Headed clear by Kvalas Helje, Vecino! That is absolutely wonderful!
On it goes for Mancini, Mancini's efforts! Who saw that coming?
Hello and welcome back to another episode of Serie A Spotlight. This is Season 2 Episode 28 and we are hosts Matt and Drake
here to discuss Matchday 25 of Serie A with three massive games taking place in Napoli Lazio, Roma Juve and Fiorentina Milan.
Hello scoring weekend but the vibes were immaculate as always. We had our goals of the week. For the first time ever we've had two goals of the week.
It was Vecino and Mancini. Vecino's goal was probably a bit better but Mancini when you take into consideration the stage, the fact that he hadn't scored the goal in how long?
Two years it was. You see the Roman Empire rising back like that and it's just time to put a little Serie A Spotlight on them.
Vecino getting the victory, getting the winning goal against league leaders Napoli, twice Mancini getting the winning goal against Juventus.
A club that they have struggled to beat so much and you just see what it means to the Roman teams over there.
Yes, Vecino has proved to be the unlikeliest big game player that I can think of. He scored for Inter in the Champions League against Dortmund,
he scored in the Milan derby, he scored important goals against Napoli, he scored in the Europa League for Lazio this season as well.
He's a big game player man, a weird one.
Yeah, really weird one and Mancini to be honest as well had one hell of a performance over here obviously getting the winning goal.
Aside from that he also got Moise Keane sent off after just 40 seconds, absolute shithousery.
He really was the man of the match in that game so two big game players, two big victories, two goals of the week.
Fuck it and fuck you.
There we go. Fortunately this week was a low scoring week as we put a bet that three games would have under four goals scored.
Those three games were Sampdoria, Salernitana, Atalanta and Udinese, Spezia, Verona. Now I believe all these games ended in a nil.
They did man, they did. We knew it.
We've been so cautious with our bets lately bro, we just refuse to bet on an outright.
But look man, we learn. I mean we tested the waters, well we dove into the waters that hadn't quite been tested yet and now we know I'm not going to bet on an outright
until I'm absolutely convinced of the outright. I don't want to check the odds before I make a decision because checking the odds before you make a decision fucks you up.
Like Fiorentina on shit form, they're against Empoli though, they're at home. Sure they have a bit of injuries but 2.1, oh my god I can't see Fiorentina dropping points yet.
The odds are there to tempt you.
Exactly. So we're learning.
We are and this gold system seems to be going pretty well. We're on three victories in a row. If you want to keep track of our betting journey please follow us on say Spotlight, on Instagram,
you can also find us on Twitter and TikTok to see some of the other content that we post or try to post on a regular.
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There we go bro give them the rundown.
Don't mind if I didly do brother. The first game is Napoli nil Lazio, one massive upset there for Napoli, only their second loss of the season and Lazio once again proving to be a top team among that top seven.
The next game would be Roma one Juve nil, a very rare victory for Roma against Juve there historically Fiorentina two Milan one just like last season Fiorentina managed to get past Milan at home ending Milan's winning streak.
Inter two Lecce nil, not exactly a stellar performance by Inter but definitely good enough to get them the victory over the newly promoted side. Atalanta nil Udinese nil, a stalemate.
However, there were quite a few chances over there Torino one Bologna nil, a battle for Europe between these two unlikely candidates and a massive win for Eurichs men, especially after the loss in the derby de la Mole and Bologna's victory against Inter.
Then there's Monza two Empoli one great win over there by Monza Empoli still failing to win since the end of January.
Suswolo three Cremonaese two and what was the highest scoring affair this matchday Cremonaese almost doing it again. Sampdoria nil Salernitana nil and the relegation dogfight.
Speaking of dogfights Spezia nil Verona nil not quite the dogfights we expected there.
Biscotto bro, Biscotto they shared the spoils over there. To be honest though they were quite exciting then as you look at the Spezia game for example Spezia had the most attempts this matchday so it wasn't boring at least you know.
Yeah no they weren't boring I was just hoping to see you know some massive moves but everything just stayed the way it was and I'm like a little bit blue balled.
These are the games where you see Kevin Agudelo goal you know that's what we want to see in these games Birindelli goal you know something like that.
Alas shall we get cracking. Go for it brother.
So the first game we're going to be covering is Napoli nil Lazio one Lazio pulled off the impossible and a packed Stadio Diego Armando Maradona stadium there were 54,000 fans in attendance over there Maurizio Sarri described going up against the Napoli team as suicide.
He loves alluding to these dark themes doesn't he Sarri. Yeah he's so over the top sometimes man dramatic like relax it's a game of football brother.
No need to mention death my friend. So for Napoli it was the 4-3-3 formation this was a 4-3-3 against a 4-3-3 we knew that we're going to watch some some good football over here.
Marat was in goal for Napoli on the left there was Olivera on the right there was di Lorenzo with Minja Eicham and Rahmani as the center back duo the midfield three was Zelinski Lobotka and Angusso with Gvarac Kelly on the left wing.
Lozano on the right wing and the formidable Victor Ozyman up front for Lazio it was Ivan Provadel in goal Mauricic on the right Hisaio on the left with Roman Ioli and Patrick as the center back duo of course Sucrassale would not make it this game.
Milyinkovic, Vecino and Luis Alberto were in the middle with Philippa Anderson on the right Zakani on the left and Chiro and Mobyla up front.
