Serie A, Week 27: Inter Milan Move Into Second With 2-0 Defeat Over Sampdoria In The Weekend’s Last Match

Although Sampdoria played well for much of the match, it’s Inter Milan who leave the Stadio Luigi Ferraris with three points thanks mostly to an excellent second half free kick courtesy of Wesley Sneijder. The home side will feel hugely unlucky not to have scored, especially in the first half where they have numerous chances to turn the ball home, hitting the post on one occasion. Inter neither defended nor attacked particularly well, but once they grabbed their lead they did a brilliant job of drawing their hosts into the attack and stinging them on the counter.

In the last three minutes of the game, Eto’o had no less than three clear chances to put another goal past Gianluca Curci, and after a pair of fine saves from Sampdoria’s goalkeeper finally snatched Inter’s second goal, putting the team 2-0 up in the 94th minute. The home side had no chance to reply.

My word, that’s a free kick and a half by Wesley Sneijder. With Inter tied 0-0 at Sampdoria with just a little under 20 minutes to play, Daniele Gastaldello turned a fairly quiet situation into a major threat by hauling down Giampaolo Pazzini 25 yards in from of the Sampdoria goal. It was a clear foul, but Gastaldello was rather at odds with the decision, screaming and shouting at the referee for some time before the poor man had no choice but to show the centre half a yellow card. Of course, while Sampdoria were arguing about the free kick, Inter were planning their strike, and with Sneijder over the ball a moment of magic is never far away.

Gianluca Curci was still setting up his wall when the whistle blew, so Sneijder simply clipped it over the startled defenders and into the back of the net, possibly grazing the post on its way past the scrambling goalkeeper and into the back of the net. Curci complained about the quick free-kick, but it was totally legal and probably would have gone in anyway. Just minutes later, Sneijder made friends with the goalpost from a second free kick. All Inter Milan right now as they chase the Serie A leaders.

You know the saying, “A picture is worth a thousand words”? Well, in this case, a video is worth a thousand words, so watch the highlights of Udinese’s 7-0 win at Palermo as soon as they’re available. Alexis Sánchez scored four within 50 minutes, Antonio Di Natale grabbed a hat-trick to put him on 21 goals in Serie A, and somewhere in all the fun, two Palermo players were sent off. Oddly enough, save for the penalty conversion that gave Udinese their seventh, no goals were scored after Palermo went down to nine men. Perhaps at that point Udinese were simply feeling sorry for their hosts.

The match got off to a cracking start when Captain Toto scored his first in the ninth minute. Palermo left Di Natale completely unmarked in front of goal, a theme they’d embrace for the rest of the match. Toto’s header met Pablo Armero’s cross for Udinese’s first. Within ten minutes, Alexis Sánchez had doubled the lead, this time due to the mistake of Palermo goalkeeper Salvatore Sirigu, another weakness that would crop up again and again throughout the match.

Toto is clearly attempting to challenge Alexis Sánchez for the title of supreme commander of the universe, while at the same time showing Napoli forward and young upstart Edinson Cavani who’s truly king of Serie A. That hat-trick gave Di Natale 21 goals on the season, putting him in front of Cavani for the most goals in the league.

To spare Palermo further humiliation, Germán Denis came on in the 53rd minute to replace Sánchez. The Palermo crowd gave the Udinese man a standing ovation as he left the field. Because really, what else can you do when faced with the captain of the galaxy?

With four minutes until the halftime whistle, Palermo is doing nothing but praying that the piercing note will come as soon as possible. But down 5-0 with another half to play, there’s not much that a halftime cappuccino break and pep talk will help. Unless, of course, the sight of Delio Rossi packing his bags gives Palermo incentive to score six in response.

That’s four in forty minutes -- Udinese are on track for nine in this one.

That’s three goals by the 27th minute. Will Udinese be able to maintain their average, and score four by the halftime whistle? With both Sirigu and Anđelković struggling to contain the Udinese offense, anything seems possible.

So that’s two from the visitors, coming at an average of every ten minutes. Could we really be lucky enough to see nine goals in this match? It seems that Palermo will have to find its footing and its defense at some point during this match, but it’s going to take more than simple wishful thinking from the home side.

A draw at the San Siro, and Inter can move within three. However, if Milan is able to replicate the result they got at the San Paolo, they’ll assume a stranglehold on the scudetto race.

Since the sides met in late October, Milan has made some changes. Most notably, they’ve added Cassano and Mark van Bommel, though they’re pretty much the same team. They’ve sat atop the league for most of the season, have the stingiest defense in the league, and player a 4-3-3 built around the league’s best player. Everything depends on Ibra. Half playmaker, half sniper, the tunnel-visioned maestro leads an attack that’s already seen three players (Ibra, Robinho, Alexandre Pato) reach double digit league goals.