Champions League they will have to sell some players because they're not going to get the funding from Champions League they're going through this scandal maybe a transfer ban will come about but I'm already seeing talks about a lot of teams looking for strikers.
Vlaović is one of the hottest names in the market right now everyone's talking about Dusan Vlaović even Milan fans are talking about. And don't be fooled by these performances we know he's a beast. Yeah of course of course. He was an animal at Fiorentino and he played differently he had more freedom up there and more support players playing off his shoulders he was yeah it was great. And I genuinely think that Milić has had more success with Juve this season than Vlaović.
Yeah Empoli showcased a solid defensive unit to be honest they were they were organized Juve were weak offensively Empoli were strong defensively and of course it resulted in this catastrophe bro. Not much else to say Empoli safe Juve in trouble Juve currently sit in seventh with 59 points while Empoli are in 14th with 42 points.
The next game we're going to be covering was a very very competitive game of football between Roma and Salernitana that ended in a 2-2 draw the previous encounter was a 1-0 away victory for Roma. The injured players for Roma in this game were Paolo de Bala, Rick Carsdorp and Marash Kumbulla while the missing player for Salernitana in this game was Federico Fazio Buhu.
Roma fielded a 3-4-2-1 formation with Patricio on goal and the back line of Ibanez, Smoling and Bove that El Sharawi has the left wing back with Zalefski has the right wing back and Tahirović and Kamara are playing in the middle. Wijnaldum and Solbakken played behind Bellotti. For Salernitana it was also a 3-4-2-1 formation with Guilherme Ochoa on goal in the backline of Danilovic, Gjomber and Pirola.
Castanos was out on the right while his brother Hich was out on the left with Koulibaly and Bohinen in the middle and Candreva and Dia playing off the shoulders of Piontek. In the twelfth minute Salernitana took the lead as Koulibaly put Candreva clean through on goal with a long ball from his own half and the veteran Italian did extremely well to catch the ball on the volley with the outside of his extended foot guiding the ball into the top corner.
Absolute magic, this was one of our goals of the week. Amazing man, amazing goal. And Candreva man keeps pulling them out scoring in crazy ways right? Yeah we're always talking about what fans we are of Saponara. I think Candreva would be an equivalent except he was at Inter. I think Candreva though is the antithesis of Saponara. He's all work rate and power while Saponara is all cool and finesse you know they're like composure and finesse. They're both old magicians you know what I mean.
But in different like you'll never see Saponara attempting a cross and it ends up in the back of the net. If Saponara is crossing it's gonna be a perfect cross you know. Candreva is just like spam, he's quantity, Saponara is quality. Exactly that's true, that's true. In additional time of the first half Ibanez thought he brought one back for Roma after some confusion in the box from a corner kick but VAR indicated that Bellotti handled the ball in the midst of the confusion.
Now between the header and between the ball hitting Bellotti's hand, the space between the head and the arm was very very tight so it did seem a bit harsh. I don't think it would have been given in the Champions League or in the Premier League and in fact that's what I told you bro when it happened I'm like no it's too short distance. But the referee cancelled the goal I guess maybe things are a bit different in Serie A than they are on other stages in the world.
In half time Roma made some key substitutions, Laurenti, Pellegrini and Matich entered the field replacing Solbak in Ibanez and Tahirovic respectively and that did make a massive difference to the game. In fact in the 51st minute Roma equalized as El-Sharawi rebounded Pellegrini's free kick into the back of the net. Pellegrini's strike was initially saved by Ochoa who parried the ball into the part of the Egyptian goal scorer, perhaps he could have caught it.
Now this is the thing when you have a very acrobatic goalkeeper and not a traditional goalkeeper he tends to do this where he tries to fist the ball away rather than catch it. This time it didn't go to plants probably the first time he made a bit of an error and it's still harsh to call it an error. Because he's a cat-like goalkeeper he's not the type to grab it, he's going to parry it's true and that doesn't age as well. No, exactly.
So that was the equalizer for Roma, two players that came on substituted teamed up to get this goal. However, three minutes later Salernitana regained the lead through Boulayet Dia. He backheeled the ball into the back of the net after a deflected Piontek square ball. This initial counter-attack came to life after Kandreva's long ball to the Polish man. Thank you to our DJ, his timing is impeccable. He's fantastic.
No, a great piece of, what's the word, I'm really losing my words today, improvisation by Boulayet Dia. The ball seemed to be played behind him, he seemed a bit off balance. He did fantastically to improvise and backheel the ball into the back of the net. Also that tiny crowd of Salernitana away fans, you could hear them overpowering the Roma fans singing Dia's song. Man oh man, do I love Salernitana at the minute.
In the 83rd minute, speaking of minutes, Roma found the equalizer once again, this time through another substituted player, Nemanja Matić, who hammered the ball into the back of the net after it fell kindly to him following a corner kick. Now again, time and time again, it has been Roma set pieces season after season. When they have a game like this, they can rely on their set pieces. I think Salernitana were doing a fantastic job with these direct counter attacks.
