A shock at the San Siro? Hardly. Atalanta’s 4-3 victory away at Inter on Sunday might have raised a few eyebrows but considering that Tommaso Rocchi started through necessity rather than by choice, then it is not surprising 13th placed Atalanta were more than competitive on the day. German Denis made Inter’s striker woes even more envious as he bagged himself a 12 minute hat-trick to steal the points for Atalanta – but it was his goal from the spot which angered all involved with home side. President Massimo Moratti highlighted the controversial decision to award La Dea a penalty as just another example that referees are purposely acting against his side: “I no longer believe in the good faith of the referees,” he said. Strong words indeed.
The other half of Milan were feeling aggrieved by penalty decisions also, as Fiorentina scored twice from the spot to fight-back from 2-0 down. Riccardo Montolivo scored against his former club in the first-half before referee Paolo Tagliavento controversially sent-off Fiorentina’s Nenad Tomovic for an elbow on Stephan El Shaarawy. Tagliavento was centre of attention in the second-half - after Mathieu Flamini had doubled Milan’s lead – by awarding the Viola a soft penalty when Adem Ljajic went down in the box. The deficit was halved and Vincenzo Montella’s men went on to rescue a point with another penalty, yet Montella was still unhappy with the referee’s red card decision: “I spoke to Tagliavento and we made a bet that whoever was wrong about the Tomovic incident would buy the other dinner. He was convinced that he was right, but I think I won the bet,” he said whilst showing there’s a lighter side to betting in Serie A.
Palermo owner Maurizio Zamparini rated his side’s chances of top-fight survival at 30% before the weekend, but he hadn’t predicted a respectable away win at Sampdoria spearheaded by a stand-out performance from Josip Ilicic. It was the Sicilians’ first away win in more than 12 months and one that sees them go level on points (27) with both Siena and Genoa. Giuseppe Iachini described Siena’s draw with Parma on Sunday as a missed opportunity – probably as Parma picked up only their 10th point on the road this season. “Opportunity missed? It may seem that way, but in football you can never tell,” said the Siena coach. Disappointed he may feel as Genoa succumbed to the obvious inside the Stadio San Paolo, losing 2-0 against second-placed Napoli. Genoa coach Davide Ballardini insisted after the match that his meeting with sporting director Rino Foschi was only about the team and not about his future: “My staff, Foschi and I talked about the future of the team. Seven key games remain from the derby and we looked at everything.”
Pescara meanwhile are now destined for Serie B as one win in the league this year has shattered any hopes of survival. Nobody envisioned Juventus dropping points on Saturday against the league’s bottom club, and they didn’t. The Old Lady, with an eye on Bayern Munich in mid-week, scored twice through Mirko Vucinic who decided to celebrate his first at least by removing his shorts – he was unsurprisingly booked. “It was spontaneous. I felt like it and I did it," said the Montenegrin, yet his manager was more concerned with the striker’s performance: “I told Vucinic he had a terrible game and still scored two goaIs. Imagine what he would’ve done if he had played well.”
To end, Antonio Di Natale ended his goal drought by first latching onto a mistake by Chievo keeper Christian Puggioni and then scoring a sensational volley from a tight angle. Udinese coach Francesco Guidolin said after the match that he hopes the striker continues to give Italian football fantastic moments like that – amen to that.
Bologna 2-2 Torino; Juventus 2-1 Pescara; Inter 3-4 Atalanta; Napoli 2-0 Genoa; Catania 0-0 Cagliari; Sampdoria 1-3 Palermo; Siena 0-0 Parma; Udinese 3-1 Chievo; Fiorentina 2-2 Milan