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League Focus: Why the Headed Goal is a Dying Art in Serie A

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League Focus: Why the Headed Goal is a Dying Art in Serie A No one has scored more headed goals in the history of Serie A than Alberto Gilardino and so when Palermo sold Paulo Dybala to Juventus last summer and signed him as a replacement, it was evident that how they attacked would have to change. A little less interplay between the lines and players taking...

Team Focus: Empoli Proving A Little Paradise for Maccarone & Co.

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Team Focus: Empoli Proving A Little Paradise for Maccarone & Co. As a teenager, Empoli striker Massimo Maccarone was a little like you and me. He got a part-time job to bring in some pocket money to make ends meet. The trouble in the summer of `94 was that the World Cup was on and he desperately wanted to watch the games. So one day Maccarone picked up a crate fu...

Team Focus: Fifth Successive Title No Longer Mission Impossible for Juventus

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Team Focus: Fifth Successive Title No Longer Mission Impossible for Juventus There is a plaque outside the Alberto Braglia commemorating the first of Fausto Coppi’s wins in the Giro d’Italia in 1940. On Sunday it was the latest stage for Juventus in what has been an uphill season in Serie A. The topography in Modena? Flat with one or two bumps. In other words, ma...

Team Focus: Lazio's Dire Form Causing a Stink Among the Fans

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Team Focus: Lazio's Dire Form Causing a Stink Among the Fans Cries of foul weren’t limited to the training pitch at Formello last week. In protest at Lazio stinking up this season in Serie A, the ultras had left pungent bags of manure outside the gates. “Before making us drown in s**t, we’re going to make you eat it,” a banner read. Th...

Team Focus: Shape-Shifters Inter Not Pretty but Efficient and Improving

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Team Focus: Shape-Shifters Inter Not Pretty but Efficient and Improving At the end of the `70s and through the `80s, Inter’s badge featured a Biscione: the snake that has been a symbol of the city of Milan ever since the House of Visconti rose to prominence in the Middle Ages. Under Roberto Mancini, a more appropriate spirit animal would be the chameleon. In 15 ga...

Player Focus: Jorginho the Conductor of Sarri's Napoli Orchestra

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Player Focus: Jorginho the Conductor of Sarri's Napoli Orchestra As Christmas approaches in Serie A, Napoli are top of the tree. Unbeaten in 18 games in all competitions, it’s the first time they have been in this position at this stage of a season for quarter of a century. Not even Diego Maradona’s Scudetto-winning vintages in `86-87 and `89-90 had a...

Team Focus: Sousa's Winning Mentality has Fiorentina Pushing for Glory

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Team Focus: Sousa's Winning Mentality has Fiorentina Pushing for Glory As Borja Valero drove out of the Artemio Franchi one night last May, his car was kicked and spat at by supporters. Insults were hurled his way. “This is football,” he acknowledged. “It’s more or less like the Colosseum.” The crowd had turned on him and the other Fiorent...

Player Focus: Donnarumma Justifying Mihajlovic Gamble at Milan

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Player Focus: Donnarumma Justifying Mihajlovic Gamble at Milan Even allowing for his past with Lazio, they still tell a wonderful story about Sinisa Mihajlovic at Roma. Many forget they were his first club in Italy and that he played in Giallorosso for a couple of years. Things of course didn’t go too well. Rudi Völler, the flying German, had flown t...

Match Focus: Leaky Roma Must Tighten Up Ahead of Leverkusen Welcome

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Match Focus: Leaky Roma Must Tighten Up Ahead of Leverkusen Welcome It was a trick that worked a treat for Inter on Halloween. When the starting line-ups were printed on Saturday night, however, their fans feared a horror show at San Siro. Danilo D’Ambrosio hadn’t played a minute all season and yet this was the moment when Roberto Mancini decided to thro...

Player Focus: Inter Hopes Reliant on Icardi Influence Increasing

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Player Focus: Inter Hopes Reliant on Icardi Influence Increasing Andrea Mandorlini was a member of the record breaking Inter team that won the Scudetto under Giovanni Trapattoni at the end of the `80s. It’s a team to which the current Inter was compared at the beginning of the season when they won their opening five games for the first time since 1966. Now ...