Roma were playing wide, they emphasized utilizing like the width of the pitch when going forward. And Salernitana were very compact defensively, and then they would just go straight down through the middle. So for a very, very direct and swift counter attack. And that's where Roma were getting caught out. But to have something at your arsenal like these set pieces is incredibly important. We look at the Euro 2020 with Italy, the famous 247 free kick routines that they had.
This is how Roma have been scoring their goals for a while now. If they can't get it through open play, they'll get it through a header from a set piece or a rebound, a scrapper rebound. They've been doing it all season and last season as well. You do look at the wing backs of Roma and that space behind the wing backs was where Salernitana were really targeting that space that was left between there. We've often criticized the gap between defense and midfield for Roma.
And in this case, it was more kind of obvious down the left and down the right with El Sharawi being a natural winger and with Zalevski being a more attacking option rather than a defensive option. Young and naive, they toyed with him a bit this game. Brotherage seemed more on it than Zalevski. And it's funny because Brotherage is 23 years old, you know, he's two years older than Zalevski, but he seemed to be more street smart than Zalevski this game.
And how good was it to see just Salernitana going for it in this game? Like very, very confident in their counterattacks. They were committing 100%. They weren't just playing defensive and hoping to get one point. They were really, really confident and going for it. They believe they could beat this Roma team and I really, really think they believe that. That's true. They, I think yes, bro, because they attacked them from the get go.
They scored early in the first half and then early in the second half. So yeah, I'm sure they were thinking maybe we can, we can contain this victory. I certainly think that they didn't plan on losing and they fucking, they managed. Yeah, I think so. Good result for them. Great result for them and a very frustrating one for Roma. Yeah. I also wanted to make a point about what Mourinho said after the game. Now I know we already spoke about the whole Juve thing, so on, so forth.
But Mourinho went on an entire rant about it after this game and he basically said, Jesus fucking Christ. I could have committed more to getting Europe through, through the league. I could have, you know, you look at this game full of rotation. I know they've got their injuries, but Pellegrini didn't start the game. Matij didn't start the game and Tahirovic and Kamara started as a result of that with Wijnaldum as a left winger and Solbakken as a right winger.
So his argument is that had he known that. Yeah, of course. But then maybe he would have suffered in the Europa League. So I do find it's a bit of a salty statement, but I like how he spoke about Juve saying it's unfair that it's happening to this group of individual players who are all professionals and he really spoke highly of them. Of course, because the players have nothing to do with it. Exactly. Well, the capital gains case. Yeah. The salary maneuvers, they had everything to do with it.
A little bit. Because they fucking bought, they spent 80 million on Ronaldo. Dude, hashtag free the shillio. Hashtag free the shillio. Can we get that trending guys? Please come on. Hashtag free the shillio. It's really ambidextrous. We need him to be safe. He really is ambidextrous. Milan, even Juve play him on the left, play him on the right. He's very two-putted. That's because of his immense tactical discipline, bro. The next Maldini they used to call him back in the day. Oh my God. Come on.
Roma sit in sixth on 60 points. Just to paint the picture, Atalanta are in fifth on 61 and Milan are in fourth on 64. However, and then Juventus are in seventh on 59. So they're a bit sandwiched. Could we potentially see Roma in the Europa League next season if they fail to win the, sorry in the conference league, if they fail to win the Europa League final and they drop points and Juve capitalize on that. You might see them back there again. Salah and Etana 15th on 39 points.
Absolutely safe from relegation. Before Jake speaks about the next game, I just want to make a point that today through the simple click of a button, I almost deleted our entire episode. We were going to have to start over because I hit command Z on this and it deleted absolutely everything. You should have seen the panic. And then the redo prompt wasn't working like the combination on my keyboard. But stayed calm, stayed stoic. Do you know how he solved it guys?
This troubleshooting mastermind over here next to me. Google, how to redo on Mac on audacity. But that's what didn't work. That's because it was telling me command something and that wasn't working. Oh, but edit redo works. At the top toolbar. Oh yeah, we've just saved someone's day somewhere. The next thing we're going to be covering is at Atlanta three Verona one. Now at Atlanta have significantly improved their record against Hellas Verona since Gasparini became the manager.
They won seven out of 10 matches. Hellas Verona had achieved two consecutive away victories against Atlanta matching their total number of away wins in the previous 20 encounters. And Atlanta had suffered two consecutive defeats without scoring, which hadn't happened to them since 2014. Gasparini joined when Verona weren't a feeder club and they had Caprari, Illich and all those guys. Of course that plays a massive part. It's true. It's not just it's not just Gasparini.
Well, Gasparini has been around forever to be honest. He was around for those days as well. He is a gnome. He is a He looks so much like a garden gnome. And Gasparini doesn't look like a garden gnome. Is it politically incorrect to say gnome? No, you've got it mixed up with something else, which is politically incorrect. Let's we move on.
Atlanta fielded their 3-4-2-1 formation with Sportiello on goal, Gymsity, Scalvini and Toloi at the back with Zappa Costa on the left, Mele out on the right, De Roon and Koop Miners in the middle with Muriel Pasalic and Hoyland playing as the Trident up front. I know the new GTA came out already. GTA Gymsity. Wow. Next up, a comedy podcast. Verona on the other hand lined up with their 3-4-2-1 formation with Monte Po in goal, Shekharini at the back, Hien and Kabal all at the back together.