So yes it was a fucking crazy head to head going into this you know. Lazio have actually changed their ways this season they seem to be beating the the top sides more frequently and this seemed to be the case today as well.
If you look at this team historically Lazio had lost five of their previous away matches to Napoli.
So the trend was expected to continue of course but it did not.
It all started in the fifth minute it started pretty early on the action when Vecino flicked a header on after a Luis Alberto cross and it was headed off the line by di Lorenzo so that was Lazio stamping their foot quite early in this game.
The rest of the first half was quite cagey there were long range efforts from both teams but no one really got close to doing anything.
Both sides being quite cautious over there.
In the 67th minute Gvarackelia headed it as far as Vecino on a clearance and Vecino just smashed it first time.
Goal of the week beat Meret at the left over there amazing goal.
Fantastic goal man fantastic goal.
In the 78th minute this was Lazio's sorry Napoli's best chance to equalize.
Ozymen headed a Gvarackelia cross into the crossbar.
Providel saved Kim's rebound and the Moble cleared di Lorenzo's header off the line.
That was three massive chances in a row like back back back is squandered one after the other and I think at that point Napoli knew that this was not their day.
Not at all.
In the 90th minute when you think that Napoli would be pressing for an equalizer it was actually Sergei Milyankovic Savvage who hit the crossbar from a free kick.
He scraped it to be honest he didn't smack it you know but it was still a very good attempt.
Outside of the post.
Yeah and that was the game three points for Lazio.
Brother what did you make of this game the big game of the weekend?
I mean obviously quite a surprise that Lazio managed to get away with all three points over here not to discredit Lazio because they have seemed to be a very they have proven rather to be a very dangerous side among the top seven which is an area that they had struggled in the season.
But they really carried out their game plan to their full potential they kept that low line they kept that low block.
And for that reason Gvarra failed to kind of assert himself too much Ossimen wasn't finding the spaces too much which is something that he normally excels in and Lazio pretty much managed to tame Napoli in that region.
And then obviously a moment of brilliance for Lazio and Vecino where he managed to get that goal over there.
Napoli could have brought one back but there was all that scrambling on the line and inside the box.
Luck did favor Lazio a little bit in that area but I think if there is a team that deserves to get three points against Napoli this season it will be this Lazio side in this performance.
Yes a more pragmatic approach lately by Sargi usually we know him as like attack attack attack no?
Absolutely.
Now if you look at the statistics coming into this game Lazio and Napoli had conceded the fewest goals in the first half of Serie A this season.
Yeah.
Lots you have conceded the fewest and the big five European leagues in this period in the first half.
My God.
So you look at them they shut up shop quite well.
And I'd like to praise Sargi for his tactical swap over here bringing in Vecino of course an easy statement to make considering the fact that he scored that beautiful goal.
But in reality he brought him instead of Cataldi in that regista position in front of the defense and Vecino does a lot of running.
And in fact if you look at the statistics this matchday you will notice that Vecino was amongst the players who covered the most distance along with Sargi and Linkovic Vesavius so they worked tirelessly over there.
And Lazio as a whole were the team who covered the most distance this entire matchday.
Napoli were 16th out of 20th so they just couldn't keep up with Lazio over there.
Yeah they really managed to overwork Napoli over there.
And it's good that you mentioned Vecino coming into the team because for a big game and for a high pressure game he is the perfect candidate in that midfield out of the selection that they have.
And then with the work ethic that Sargi brought that Vecino brought I felt like Alberto brought that calmness.
He was capable to slow the game down when Lazio wanted to slow the game down because one thing you can't have is two teams pressuring high against Napoli.
Two teams playing with high pressure and Napoli catching you on the break.
So when Lazio had the ball and Alberto had the ball he was slowing the game down and he was letting Napoli get back into position.
No problem we're going to hold on to the ball over here.
And that midfield worked really really well in that game for that favour and also off the ball they were phenomenal.
Definitely. So Sargi has kind of reasserted himself onto the scene as a top manager out there particularly with his performances against the big teams in Italy as we are reiterating.
The fact that he can turn Philippe Anderson into the player that he's turned him into you know.
The fact that he takes the Lazio side that lacks investment and actually makes them so competitive.
Do you think that this is a long term project or do you see Sargi moving on to something a little bit bigger?
No I don't think Sargi will move on to something a little bit bigger.
I think Sargi had his moment in the bigger scene and that's when he was at Chelsea, that's when he was at Juventus.
Hey that's when he had the opportunity to win the Scudetto for Napoli.
So I think this is a long term project for Lazio and I think Sargi will gladly be around so long as Lazio want him around.
I think especially when you see he was sacked from his last two jobs.
I think the guy just wants to call a place home right now, have a good project, have a good team and see out perhaps what would be the rest of his career at the team.
Yes I would agree with you but it's subject to the club's investment and Lotito isn't known to invest much in his team.
So I wouldn't be surprised if he grows frustrated with that, the results stop coming in, if they miss out on top four for example and then he gets, I don't know man, a Premier League team calling.
You know an interesting project elsewhere, someone comes knocking, I wouldn't be surprised if he were to go.
Lotito has to back his man right now.
Yeah and Lotito isn't exactly an easy man to get on with in that area and neither is Sarri, neither is fucking Sarri.
There are two men who want to have it their way and Luis Alberto is another one.
