Italian Serie A Week 20: Juventus and Lazio Both Winners, Lecce Vs. AC Milan Still To Come

For the first hour, Juventus looked nothing like a side sitting 16 points above Bari, with their only real threats coming from set pieces. But in the end, The Old Lady reached deep into her bag of tricks and pulled out Alberto Aquilani, who gave the home side the lead in the 79th minute. Despite further pressure from both sides in the final minutes of the match, Juventus held on for a 2-1 lead.

A convincing victory for Juventus? Not at all. Although their play at times looked like a side able to hang with the bad boys, their sloppy passing and inability to hang on to the ball in the face of Bari’s defense demonstrated their vulnerability. Youngster Frederik Sorensen looked unconvincing at the back, and when his error lead to Bari’s equalizer, he was replaced almost immediately.

Juventus have once again taken the lead over Bari, this time with a 79th minute shot by Alberto Aquilani. Yet the goal came again off a free kick taken by Alessandro Del Piero, which seems to be the only way Juventus can score in this match. Del Piero sent in a floating kick, which Massimo Donati headed away. Unfortunately for the Bari midfielder, the ball went straight to Aquilani’s feet. With no hesitation, Aquilani sent in a right-footed shot, low and hard past keeper Jean Francois Gillet.

With just minutes left to play, it seems Juventus will finally find their first 2011 win in Serie A. That win will vault them into fifth place over Inter Milan, although the scudetto defenders still have two games in hand.If Roma keep their lead over Cesena, they move into fourth.

Young Czech forward Libor Kozak has finally added some scoring to deadlocked game, putting Lazio ahead 1-0 in the 83rd minute against Sampdoria. The youngster was brought on as a substitute for Sergio Floccari, who had been decent, but fairly ineffective, and has managed to score his second league goal for his club.

Kozak brings a totally different game to the pitch than Floccari, standing 6’4”. It shouldn’t come as any surprise that his goal came off of a header from a set piece, beautifully delivered by Cristian Ledesma. He didn’t have to go up high for it, though. Instead, his giant frame was actually a bit of a hindrance as he bent down to reach the ball. Sampdoria had been defending magnificently for the duration of the match, but their defending on this set piece was terrible. Kozak walked onto the ball completely unmarked.

Bari find the equalizer at Juventus through the foot of new signing Gergely Rudolf, on loan from Genoa. After a few minutes of sustained pressure, the wobbly Juventus defense gave way, with a slip by Frederik Sorensen allowing Edgar Álvarez to take the ball up and around the edge of the goal before sliding it through to Rudolf.

The Hungarian striker assured Bari fans that he would score on his debut for the club, and he delivered in a big way. The bottom-dwellers were likely not expecting much from this match, and not even a win could bring them out of the relegation zone. Yet two wins could bring them to safety, and coming away from Turin with even a point will do much to lift the spirits of the Galletti, a club absolutely desperate to stay up.

It’s like Groundhog day in Turin, where Juventus host Bari. In the 39th minute, Massimo Donati brought down Alessandro Del Piero on the edge of the area, conceding a free kick and earning himself a yellow card.The venerable forward stepped up to take the kick himself, but sent his shot high over the bar. Just two minutes later, history repeated itself, with Del Piero again taking the free kick. The Juventus man learned from his mistake, likely because it was so fresh in his mind, and neatly sent the ball into the top right corner.

Although the table would leave us to believe that Juventus, in sixth, should have the easy advantage over last-place Bari, play on the field has yet to show such a gap in abilities. Juventus have only threatened from set pieces, with Bari looking strong in defense during open play. The visitors haven’t simply sat back and sought a point, however, instead looking to get forward and chase a goal at every opportunity.

Bologna manage to pull one back against Inter Milan, although it’s almost certainly too little, too late for the visitors. Even if it wasn’t pretty, the circumstances surrounding Bologna’s goal are pretty amusing: Luca Castellazzi managed to just tip aside a shot by substitute Henry Giménez, but the official blew for a goal kick. In a fit of gentlemanly honesty, Castellazzi shook his head and indicated that the ball had gone off his fingertips. The inswinging kick came in close to goal, near where Daniele Portanova was lurking. Castellazzi dove, expecting a shot, except - wait for it - Portanova fell over, the ball deflected off an Inter shirt, and the keeper could not scramble up in time to save the goal when that man Gimenez picked up the ball in the six yard box.

So Inter lose their clean sheet, but unless a miracle occurs, will hold on to the win. Those three points will prove vital in the chase for the scudetto.

After bagging his brace, the Cameroonian forward earned himself a rest, making way for Goran Pandev. That makes eleven goals thus far in the Serie A season for Eto’o, marking him as absolutely indispensable for Inter Milan.

Bologna are certainly out of the match by this point, yet continue to press forward, perhaps in hopes of at least saving a bit of face.

With just twenty minutes to go, it seems certain that Inter Milan will take all three points from this match, which will send them into fourth place with Roma. Of course, there are still eight matches to be played tomorrow, but on the other hand, Inter have two games in hand. As unbelievable as it seemed before the winter break, Inter just might challenge for the title.

This match looks as though it will be defined by the weakness of the visiting side, with Bologna unable to shut down Inter’s quick counter, leaving them acres of space in which to work. Yet the Rossoblu have their own ability to counter, as exemplified by Marco Di Vaio’s 33rd minute one on one with keeper Luca Castellazzi, who only just managed to parry away the shot. Should Bologna manage to finish chances such as that one, they might find a way to get back in this match.

Within just five minutes, though, it seemed almost inevitable that Inter Milan would take all three points today. Bologna appear to have no idea how to close down the Nerazzurri attack and are allowing Inter to continuously move behind the defense. While the visitors, typically known for their defense, were actually attacking before the Stanković goal, now that they have no option to get forward, they look even more frail. When they reach the final third, the surge just stops, meeting the strength of the Inter back line.

After all the hype, after all the excitement, Napoli are held to their first goalless draw of the season, at home by Fiorentina. The first half saw the partenopei bossed around by the visitors, who should have found the goal when a perfect chance fell to Adem Ljajić in the 38th minute. Ljajić placed it sky high, however, and Napoli’s clean sheet remained intact.

Captain Paolo Cannavaro has been an utter beast for Napoli during the first 45 minutes, executing perfect tackles and even grabbing the ball away from the Viola with a cheeky back heel. But it’s clear that the partenopei are missing Marek Hamšík today, with most of the balls on the left side of the field being mishandled by replacement José Sosa.

The true problem for Napoli, however, remains their inability to keep hold of the ball. When the ball remains on the pitch, their passes are nearly flawless., yet the team persist in sending it flying through the air, at which point Fiorentina inevitably take possession. Should the match continue this way, the visitors will break through the Napoli defense and find the lead.

Let’s clear something up before we start Week 20 of Serie A: I am not a neutral. I’ll do my best to provide non-biased coverage, but when you love a team like Napoli, it’s really quite difficult to not exhaust 500 words on Marek Hamšík’s hair alone (hey, I need something to do when the man isn’t playing).

Now that we’re all on the same page, let’s move on to the matches. Napoli start us off at the San Paulo, hosting tenth-place Fiorentina. The Viola were down 2-0 to Brescia last week at halftime before scoring three in the last twenty minutes to win 3-2, and are likely hoping some of that adrenaline holds through to this weekend. Napoli, meanwhile, are certainly no stranger to last-minute goals, although last week against Juventus saw Edinson Cavani’s hat-trick complete before the 60th minute.