Don't ask. Terracciano was on the right. No, not the goalkeeper. De Pauli was on the left. Tameze and Suleymana were in the middle. Ingonj and Lazovic played behind the big, big boy Juric. Yes, sir. He's Latin. Verona took the lead in the 11th minute with a goal from Darko Lazovic but Atalanta responded strongly equalizing in the 22nd minute through Davide Zappa Costa's powerful strike from outside the area.
Mario Pasalic put Atalanta ahead in the 53rd minute after a mistake from Verona goalkeeper Lorenzo Monte Po. He was dispossessed over there and Pasalic just passed into the back of the net. Rasmus Hoyland sealed the victory for Atalanta with a goal in the 62nd minute also from out of the box. Atalanta had quite a few injuries this game but managed to get the job done.
They had Zapata, had a bird rugieri, Palomino, soppy, bog out due to injuries while Verona on the other hand had Lasagna Duda, Onri, Davidovic and Hrstic. They had a Lasagna Duda. They had a Lasagna Duda. Yes. The Curva Nord was closed this game by the way because of racist chance directed at Dusan Vlavic from the previous game. So that's nice to see that there was a bit of action. Very good. Lots to be done still. Verona now have suffered their second consecutive defeat bro. They're risking it.
And now they play Empoli next and then they have Milan away at the last game of the season. Fatal Verona. So I think it's… Verona have upset teams on the last day particularly Milan, Google Fatal Verona. You can read about it. It's quite upsetting. Napoli. They got two sodas. They kicked them out of the Champions League spot in top four. Now they stand one point below Spezia who are in 17th. Verona are in 18th. So things are getting a little bit dangerous for them.
Spezia don't have it easy either as they face Torino at home and then Roma away on the last game of the season. So it's going to be a crazy ending guys. One thing that I would like to say is how Atalanta man would in Maltese we say be naked naked. So just like against all odds slowly slowly like taking no under the radar they managed to fucking be relevant at this point in the season for the top four spot bro. Like they've got 61 points in fifth after Juve have been docked their points right.
Milan have 64 points in fourth. That means Atalanta, all it takes is Milan not beating Verona and not beating Juve. And Atalanta win their games, boom they're top four. They can still do it. They have six pointer against Inter coming up which is going to be huge for them. If they manage to get three points over there, Inter stay on 66 and they go up to 64 all of a sudden bro it gets very very tight. But their hopes would be that Milan drop points. Inter is a bit unattainable at the moment.
Of course bro. I really liked the diamond that Atalanta fielded over here in Muriel, Hoylund, Pasalic and Cook Miners or Darun. They kind of played with a diamond shape and move the ball around very smoothly. Hoylund does this thing where he can just run and stretch the pitch as far as it goes really pushing that defensive line and people just play him through. You know long balls over the top. So it's good to see what Atalanta are doing.
They're a very good team and they might get rewarded for it. I think as well if they get Europa League for next season they have a good chance to do stuff over there man. Atalanta, they're a very street smart team. They have a good manager. I'm sure the last two seasons haven't been as fruitful as the ones before but they have some money now and they could potentially prepare themselves well for Europe. They have a tight little squad with their depth as well.
They brought on Demi Raal, Luckmann and Ederson of the bench all very good. O'Cauley was brought on of the bench as well, a very talented youngster. They have lots of players and these players are all used to playing frequently because of Gasparini's rotation system. So yes a very good project, a very good footballing. Demi Atalanta, one of the greatest academies in Italy, possibly in the world as well. As to where they stand, of course we've discussed this.
Atalanta are in fifth with 61 points while Verona are in 18th with 30 points. Atalanta were just too much for Verona to handle. The next game we're going to be covering is Torino 1-Fiorentina. 1, the previous encounter was a 2-1 victory for Fiorentina. Torino had Nemanja Radonjic out due to injury, whilst Fiorentina had Bonaventura suspended. They had Sofian Amrabat and Nico Gonzalez that were rested for this game.
Obviously sandwiched between a European fixture and between the Coppa Italia final that is coming up tomorrow. Probably when you're listening to this it would be today. Torino lined up in their 3-4-2-1 formation with Vania Angola on the backline of Bonjur, Nossoors and Gigi. Rodriguez was out on the left with Singo out on the right and the double pivot of Ilician Ricci, two very young clever signings they made in the past two windows, whilst Karamohand Vlasic played behind Tony Sanabria.
Fiorentina lined up in a 4-2-3-1 with Ciro Foligni in goal and the backline of Venuti, Martinez, Igor and Tercic. They had Mandragora and Duncan in the middle with Saponar out on the right, Sotil out on the left and Barak playing behind Kwame. In the 12th minute Vlasic's long-range attempt hit the side netting, it looked like it was flying into the top corner, very close by him.
And then coming out for the second half Fiorentina introduced Lukaj Jović who scored after 3 minutes in the 48th minute. It was a close-ranged header into the bottom right corner after a good run and cross by Christian Kwame, Fiorentina take the lead making it 1-0 away from home.