But yeah I think in an ideal world, I think the plans are to have a long term contract over there.
Obviously there's going to be more attractive things out there.
It's for most of the players in Sarri, we're talking about wages.
But I think he's at that stage in his career where he wants to settle a little bit particularly after his last two spells as I mentioned.
And yeah I think they could have a very good mutualistic relationship if they do that.
This was Napoli's second loss of the season, the first one of course coming to Inter.
De Laurentiis has commented and he said that this loss reminds us to stay focused.
So he's taking the loss as a positive so his team doesn't get complacent to keep fighting in the league to remind the players of what it feels like to lose.
It's useful before the Champions League to experience a loss I think.
Absolutely and I don't necessarily think this is such a bad thing for Napoli.
I think when they're ahead by that much now of course if losses accumulate then anyone's in danger if losses accumulate.
But I think this one loss against Lazio is another loss on their resume and just another learning curve for them.
I think they'll learn from this, they'll adapt to this and I think they can really start to kind of see the way that teams have beat them this year.
The formula that is beating Napoli and hey they can only get better after that.
I doubt that they don't really have the kind of squad that's going to drop their heads after losing this game.
Yeah so of course this loss can be blamed on the absence of club legend Mario Ruino.
Of course.
There was a bit of a thing where Mario Ruiz' agent said basically Spalletti said something about Olivera's physicality, how it's an advantage over Mario Ruiz.
And Mario Ruiz' agent said that this was one of the cazzati of Spalletti.
I saw that.
So yeah quite an interesting little comment over there Classic Italy.
Yeah.
But yes bro once again I like to applaud Lazio's defensive approach over here.
They really really played to their advantages and they really gave themselves the platform to beat Napoli.
Granted it was through that moment of individual brilliance.
Do you remember the days when Sarri used to say that Milinkovic, Savic and Luis Alberto can't play together?
Yep he was fucking and we always said he was wrong. I think he realized that he was wrong.
I mean it was obvious that he was wrong because they did it for way before.
They did it under Simone and they had a fantastic spell on them. They didn't win shit but they were good.
Yeah I think they won the Coppa.
Yeah they did win the Coppa. They did win the Coppa yes.
Before this loss of course Napoli became the third side to have reached 65 plus points after 24 Serie A games.
This is after Inter in 2006-07 and Juventus in 2018-19.
So I think that can conclude this game. Do you have anything you'd like to add?
Absolutely. Victor Ossimanbrother. What's this? What's this? He's fucking saying.
Oh yes.
Napoli. Well not Napoli he's saying I'm really enjoying working towards my dream which is playing in the Premier League.
I mean I love playing in Serie A it's one of the top five leagues but this guy in Naples where he's having so much success
and he has an entire city who are obsessed with football behind him had the audacity to go out there and say
essentially Napoli are a stepping stone in my career. That will not sit well with the Napoli fans. It really really won't.
I mean this is celebrating if they win the league right and which they probably will at this point.
But yes, what's he doing? Shut your mouth, win the league, celebrate, be loved and then leave silently.
Why are you saying this?
Talk about how much you love the club, how much you love the people, how you've always been a Pollet on that hard time.
You know what it must be? He must be tired of these Ossiman Kinder eggs that they've been making.
Ossiman! They are brilliant.
Ossenia, these Ossiman themed desserts. We need to go up to Naples and get one bro.
We do, but can we please not do blackface? I'm so against that. The amount of blackface we've been seeing.
You see all these kids running around sprayed black like their older cousins would have sprayed them black for Ossiman cosplay. That's hilarious.
So wrong man.
But yeah, turns out Ossiman is a Prem head which is hilarious and apparently PSUG have met with his agent as well.
Let's see if he is. He's United bound. He is United bound. I could picture him in a United kit already.
Naples are, and not only sorry before actually we get into that, Gavrath Skelly as well was flirting with Real Madrid.
Saying that it's his dream to play for Real Madrid and he used to admire Guti when he was younger.
Guti was his idol and he couldn't acquire a Guti kit from anywhere.
He was unavailable in Georgia so he bought a white top and he just wrote the number 14 on the back for Guti.
Guti recently was on Spanish TV and he said that he welcomes Gavrath Skelly with open arms to Real Madrid and he'll give him a signed kit if he joins.
But this is sad to see that Napoli are doing so well and their players are already flirting with other clubs.
Absolutely and even Milan last year still lost Frank Kessy on a free after winning the league for example.
So I think that goes to show financially and I mean fuck it even the viewership. It's so much bigger in the Premier League.
It seems like that is the pinnacle of football at the moment which sucks because there's a way more beautiful league and we're talking about it right now.
But that is the direction players want to go in when they have the rights to watch those teams growing up and they can go there and make so much money and all the clubs want them.
Then they need to pursue their dream and they need to follow that. Why show their loyalty to one club if they don't fucking want to?
Look at the end of the day these guys can go wherever they want. They will never witness the joy and the respect that winning a league in Italy gives you.
Like those celebrations in Milan last year. I don't think Kessy will ever have anything like that in his career ever again.
Probably not. The sheer fucking passion that those fans have. Especially like Ozyman. He's not going to meet another fan base like Napoli.
He can go to United, he can go to PSG but he'll never have that again.
Yeah, no absolutely not and maybe after winning the Scudetto and seeing the reception that he gets will change his mind.
