Serie A 2012, Week 13 preview and fixtures: Juventus, Napoli kick off the week in style

But he couldn’t keep out Immobile’s shot in the 73rd minute. The fallout from a Juan Vargas corner was just too much for Samp, who failed to clear adequately, leading to the goal from Immobile.

The result, and Genoa’s position in the table, forces the question: will this be the week Enrico Preziosi caves and hires his third manager of the season? Or will he just run away and never look back?

The visitors have now lost three out of their last four games, with Stroppa choosing now as the right moment to depart.

Siena coach Serse Cosmi labelled the game as “tricky,” “important” as well as “fundamental” and knew defeat would leave him close to the axe.

Inter opened the scoring on ten minutes. Cassano looped the ball into the box and Palacio got in between his two markers to head home. It’s now five games on the bounce that the prolific frontman has netted in. He’s scored in all bar one of Inter’s last eight games.

Milito saw his first shot of the second half charged down and blocked in the box. The Argentine then conspired to blaze over from two yards out, when Yuto Nagatomo put the ball on a plate for him on 54 minutes.

Yet Palermo were simply in too deep, and by the 82nd minute, they were down to just eight men. Carlos Labrin, brought in just twenty minutes before, was shown a straight red for a bad foul on Archimede Morleo. And that’s how the match finished: Palermo with 8 men and no goals, Bologna with 10, three goals, and all the spoils.

The Viola came out flying in Florence and never looked back. The first shot came in the second minute, when Luca Toni picked up a through ball from Adem Ljajic. Andrea Consigli was quick on the draw, though, saving the veteran’s shot before it settled in the bottom corner.

The Atalanta keeper wasn’t so fortunate a few minutes later. A foul on Ljajic led to a free kick, taken by Manuel Pasquale. The visitors weren’t composed enough to clear the danger, and Gonzalo Rodriguez took advantage, sticking his foot around his marker and slotting the ball into the back of the net. It was only the 5th minute and the Viola were already ahead.

The home side were really ruing their missed opportunity when Milan cut the deficit in half in the 44th minute. The goal was stunning: El Shaarawy took just one touch to launch a lovely volley from the top of the area over De Sanctis’s head.

“If we sit and wait for Juventus, then they will eventually score a goal, so we have to play and attack them first.”

Pogba was absent from last week’s win after he turned up late for training twice. The Frenchman has since issued an apology and is back in favour.

Perhaps it would have been easier to tell you who’s not injured?

Gold starts to Cagliari for keeping everyone alive!

But Allegri and his merry band can find comfort in the fact that Napoli seem scared of true success. Their first half performance last weekend was one of the worst put on by the partenopei since Mazzarri took the helm. If it’s that Napoli that appears at the San Paolo this weekend, Milan have a very real chance of getting a significant win, and possibly even pushing up into seventh. But if it’s the Napoli of the second half, well, that’s the side that was meant to be challenging for the scudetto -- which is more than Milan can contend with this season.

Match Date / Time: Sunday, November 18 at 8:45 p.m. local / 2:45 p.m. ET

Well, this is unusual. In Week 13, the tastiest match-ups both occur on Saturday -- which at least means we don’t need to make hand-wringing choices about which match to watch on Sunday. And don’t make the mistake of thinking the week ends with the Derby della Lanterna on Sunday evening, because we’ve got Roma and Torino on Monday night. Hurray for getting to watch plenty of good games!

The weekend kicks off in Turin, with Lazio visiting Juventus, and hoping to fare better than Pescara last time around. The biancocelesti started off the season so well, but have fallen into fifth, and they’d rather like to get back into those precious three Champions League spots. But after the six goals Juve scored against Pescara, you have to think Vladimir Petković isn’t exactly confident about his side’s chances.