However then in the 65th Torino managed to find their equaliser as Alessandro Bonjorno played a low cross to Tony Sanabria who finished extremely well on the first touch into the bottom far corner to make it 1-1 and they both share a point apiece. Instantly going in to talk about how we've been saying that Torino needs a striker while Sanabria each and every week has been telling us to go fuck ourselves.
Exactly, he's 27 years old, the man from fucking Paraguay dude, he is proving to be quite deployable. Sanabria, reliable, quite an elite goal scorer to get 12 goals for Torino. 12 goals in 3 assists in 26 starts, that's pretty good. We've been going on about how Torino need a striker and it is true they do need a striker still but they've got a good player over here, Sanabria who does explode every season but this season more than before I think, at least statistically.
The way he inserts himself, he's getting more intelligent, he's getting used to offensive movements. One thing that you guys probably know is that Torino and Fiorentina was a massive game for this race to 8th that is currently going on. At the moment Monza are in 8th place on 52 whilst Bologna, Torino and Fiorentina all share 50 points, 2 points behind Monza. I do think however in this case that both sides were happy to take a draw quite frankly. I didn't see much urgency coming from each side.
I think Fiorentina also wanted to, they didn't want to go in for the 50-50s, they rested a couple of players, they don't want any injuries going ahead especially with a European Cup final coming up. So I think they played it quite safe over there and I think Torino were happy with that. We've seen what Fiorentina are capable of doing and Torino would have been glad that that wasn't the Fiorentina that they're facing, the Fiorentina at 100%.
Yes and they also demonstrated their depth at Fiorentina, they still feel like a decent squad like they have Kwame playing up front, resting Jovic and the likes of Cabral for example playing Saponara as well we all know they have 100 wingers. Terizek and Venuti were okay, Mandragora, Duncan were good in the midfield, you know deployable team, a good team. Yeah, 100%, very good and compact team.
It seems like Italiano has managed to find a very good group of players who are capable of playing his system, Italiano's system, it's a very compact system. It didn't allow Torino too many opportunities.
I know Ricardo Rodriguez was having a couple of attempts and a couple of crosses from distance and they had that chance through Vlasic with a long range strike, otherwise an end was that early ball into the box that Tony Sanabria finished off, other than that they didn't have many chances Torino bro. Yeah no, barely any it's true but thankfully their Paraguayan gem up front sorted them out. Exactly, man you know I didn't know he was from Paraguay. Really? I had no idea.
Not many people from Paraguay, name another footballer from Paraguay, go. I know one, I know one, I know one. Gustavo Gomez. Gustavo Gomez. Boom bitch. That's the one, I signed him on FM with Empoli, that was quite a good little group. He's killing it in Brazil, killing it, he's become like a libero back in the day. Exactly, exactly. Playing behind the defense, almost pinging balls forward, he's a captain lifting trophies, he's become a legend.
Really says hi to all of you that are listening but that's pretty much it for this game, I don't think there's too much going to over here. Torino sit in 10th on 50 points, so if you're in 11th on 50 points as well. Oh yeah, the next game we are going to be covering is Sassuolo 1-2 Monza. Why did you say it like that?
Oh my god I channeled my inner Mintoff, I'm talking about Sassuolo, I'm wearing a Sassuolo kit as we speak, those who follow our Patreon will be aware of that, we've posted a video. Sassuolo won Monza 2, sorry. Now Sassuolo had an unbeaten record against Monza across Serie A, Serie B and the Coppa Italia with a win and a draw in their previous encounters.
Sassuolo had been undefeated in their last 8 matches against newly promoted teams in Serie A but of course Monza are no ordinary newly promoted team. They are a newly promoted team with money. Now Monza and Sassuolo had earned the same number of points in their second round of Serie A matches this season with only 5 teams having more points during that period, so they are actually 2 of the top sides since the return of Serie A post-World Cup.
Sassuolo 4-3-3 Conceal in gold, Rogério has the left back, Tolian has the right back, Ruantressoldi and their elitre at the back, Henrique Lopez and Frattesi has the midfield 3 with Bayrami and Berardi out wide and Penamonti up front. Ruantressoldi. Monza 3-4-1 formation de Gregorio in gold recently linked with Nottingham Forest, our father came up to us like apparently our fathers are Nottingham Forest fan, he's like apparently Monza's keeper and we're like what was that? Craniordi.
See the one who has a bit of a beard, we're like oh my god he's amazing, he's amazing, he's amazing, he's amazing. He's probably thinking like these guys think everyone from Serie A is amazing. They had two great keepers this year first and they were both on loan, they had Henderson and Napas. It saw Mari and Caldi Rola were at the back for Monza with Churi out on the right, Augusto on the left, Pessina and Sensi in the middle, now that's a sweet double pivot.
Caprari and Mota played behind the big big Petania. Yes, who did I see recently and I was like you're telling me that's not Petania. We don't know his name but there was this guy on the TV. You said his name. It wasn't anyone we knew. No, I thought you said his name and then who was it? I don't remember, that's why I'm asking you. It was some fat guy. With big lips. Love, love Petania. Love Petania so much.