It could be. I don't think Tomori for example will ever leave Milan after.
At this point he seems so starstruck when he speaks about them. But of course if things keep going the way they're going maybe Milan will kick them out.
Of course I'm being a drama queen. We love you Fik. We love you. Go get them Fik.
Napoli are in first with 65 points while Roma are in fourth with 47 points.
The next game we're going to be covering is Roma 1-1. The previous encounter was a 1-1 draw between the two sides.
Jose Mourinho was actually on the bench after winning his appeal against a 2-match suspension for insulting the fourth official during the defeat to Cremona.
Smalling returned from suspension and Pellegrini was able to start despite flu symptoms.
But Tammy Abraham was benched again this time for Gini Wijnaldum in a more advanced role supporting false 9 Paolo de Bala.
Juve were looking for a fifth consecutive victory in Serie A with Manuel Locatelli recovering from a suspension so only Deshrylio, Millec and Caio George were missing.
Roma lined up in their 3-4-2-1 formation with Rui Patricio on goal and the back line of Ibandias, Smalling and Mangini.
They had Spina out on the left and Zalefski out on the right with Matich and Cristante in the double pivot.
They had Wijnaldum advanced as a left attacking midfielder, Pellegrini as a right attacking midfielder and de Bala up top in a false 9.
Juve started in their 3-5-1-1 formation with Cesney in goal and the back line of Danilo, Bremer and Sandro.
That Quadrada out on the right, Kostich out on the left and Rabiot, Locatelli and Fagioli forming the midfield three with Di Maria playing behind Dusan Vlaović.
So the game started off pretty much as we expected it to. Both sides were looking to hang on to the ball, both sides were looking to keep possession.
Then in the 43rd minute, Patricio denied Rabiot's header blocking the strike with his foot onto the post after a great cross by Danilo.
After the half-time break in the 53rd minute, Montrini unleashed an unexpected bullet from outside the area and into the inner side netting with a fantastic, fantastic goal by the big Italian centre back.
The distance is equivalent to just outside the semi-circle pretty much, but at a bit of an angle. What a goal and it was his first in two years.
Five minutes later, in the 58th minute, Quadrada tried to catch Patricio off-guard by going for a goal from a free kick which was set up for a cross but hit the outside of the post as a result. That's post number two.
In the 78th minute, Patricio produced a brilliant one-handed save to deny Di Maria's strike from distance and then the 81st it was the third post for Juve as a dangerous corner, the first post by Paredes almost led to an own goal by Montrini but his header hit the post.
In the 89th minute, Moiskeen came off and got sent off after just 40 seconds after kicking Montrini off the ball and left the field with no complaints. Allegri's reaction was fucking hilarious.
Moiskeen was doing like the motherfuckers. I mean, young Italian guy coming on against Roma for Juve, losing one, strike at an equaliser or something, don't be kicking motherfuckers off the ball. Doesn't matter what he says.
He's been banned for two games and he's been fined 10,000 euros and Juventus have made his deal permanent. All in that order.
Pretty much. I mean, you know, they were probably, it had probably been decided from before that they were going to go for a strike.
He had a clause apparently, some sporting conditions were met. I didn't know that getting a red card in 40 seconds was included in these sporting conditions but anyway.
Fuck it. Fuck it. Juve operated in quite a unique way as even Juventini would know. But they hit the post on three separate occasions. Do you think they deserved more out of this match at all?
I mean, probably yes. I mean, you look at the statistics for sure and even you look at the way that Juve played, they probably deserved to get a goal in this game.
This was one of the first times this season I've seen Rui Patricio play well.
He had a very good game.
He had at least three very good saves.
Yeah. Yeah. And you know, you've had five shots on target so it was no easy feat for him.
No.
However, I did think that Roma were very smart. They frustrated Juve. They played without a target man, which is to be honest, just straight up playing for those set pieces.
Yeah.
You know, you play players who can run, where you can press off the ball and then you look at the Banias, the smalling Mancini, you rely on those guys, Cristante, Matij, you throw them in on the set pieces.
You put the Bala on it. You put Pellegrini on it, whatever. When Aldem is just covering ground, box to box and you're good to go, man.
Yeah. Yeah, that's pretty much how Roma were set up. I think this game was a race to who got the 1-0 first.
Yes. Yes.
Both sides are those kind of teams. They get the 1-0 and they defend it. And I do think that Juve deserved to get at least a draw, right, out of this game, just to put that on record.
However, Roma did take a more defensive approach after they opened the scoring in the 53rd minute.
So that was a massive chunk of the second half where they were just piling bodies back and Juve were piling bodies forward.
Of course, Juve are going to have strikes. Of course, Juve are going to have shots on goal. Of course, they're going to attack.
They were given the opportunity to, but Roma did a good job and they were lucky that Rui Patricio was in good form.
They were lucky that Juventus couldn't put the ball to the back of the net and they hit the post on three different occasions.
But it was a conscious choice by Roma to defend that 1-0 lead in the 53rd and Juve would have done the exact same thing.
Exactly. That's it. Whoever scores first wins 1-0, as you said.
Yeah.
Sunday's 1-0 win over Juve for Roma, coupled with their 1-1 draw in the reverse fixture, means that Roma is undefeated against Juventus in the Serie A season for the first time since 2003-2004.
They have really had a tough time against Juve and Roma hate Juve.
