Italian Serie A Thursday: Inter Milan Beat Napoli 3-1 To Announce Their Return To The Scudetto Race

While Inter Milan still don’t appear quite as strong as they were last season under Jose Mourinho, they look much closer than they had earlier in the season. The side is heaping wave after wave of pressure on Napoli, who look rather nervous at the back. This is where one would mention that Napoli cannot be discounted due to the emergence of “Napoli-time”, that is, if one were not superstitious and believed that such mentions would alter the course of history.

Should AS Roma, currently in fifth in the Serie A table, want to be accepted as serious scudetto challengers, they will need to stop giving away early leads. The home side had a bright start, with Marco Borriello scoring in the fourth minute, but have contrived to lose their lead before the halftime whistle. Matias Silvestre first found the net for Catania in the 29th minute, surprising the crowd at the Stadio Olimpico.

Unfortunately for the home support, more was to come, in the form of Maxi Lopez. Lopez had been struggling in the start of the season but scored just before the winter break, so Catania were already hoping his form was on the rise. The striker did not disappoint, taking the ball around Roma keeper Julio Sergio to find Catania’s second goal.

After an eventful back and forth first 35 minutes of football between Palermo and Sampdoria where the hosts had a little more of the play, Palermo have finally broken through on a great finish by Fabrizio Miccoli, assisted by Javier Pastore.

The goal came on the counter attack, with Miccoli and Pastore playing a one-two combination on the edge of the box. Sampdoria appeared to be defending well, but eventually Miccoli lost the central defenders as Pastore slipped a through ball into the box. It wasn’t right to his feet and Miccoli had to adjust, struggling to get a lot of power on the shot, but the placement of his shot was perfect and Palermo went ahead 1-0. It appeared that he may have been offsides in real time, but on the replay, Miccoli was clearly kept onside by some lazy defending from Sampdoria.

Serie A boring? Absolutely not, and the Italian teams are back to prove this point with the first round of matches in 2011. Week 18 kicks off with Juventus hosting Parma, with The Old Lady anxious to find three points and prove that they really should be included in the race for the scudetto.

League leaders AC Milan are up next, traveling to Cagliari, where they should feel confident about a win. Even without Zlatan Ibrahimovic or new signing Antonio Cassano, the Rossoneri will likely be able to extend their lead at the top of Serie A. Meanwhile Lazio, playing at the same time, will be crossing their fingers that Cagliari pull off a win, because then a win at Genoa would allow them to share the top spot with Milan. Crosstown rivals Roma are hoping neither Milan nor Lazio win, giving them a clearer path to a run to the top-if they beat visiting Catania, that is.