In the 51st minute Domenico Berardi converted the penalty giving Xassuolo a 1-0 lead, in the 68th minute Churi equalised for Monza with a well worked goal that saw him inserting himself in the attacking position, in an attacking position very well as Churi often does and actually scoring. In the 68th minute, Ruan Tresoldi'd. Alright, Ruan Tresoldi man, he's fucking, honestly he's having a mare this guy, he's having an absolute nightmare.
I don't want to shit on him too much, this is a theme with Xassuolo defenders that they're not reliable. They just keep passing the baton to the next shit one.
This guy lost the ball, he tried to dribble, instantly dispossessed, panicked, he's like no way am I going to make a mistake that leads to a goal, went for the slight tackle to win the ball and he was already on a yellow card, got a second yellow and he's off, reducing Xassuolo to 10 men and of course Monza switched the gear of course and they're like alright these guys are down to 10, we're going to kill them.
And in the 93rd minute, Samuele Vignato actually played Pesina through brilliantly and Pesina scored and the scenes were immaculate. But yes, Monza proving that tactically they know how to get it done.
This guy, Raffaele Palladino, no wonder he's being linked to Juventus man, he's a good manager playing this game very very intelligently, approaching it cautiously, suddenly Rouen Tressoldi gets sent off and they're in the game and how were they in the game and they just switched up gear and actually got a late winner over there. So very good.
Xassuolo on the other hand approached the game more aggressively from the get go and they were pressing high, they tried to disrupt Monza's build up play, Monza were just resilient, they were patient, they waited, in the second half they made a few substitutions over here, Monza that really changed the game as well for them, they brought on Marlon, Ravella and Brindelli, three good substitutions. After these substitutions were made, simply six minutes later they scored.
So there's that, then the red card in the 68th minute, so in eight minutes the game changed completely. And then the 92nd of course, the guy who had just come on, Samuele Vignato actually plays Pesina through who scores the winner. Lovely, lovely stuff. Very good in game management by Palladino, the squad seems to like him, they seem to love him and he seems to treat them well in that sense.
He has a lovely group of players, you look at this team, incredible talent all around, the likes of Caprari, Sensi Pesina, Churia, Carlos Augusto, Itso, Di Gregorio, everyone's fantastic and again we're really seeing this team transform into, they're peaking at the moment Monza and it's good that they find themselves in eighth place which is fucking crazy I think that's the best I can remember a newly promoted team doing definitely.
And it's good that they're relishing this battle to eighth so much and that they're outdoing teams like Bologna, teams like Fiorentina, teams like Odinese, teams like Torino who have been there and have been doing exactly that for seasons and seasons and seasons, in Cam Monza instantly out of the top seven they're the best team. Yeah, definitely. Are they not like? It's true, it's true, it's true, it's true. They're super. And honestly I can't remember the last time they lost.
Like off the top of my head. Off the top of my head? No, I mean I just opened their previous fixtures to see when the last time was. Win-win, draw away to Torino, draw at home to Roma, win away to Spezia, win at home to Fiorentina, give me a break guys, give me a break. They're the shit. They're trouble. They're the real cheese. They are the real cheese man, they are. And they currently sit in eighth with 52 points while Sassuolo sit in 13th with 44 points.
Those who remember the days of Sassuolo's promotion to Serie A will know that they were similar to Monza back in the day but a greater underdog because they didn't have the financial injection. They had, what was his name again, took Roma to the semi-final bro, Di Francesco. Di Francesco was the manager that season and he actually got them to an Europa League spot and they played in Europe Sassuolo. So Monza still have to outdo that legacy.
But that was the last time I think a newly promoted team got Europe. Oh, they were newly promoted as well. Yes, I believe so. Fucking crazy man. They did better than Monza then. I think, I'm not sure bro, don't quote me. I don't know if it was the season they got promoted or the season after they got promoted. But I believe it was when they got promoted. Don't quote me. The next game we're going to be covering, the penultimate game we're going to be covering is Cremona 1-Bologna 5.
So another spanking in this matchday. This is what sent Cremona down to Serie A. Unfortunately. They threw them, they kicked them back into Serie A. This is spartan them down to Serie A. Really that though, they just fucking counted them down to Serie A. Real massive reality check there for Cremona who unfortunately despite their efforts are a couple of steps behind where they need to be to be a solid Serie A. I feel like if they brought in Ballardini earlier they would have had a better chance.
Yeah, probably. It's funny when you're Serie A and then you got promoted to Serie A and Serie A, you have such a different approach because you're fighting to win and you're making changes to go all the way and you're used to winning. And then in Serie A you have to make changes to survive, not take you to the next winning level kind of thing. So it's always interesting to see how they approach situations like that.
You see Salernetana last season and Genoa last season, they changed their manager three times I believe. So Salernetana for sure. Even Genoa. I forgot about that with the fever in me. Before the game, Cremona handed a 50,000 euro check to Bologna sporting director Claudio Fenucci for the flood victims in Emilia-Romagna and then that was followed by a one minute silence around all of Serie A. Obviously we've seen the footage of what's happening in Emilia-Romagna and it's petrifying.