It took a top coach.
It did take a top coach.
You look at Granted, they've had Spalletti, they've had...
Mourinho is Mourinho. These guys won't go down as some of the greatest managers of all time.
Mourinho will go down as one of the greatest managers of all time.
Yeah, fair point, fair point.
So you're absolutely right over there.
Yeah.
His reaction, by the way.
Who is?
Mourinho's reaction to the goal.
The goal.
Oh yeah, he didn't even flinch.
He didn't even flinch. It's funny, it was him and I believe his assistant manager that he just takes with him everywhere, pretty much.
He's good to speak Portuguese to players that speak Portuguese, like Eric Dyer, apparently.
That was hilarious.
Chilling, speaking Portuguese, no subtitles on him, and Jacob is screaming.
But they were basically looking at a sheet, like going through some tactics.
Tammy Abraham was coming on.
And the second goal went in, Abraham went off running, and Mourinho and the assistant manager just did not flinch.
They just kept looking at people. Some people tried to shake them, like to wake them up.
But no, it was a job well done by these guys, and they were laser focused throughout.
Tammy was about to come on in the 53rd.
He then came on because the goal was scored in the 73rd minutes, or 20 minutes later.
That was interesting to see.
Basically warmed up, getting ready, getting a few tactical notes from Mourinho, and then you go and sit down again.
Yeah, exactly.
For 20 more minutes.
Exactly.
I think the biggest thing Mourinho had to worry about, and this is something that Juve should have used more.
The left-hand side, Kostić versus Zalevski, only went one way.
Kostić was turning him inside and out.
He was getting schooled by the Serbian for most of the match.
And then that kind of changed after they brought on Rick Karsdorp, who did a much better job than Zalevski.
But Zalevski really got exposed.
Kostić is a great player, and Kostić exposes a lot of players.
But wow, Kostić was making quick work of him every single time, man.
He really was.
And it's a real shame that he couldn't serve as Vlavovic.
Vlavovic could not get involved in this game.
I saw a stat that was posted today.
So in 21 games for Fiorentina, Vlavovic had 17 goals.
In 31 games for Juventus, he has 15.
Wow.
Yeah.
I guess it makes sense when you look at the fact that he's playing for an Allegri team.
You are going to score less goals.
But it just sucks because he doesn't look like the type of striker he was at Fiorentina.
He was so serviceable before.
You could give him the ball outside the box, and he'd turn and make a forward run.
And everything was set up for him to succeed.
Nowadays, it seems like he's getting the ball a lot with his back towards goal.
And he doesn't really excel.
No, I mean, and we spoke about this in the last episode as well.
It's frustrating to see.
Firstly, he's very, he adapts very well and he's carrying out that task to the best of his abilities.
He's doing a decent job over there.
What he had at Fiorentina was the ability to come back and insert himself a bit more in the midfield area in order to make runs and get in behind the defense.
He used to drag the defense up with him.
And then they used to find him with those long balls and he used to utilize his space and he used to finish cleanly.
Over here, he is that target man.
He is that Giroud, so to say, that Lukaku that stays with his back towards goal on the box, on the line of the box.
Or inside the box.
He's just waiting to receive the ball to either lay it back or better yet turn around and have a snap at goal.
But he's really not being utilized as the it's a shame when you have a goal scorer like that.
You don't utilize him to solely score goals.
You know what I mean?
Look how City use Haaland, for example.
Sometimes that's just the way you need to utilize these players, man.
Yeah, last week we did address the criticism and we called it harsh on Vlaav.
The criticism because of the numbers.
People are saying he's not scoring as much.
In reality, he's still scoring and his goal scoring statistics aren't bad.
It's the fact that when he doesn't score, he hardly touches the ball.
You look at his touches this game.
But how's that his fault, man?
It's not.
No, he's set up to be like this in this system.
You know, it's a shame.
If you look at the possession percentage, Vlaav had 1.3 percent of the ball possession.
Wow, man.
Yes.
So exactly.
It also has something to do with having smalling man marking you.
Smalling was excellent in this game.
And if it wasn't smalling, it was a bandia.
And if it wasn't smalling or a bandia, it was Mancini.
So, you know, playing with what if they had Milleke, he would have started this game.
Oh, with a two up top.
A two up top.
Yeah, probably.
Up against the muscle.
It would have been a more ideal set up, I think, for Juve.
But alas.
Yeah, 3-5-2 maybe, you think?
Yeah, probably a 3-5-2.
Probably a 3-5-2.
Then DeMaria.
Where would DeMaria pop in?
They could play with a bit more of an attacking midfielder in a 3-5-2, I guess.
Yeah, maybe.
That would have been interesting, actually.
I wish Milleke was fit.
I enjoy watching Milleke players.
Yeah, so do I.
He's a fucking bomber, man.
I think we can both agree that Mancini was man of the match.
He scored a fantastic winner, got Moiskeen sent off, and he defended excellently throughout the game.
So round of applause for Mancini.
Like you said, Patricio finally had a great game, and Moiskeen was handed a two match ban, a 10k fine, along with a new contract.
What a reaction for Roma after the Cremonaise loss, whereas Juve after the victory in the Derby de la Mola, they would have hoped to do better over here.
However, massive step for Roma in the right direction as they're now in fourth, level on points with fifth place Milan under 47 points, and Juve are in seventh on 35 points, level on points with Bologna in eighth.