It's super scary, it's something out of the 2012 movie that came out in 2011. I don't know why I'm going into so much detail about the movie. It's frightening, people are dying, the streets are collapsing, trees and houses are collapsing. It's dreadful. It's nice to see Cremona forking out 50k and giving it to Bologna to help them aid that. Especially when they could have used the 50k to get a striker. They could have paid their players.
It's a very nice gesture and I'd like to see more of this in football. Also if anyone's listening who has family or friends or whatever or live in Emilia-Romagna, our thoughts are with you and we hope you guys can overcome this. Cremona has had Serie A. Hildeser is out and he is out for the entirety of the season, whilst Bologna had Soriano, Kiriakopoulos and Sao Mauro missing this match. Cremona is lined up in their 4-2-3-1 formation that did really well.
Carnesecki in goal and the backline of Valeri, Vasquez, Kirikes and Saint-Nicola and a double pivot of Meite and Castagnetti. That Ocarreca out on the left, Piquel out on the right with Galdemes playing behind Sajou. You listened to the first episode where we're pronouncing these names and one of the final episodes where we're pronouncing these names. We've come a long way bro. We bro, we bro. We have bro. I don't know what it is about these relegation sides playing random people on the wing.
Hey man! Now that they're relegated, fuck it. Piquel on the wing, Gabbiadini on the wing. Literally, but they weren't even relegated here man. I know, not yet. Bologna 4-2-3-1, same formation with Skorupski in goal and the backline of Stefan Posch, Bonifazi, Lukumyfuckumy and Cambiaso. Breslau shouting and Dominguez in the middle with Orsolini out on the right. We literally did everything in this game. Barrow on the left and Ferguson playing behind Arnautovic.
Okay, so in the 14th minute Bologna opened the scoring. Moussa Barrow unleashed a powerful in-swinging cross to the far post which was headed in well by Mark Arnautovic. That was a shot in my opinion. It was. I think it was a shot cross. Yeah, one of those. But I wouldn't be surprised if Barrow went for goal. I bet Moussa Barrow would go for goal from there. In the 27th minute Bologna extended their lead with a goal from a corner kick.
Riccardo Orsolini delivered a powerful dipping corner, one of the best corners I've ever seen in my life. It bounced off the leg of Ferguson, bounced off the defender, falling kindly back to Ferguson who slotted in.
Now before I write these goal descriptions and before I watch the highlights, I read articles on the game so that I could get additional information than just watching the highlights especially if I missed the game in the first place and every article I was reading said the same thing. A sensational corner by Riccardo Orsolini, a magnificent corner by Orsolini, the perfect corner by Orsolini. I'm like what the fuck was this fucking corner for it to be sensational, magnificent and perfect?
Like who the fuck describes a corner as magnificent or sensational? Like how, unless it goes in I guess, it's like if it's a good corner like or like Luca Modric assisting Sergio Ramos in a Champions League final against Atletico in the last minute, that could be a sensational corner but a sensational corner Bologna against Crum, bro I watch the corner, Orsolini is on corner duties now and the way he takes these corners is just full of power and it just dips onto the penalty area.
It just dips perfectly onto the penalty spot and whoever is there all they need to do is guided goal words and they don't even need to generate power because all the power is in the corner. Beautiful corners and I remember burst out laughing after seeing the corners I was telling Jake I was like how can a corner be magnificent and then we clicked play, the corner went in and both just at the same time went oh! The perfect corner! This is an amazing corner by Orsolini.
And then the 29th minute, two minutes later Orsolini got a yellow card for descent and then the 46th minute Orsolini took another perfect corner this time headed in by Stefan Posch and Karneceky anticipated this corner coming in he went out to intercept it by punching the ball away missed it because of the sheer power that was on this corner and then he just had to tap it in with a header Stefan Posch. So amazing by Orsolini what a coup to have to take corners.
In the 61st minute there was a strong appeal from Cremenese players for a handball in the penalty box over VAR said nothing doing at this point Cremenese are dreaming and then a minute later Bologna scored again. They continued their dominant display with another clinical finish this time by Riccardo Orsolini who beat the offside trap after a counter attacking through ball by Moro before rounding Karneceky and finishing from a tight angle it is now 4-0 for Bologna.
And then in the 73rd minute just 11 minutes later Orsolini received his second yellow card and his subsequent dismissal from the pitch from referee Paolo Valeri. The Italian lunged into a challenge whilst dribbling as the ball went slightly astray he went to win it through a sliding tackle and he got all the man over there. So he literally did everything there is to do in the game in this match but what a performance. If you go on who scored he's got every symbol about him.
All he needs is the clean sheet one or every little goal that Karneceky has over there on a 4.6. In the 80th minute Moussa Barrow had time and space to play a precise pass to Nicolas Anson inside the box who finished brilliantly into the far corner nothing the keeper could do and in the 91st minute Cremonaese found a consolation goal as Ciofanli unleashed a volley from inside the area and into the back of the net.
Okay Orsolini let's talk because he's had a great season he was the best Italian player in the world this season in my opinion.
I think Zaccani was very good this year but yes Orsolini has definitely been one of the best ones and it's nice to see him play well across a full season because usually he appears in the second half of the season or he dips and it's nice to see that his output has remained consistent as well because he's a very explosive player and the fact that he's actually getting numbers, goals and assists and he said pieces are fucking so good they
can rule of course we discussed it but he's got many elements of his game that could make him a very useful player and who would have thought that in 2023 Orsolini would be more highly rated than Nicolas Anioro for example.
Ah literally man literally you look at him like Zaccani plays a bit closer to goal in my opinion and the work that Orsolini does like he plays out wider it seems like in a 4-3-3 for lots, Joao Zaccani plays a bit closer to the striker but not 4-2-3-1 formation Orsolini is typically tasked with looking after that wing a little bit more and cutting in for that T-Rajira or a cross. We often see him charging from the halfway line for example he drives well.
And the way just that when he has a bit of space the way he starts dribbling around players when he's confident is just so entertaining man and genuinely I have a bit of a crush on Orsolini at the moment he's been so good this year Milan need a right winger I think they should go for Orsolini bro.
Honestly it might be better than Albert from Genoa but yeah no I mean Tiaugamatta has everyone playing amazingly he's got Ferguson looking amazing he's got Barrow back to his best as well you know Shoughton always looks good Stefan Posch has been incredible like these guys are thriving under Tiaugamatta so good on them I would like to see Orsolini have another season at Bologna though to be honest with you I think it would be cool.
I mean the more seasons you can get under your belt before joining my favorite team get them so that you won't disappoint them. The prize though right that's everything between 20 million and 40 million fucking 60 million. If you're Italian then it's 40 million if you're an Italian in Italy. By the way here it says he has one assist he has two because one of them hit Ferguson then hit the defender and then Ferguson got it back so he had two assists this game.
So yes I can't highlight this guy enough he's had a fantastic season and this game was all him it literally was all Orsolini I'm saying it's all Orsolini but then you look on the left hand side Moussa Barrow let me change this instead of highlighting Orsolini and Barrow so much I'm going to say Bologna really utilized their wings well.
They have their final four players in Orsolini, Ferguson, Barrow and Arnautovic that are super dangerous together you see them all contributing in this game Orsolini with two assists and a goal, Ferguson with a goal, Arnautovic with a goal and Barrow with two assists.
The firepower they have over here is great I think they identified the problem with Cremonaise which is their aerial duels they're not great at that and they just flooded them with these dangerous crosses and boy did they have the players to deliver them. Yeah bro and did they have the guy in the box to fucking pounce on them as well they were aiming them at Arnautovic which is a great target man.
Yeah no 100% we said that they looked better without him but then when he's back he's saying you can whip the ball into it. You can exactly. Or shoot apparently shoot and he'll head it in. But yeah that sent Cremonaise spiraling down to Serie B it's been great to have Cremonaise with us but unfortunately not quite good enough they got their first victory what a couple of weeks ago.
19th place 24 points nowhere they can go while Bologna are in ninth on 50 points and I can't wait to see Bologna a full season with Thiago Motta next year. Yeah same European push huh maybe. Yeah maybe. We'll see.
The next game we're going to be covering was the most disappointing game of the weekend the game we hyped up we're like Lecce Spezia it's going to be fucking sold out it's fucking crazy relegation six pointer a man who wins survives only the strong survive you know we're like fucking writing freestyles about this fucking game.
I like gassing it up little did we know there was going to be the classic Italian biscotto literally where you know let's share the spoils we've got three games left let's take a draw here I mean Spezia were more than no sorry Lecce were more than happy to take the draw here in fact they came out with a bit of a defensive approach Spezia tried a little bit harder but could not penetrate did not have enough quality to actually penetrate the Lecce
defense this was in general a game that displayed it left a lot to be desired quantity wise man Lecce lined up with their 4-3-3 formation Marco Barone's men Falcone was in goal Gallo on the left Jean Drey on the right Umtiti and Basquerotta as a center back duo this might be a new world record bro for back four like the same back four week in week out no matter if they play like twice a week three times a week it's the same back four.
They had so many defensive woes at the start of the season so many injuries so on so forth but they really found their four and they stuck with them man.
Udon, Blin and Gonzalez were in the middle of the field and of course was out injured they definitely missed him over there he's a fantastic player and Di Francesco was out on the left Streffetz out on the right and Colombo started this one up front for Spezia it was a 3-5-2 formation with Dragovski in goal Visnevski, Ampadu and Nicola were at the back with Jazi playing as the right wing back Reka playing as the left wing back Ekdal
Esposito and Borabia were in the middle Massey Esposito is growing into quite the player Inzola and Shumardov were playing up front. Now of course apart from Hulman they also had Castriot Darmacu out injured and Lefce Spezia had Amian and Caldaro, Daniel Maldini, Salahal Mujwao Moutin and Zofko the substitute goalkeeper out injured. I hope he's not too hurt. Oh man I remember his game against Atalanta.