Yeah, people would have been expected for Roma to get three points against Cremonaise and Juve, right?
People would have been like, oh, OK, I'll take that.
But no one would have expected it to be like this.
Not at all.
Yeah, you lose to Cremonaise, you beat Juve.
OK, cancel the other one out.
So the next game we're going to be covering is Fiorentina 2-Milan 1.
The reverse fixture was a 1-0 victory for Milan.
Fiorentina had only won one of their three previous 16 Serie A home games against Milan.
So this was a tie that Milan historically tended to win.
Fiorentina and Milan are two of the four teams to have attempted the most shots in the current campaign.
Fiorentina with 387, Milan with 351.
Fiorentina are also the team that have conceded the fewest shots with 229.
However, they have the worst ratio between shots conceded and goals conceded.
On average, one goal every 7.6 shots.
Now, this is interesting because it goes to show Italiano is setting this team up well.
They're kind of unlucky having this statistic over here.
That's a similar statistic to the one Milan had a couple of months ago when Tatarasano was a goal.
It's like they conceded from every single goal, from every single shot they conceded.
It's like you lost 3-0, but you only conceded three shots. What's going on?
Now, Fiorentina lined up with a 4-3-3 formation with Terra, Cano and goal.
Biragi as the left back, Dodo as the right back, Igor and Martinez Quarta as the centre back duo.
Mandragora, Amrabat and Bonaventura formed the midfield three with Nico Gonzalez on the left wing,
Jonathan Iquana on the right wing and Arthur Cabral as the menace up front.
For Milan, it was their 3-4-2-1 formation with Manjani in goal, Tomori, Cao and Calullo as the black three.
Messias was on the right, Hernandez was on the left, Tonali and Benassar were in the middle.
Rebic and Dequet Alara playing off the shoulders of Olivier Giroud.
Of course, Léa was suspended for this match.
Yes, and Rebic came in to replace him and we realised that they don't even breathe the same air.
I remember when Rebic was a deployable player. Nowadays he seems past it.
He might be starting against Tottenham, an up front sole striker, but apparently Giroud is training again.
Giroud is training again?
He was injured, apparently, a slight problem, but the videos were released of him training.
I prefer Rebic as a striker than a winger nowadays.
Same, same. But we'll see. Maybe Rebic might actually be good for the press against France.
I'm going to throw up thinking of that game.
Tomorrow, huh? That is the reason why the episode is out earlier, by the way, because we're saving Wednesday for the Champions League.
Exactly, exactly.
The first notable action of the game was when Cabral, Nico González and Mandragora linked up excellently to get the ball to Bonaventura,
who squeezed it past Manean, but Tomori was there to clear it off the line.
That was some lovely play by Fiorentina, really taking advantage of the space that Milan had between the players.
You see them waiting until the very last second to release the ball to really help their teammate out, getting the player as far away from them as possible.
In the 30th minute, Giroud had a volley after a long ball. He shot it straight into the goalkeeper. That had potential, didn't it?
Yeah, that was a brilliant ball by Benassir. That's why Benassir is the first name on the team sheet for Milan.
Exactly. In the 49th minute, Milan's four games without conceding came to an end after a perfectly executed Nico González-Georgiño-esque semi-no-look penalty was converted.
Tomori repeated his error against Chelsea after getting spun by Jonathan Okona out on the left-hand side.
The Englishman panicked, a rush of blood to the head as Okona entered the box. He still had to beat Chao and Manean.
Of course, Tomori decided to drop Jonathan Okona, giving away the penalty.
You put a single hand on his shirt in that area from the back. First, you're not going to get the ball. Secondly, he's going to go down and it's going to be a penalty.
Like you said, Chao was in a fantastic position to step in over there and he was about to. Manean is also not a Tarasanu. He could actually do something about that.
Aha, schoolboy defending, I'm afraid, by a fake man.
Yes, not quite the dominant centre back that we saw last season this year. He's made a couple of mistakes. He looked flawless last season, to be fair. He's a victim of his own high standards.
But this was schoolboy, as you said. Nico González doesn't know how a bow and arrow work, by the way.
Nico González, he thought that celebration was going to be cool and I just looked back. I can't even watch it. It's so weird.
First, he pulls out the bow and it's quite cool. The way he pulls it out is like, oh shit, this guy's going to fucking fuck me up.
He gets the bow in position and he's just going pewpewpewpewpewpew. Like pulling the trigger with his finger, like what are you doing, bro? What are you doing?
He was like, I'm going to pull the arrow and then pull the trigger on my glove. It looked so cool in the beginning, man.
Whatever. The second half started off with Giroud getting his header saved by Terri Occiano and Theo Hernandez missing a one on one against Terri Occiano.
In the 80th minute, it was Manon who denied Jovovich's header but couldn't save his second attempt in the 87th minute as Jovovich headed in a dodo cross slam Don Carino.
He beat Chao in the air over there. Chao also made a few mistakes this game and we hadn't really seen him make any mistakes. Last episode, we mentioned that he had made mistakes in the Bundesliga and perhaps I have jinxed him.
Oh, well, we'll get into it very, very soon.
Yeah. Adli Salamakers-Thio goal. This happened in the 94th minute. Of course, Adli kind of played a good forward pass to Salamaker. This forward pass is getting overhyped on Twitter.