This was Lefce's 600th match in Seia marking a significant milestone for the club so applause to Lefce. Guess how many shots on target this game had? What like two? Yeah, bang! Two shots on target throughout the entire game Inzola and Shumardov had chances for Spezia but their shots went wide or were blocked by the Lefce defence. Trefetza and Sissé had attempts for Lefce but they were unable to find the back of the net.
The tension and nervousness though was evident bro and both teams fought to secure points for survival and they fought scrappily. You know it was just losing the ball, winning it back, losing the ball, winning it back. I told you man. Midfield scraps. While you were getting all hyped for it I told you there's probably going to be a nil-nil. These games typically tend to be nil-nil. Yeah they tend to be but not at this stage of the season.
But maybe typically not at this stage of the season but you see that Verona were up against Atalanta on the other hand and these guys would be like wow, listen, they're probably going to lose. Adreau would do us both a fucking solid like. Of course yeah but they might bite them in the ass later because they could have won this game. I mean yes. Either team could have won this game but yeah. I mean there's nothing even to say about this game.
Falcone made a crucial save on a dull shot potentially saving Lecce from defeat. That was probably the best moment of the game. Falcone's save. Yeah I mean it was clear from the get-go that Lecce sat back and allowed Spezia to kind of attack them. They were the biscotto instigators, Lecce definitely.
Absolutely. And Spezia in fact were more aggressive, they pressed Lecce, they created scoring opportunities, they seemed to have more pace and were able to earn corners in the early stages of the game for example. I think Lecce took more of a defensive approach slightly earlier on the season. I think if you look five match days ago we saw like okay, like we need to secure as many points as possible. They took a more defensive approach and they stopped taking risks.
Not that they were massive risk takers before, they've always been a tight knit unit, very defensive so on so forth but they just instigated that a lot more than before. Yeah totally bro. That's it, I'm just going to tell you where they are in the league because honestly there was nothing to talk about. Honestly I feel sorry for whoever took my advice and watched this game. Spezia are in 17th with 31 points, Lecce are in 16th with 33 points. That's not looking good for Verona.
No it's not, it's not looking good for Verona at all. They have 30 points, Spezia have 31 points, Lecce have 33 points, Verona have Empoli at home and Milan away remaining, Lecce have Monza away and Bologna home, Spezia have Torino home and Roma away dude. So I think Lecce have the most favourable run in over here and they are the team with the most points so that probably explains their biscotto approach.
They looked at Spezia and they said these guys have Torino and Roma, left Verona have Empoli and Milan. We don't really have a Milan or a Roma to worry about. Granted there's Monza and Bologna who are not teams that you'd ideally want to face but at the end of the day they're not really pushing for anything. You know Monza and Bologna are not going to be trying to kill you till the end while Roma and Milan on the other hand will be trying to kill these guys.
It's about who gets the one point man, it's about who's capable of getting one point out of these fixtures because I think Empoli is the most favourable fixture. Granted they've just destroyed Juve but even the coach said Zanetti like these guys have been celebrating, they've been partying. So yeah we'll see what happens, it's going to be a crazy ending guys, what a weekend we have coming up, we look forward to watching it and coming back here to discuss it for you guys.
Completely and absolutely. I think I mentioned I might go watch Milan's last game of the season, very pumped about that. I found two friends that were interested in joining me, if not I was going alone 100% because Mr. McJake isn't joining me because he's paying off a house. Bro one day you'll grow up and you'll buy a house and you'll be broke too. I mean I'm looking but I think before I make myself broke I'll watch what might be Piole's last game in charge of Milan. Stop it bro, stop it man.
I'm going to be there bro. Enjoy it, enjoy it, shoot lots of content. Yes I need this man, I need a bit of San Siro. I didn't go this season and I missed it like last year we went twice, I went at the beginning and I went at the end. I had gone to the first game away to Sampdoria when Brahim Dias scored. Under Audero. Exactly and then the penultimate game against Atalanta, Theos Costicos. That was the best day of my life man, the best day of my life.
90% of it was a bunch of anxiety but that 10% of sheer joy, ecstasy it was man. Nothing quite like this San Siro man. Thank you for listening. Taco on Twitter, our boy Taco, we tried to stretch this one up, we tried to get it to the two hour mark, we're at one hour and 54 minutes. The plan here was to hit the two hour mark and to start chanting we love you Taco, we do. Taco tweeted us that our episodes have got a bit shorter and that it's upsetting.
Taco is calling us sellouts, he's like I have your Patreon. Taco is an OG, he's an OG, a spotlight listener. We love you, we appreciate you but sometimes the episodes will be shorter, yes it very much depends on the talking points, the stage of the season.
Like at the moment talking about Napoli we can't spend too much time talking about a team that's already won the league or teams that have already been relegated but don't worry at the end of the season we'll have a 2022-2023 season rundown and believe me they're like four hours long. Those are like four hours long. Whilst we're not going to promise four hours. The last one took us three separate recording sessions. We got drunk three times in a row recording sessions. I was a mess.
It was crazy man. Thank you very much for listening guys, we have been your hosts Jake and Matt and this has been Say A Spotlight, remember to follow us and if you would like to support us you can find us on Patreon, our link is in our link tree in our bio on Instagram or social media or wherever. Love you, bye bye. See you next week.