It was a good pass, sure, but it's pretty standard stuff for a playmaker. Salamakers brought the flames with the through ball to Theo Hernandez who finished very, very well.
But this was a goal that I couldn't really enjoy. It was too late. The game was already over. Theo Hernandez was against me on Fanta-Culture. It was just salt in the wounds.
So was Nico Gonzalez. Yeah, that made a sound. I had a nightmare. I don't want to talk about it.
But I'm glad, at least, obviously, if I could take some happiness out of Theo Hernandez's goal, it's that he was struggling and sure, he semi-scored in the game before and sure, he assisted the game before.
He assisted that Giroud goal. But this was a very good goal by Theo. He's having a good run of form now and hopefully, it's more things to come.
I want to instantly pick up that conversation about Chau and Tomori making mistakes in this game.
Every time Milan have played the 3-4-3 formation and utilized Chau, Kalulu and Tomori, because of Milan's tactical awareness in that formation, they really managed to neutralize their opponents.
This was the first time where their opponents actually thrived against a 3-5-2 setup and they were doing really well to play that quick football, bring it in from the flanks into the middle.
And suddenly, the defenders were all over each other and it was a bit of an organizational mess in that area.
I think Fiorentina had a fantastic performance, even as a Milan fan. Sure, I'm bummed out by the loss, but it's not like Milan looked like utter shit.
Normally, when Milan lose, it's because they played like fucking shit, like they have this year.
But this simply, well done to Fiorentina. Milan were absolutely outplayed and Milan were exposed.
They were exposed not because of their low quality, but because of the high quality by Fiorentina, who have suddenly really turned things around.
The 3-0-0 victory against the inform Hellas Verona and now they've just beaten the Champions 2-1.
Yes, and Italiano has made the habit of beating Milan and beating Piolli specifically.
He beat Piolli and Milan with Spezia, that 2-0 victory. Was it? It was fucking horrible.
I was out at dinner. Oh my God. I was at Serres that day watching it on the laptop.
Because it was Valentine's Day, I think. Or around Valentine's Day.
Around the time maybe. He's got them figured out. He's the better bald man.
I thought as the bald community, you stick together and you don't put bald man over.
No, it's... What's his name? Italiano has a smoother head.
Yeah, but I mean Piolli's got the drip to go with it, no?
Yeah, Piolli's a handsome man as well, to be honest. Let's give him his flowers.
Love you, Piolli.
So, bro, I want to talk about Kroenich a little bit because during Milan's month of poor form,
they were losing 10-0 to everyone. Kroenich was absent, right?
And then Kroenich came back into the starting eleven, essentially.
And Milan won four games in a row without conceding a single goal.
Now Kroenich was out on this one after getting a yellow card for a foul on Jeremy Boga against Atalanta
in the last game, a cumulative yellows. And Milan lose to Fiorentina. Is this a coincidence?
I think so. I think the guy is definitely a great player.
I think every Milan fan in their right mind would rather have the setup of Vanessa and Tonali playing together.
However, I do think that he could have played a big part in when Bacchaiocco came on in the 66th.
Had that change been Kroenich instead with him being so adaptable, with him being so versatile,
you want him to attack, he attacks well, you want him to defend, he defends well,
you want him to fucking press and he'll be that savage.
I think it would have been such a good addition ahead of Bacchaiocco and that could have potentially had some kind of difference made in the game.
Yeah, Origi, Bacchaiocco and Zlatan all came on at the same time, to be honest.
Yes, all in the 66th minute and I was like bringing on three trees.
Yeah, yeah, he brought on a bunch of players for the physicality.
There's no doubt about that. You see the three players that came on.
They're literally all very, very physical.
I would have brought on Salamakkerz, Adli or Pobega, Salamakkerz and Adli or Pobega, to be honest with you earlier on.
I don't know. You have to look at offensive avenues right now.
Messias was not on this game. It wasn't very effective.
Tonali's form has been pretty low, man. It's been bad.
And to be honest, going into the Spurs game, I would start with Benassir and Kroenich in the middle.
Okay, interesting. Yeah, maybe for the high stake matches.
I think maybe Tonali needs a bit of a break because it doesn't seem like it's getting any better for him.
I don't know if he's failing to adapt to the system or if he's just having a bit of a bad spell, maybe a bit of both.
But I think he needs a bit of a break, man.
Yeah, I think so. Maybe sit one out, recollect yourself, watch from the sideline, re-enter again.
I was impressed to see Deke Tellari having a few moments of brilliance, quite frankly.
He had a great moment, bro.
Where he floored dodo and whipped in a sailing ball to the far post.
He dribbled past two players like Prime Milicic.
And I was so happy to get that glimpse of Deke Tellari because it is coming.
And can we talk about that? Can we talk about how Leo posted before the game saying,
Cdk will get his first goal today, heard it here first.
He's like everyone else on Twitter.
Yeah, like literally, like I get it. Kudos, Leo, for being so supportive of your man.
But if like we played for Milan and I hadn't scored yet and you wrote that about me after the game, I'd be like, what the fuck, bro?
That's because you're really sensitive.
It does add a sense of pressure because like let the media talk, let the fans talk, the nonsense, the gibberish.
And then just stay out of that.
You don't need to feed the hype of Deke Tellari hasn't scored yet, Deke Tellari hasn't scored yet because he's feeding that.
He's turned it from something a pundit would say, something a fan would say, something two idiots on a podcast would say to something his fucking teammate is saying.
Something internal.
Exactly.
That's a fucking good point.
Thank you.
Yes.
And speaking of Leo, man, Leo is vital for this Milan team.
And even when he doesn't show up, you know, the stats don't lie.
Listen to this.
Since the start of last season, Rafael Leo has missed five Serie A matches.
During this period, Milan earned 1.4 points per game.
They had a 40% win rate without Leo.
Now, that's not a coincidence.
With Leo on the pitch, it rises to 2.2 and the win rate rises to 67%.
That makes perfect sense.
Now, that is not a coincidence.
It is going to be very, it's going to be terrible for Milan to inevitably watch Leo go within the next two seasons because he will leave the club within the next two seasons.
I mean, there's too much kind of, there are too many signs that that's going to happen.
And that is going to have quite a bad effect on Milan because they really found someone that can just change the game with the simple touch of a football
and change the way in which the team operates because now they could play a long ball from the back down the flank and, you know, they just know that your guy is going to get there.
And not only that, but the opposition instantly have three men on him, creating space around the other side.
So Milan are going to need to look further than fucking Noah Lang and Saint Maxime when removing Leo from the picture.
You look at Leo, Leo is a player that is, to be honest, too good for this Milan team.
And what, what, what, what? Relax. All right. Give me a sec.
So the only reason Milan have a 90 million, 100 million euro winger is because they bought him young.
They bought the dip. No more.
He, other than that, there's no other way Milan would have a player of that caliber, you know? So it's kind of the result of buying young.
It's that Gazidis philosophy. Yeah. Right. But this over the span of 10, 15, 20 years will turn you into a club that can actually buy that type of player.
So now this is only the early days. You know, you see a few players over here who were fantastic investments that Milan could never afford to buy.
Teo Hernandez and Leo in particular. You know, you look elsewhere, they're growing as well. Ben Acer is another one who's sprouted.
You know, he was brought in for less than 20 million euros. He must be worth at least 40 now.
Tonali, another one. You know, you look at Tomori, Chow, Kalul. All these guys were good investments.
So I'm curious to see what happens to this Milan team within the next 10, 15 years, because they are on the right path business wise.
And when you look at the fact that they have cut their losses down to 20 million, which is absolutely crazy.
When you look at the losses Milan were dealing with, with the ownership of Young Hong Lee, I'm talking about like 200 million euros, the European football suspension.
So Milan are definitely on the right track in the long term. When people start freaking out, Pio, Pio, Pio, this isn't the team that won the league last season.
Milan should have never won the league last season so early on in this project.
I mean, Milan fans should be grateful. The objective is top four. You miss out on top four, then you talk about sacking the manager.
But as it stands right now, Milan are on track and they're still in the Champions League and, you know, bar that fucking weird month, they're doing all right.
Yeah. And I think the moral of the story over here is pay Maldini and Massara, whatever the fuck they're asking for.
That's where you should invest your money, because these are the guys that are really putting in the work to get the balance sheet down
and to create a team that can excel in the league and in the Champions League with close to no funding, man.
What they've been capable of doing with this Milan team is magical and they have a vision and purely just fits perfectly into that,
because he's a man manager, he's a motivator, he keeps the players happy. And then fuck it, obviously, with the way Milan are set up right now.
Like you're saying, you keep a player who's on the verge of being world class until he's 25, 26, and you sell him in his prime and you make a bunch of money from that.
And that's what Milan are trying to do. That's what they've failed to do because a bunch of players left on a free.
But hopefully they learn with this layout situation. If he doesn't extend in the summer, Milan will see him go for 90 million euros at least, I would say.
Yeah. I do think, however, that Maldini and Massara did start off better with their deals than last season or this season kind of.
How am I going to word this? They were better than the last one. The last transfer market was their worst one so far.
Their last two transfer windows were their worst two so far, in my opinion, with Maldini and Massara. And it's not even opinion based, it's a fact.
The signings that they made have not been utilized at all by Piole. You look at, OK, Chau now broke into the team, but you look at Origi, he's done nothing.
Granted, that was a free coup. That was a free coup, whatever. Fair enough. But the Keitelari are wasting so much time in the Mercato.
Season one, bro. Season one again. Yes. Teo was fucking dodgy on his first layout. I was like, why didn't we keep Cutron?
That kind of fucking thing in season one, bro. Yeah, but it's weird how, you know, fucking the team, the players that came in barely featured.
That is what a bit worrying about. It's true, but it's also the lack of funding that he had, because if it were up to Maldini and Massara, they would have spent a bit more money than they did.
You know what Milan should do, though? At like fucking 12 year old that's scoring a thousand goals in 17 games for Milan. Come on, maybe he should come on, man.
Maybe he should come on. Yeah, he should be Milan Sartor. Now, Fiorentina, bro, are on a good run. They have found their scoring ways.
They have three avenues to get into Europe next year. They can either try to push for that seventh place finish, which, to be honest, isn't that far-fetched as they are in 12th with 31 points.
And in seventh there is Juve with 35 points. So that is still a possibility to get into Europe through the league. That's a difficult avenue.
There are two more avenues which are quite difficult, too, to be honest. One of them is the Coppa Italia to get you into the Europa League.
And the other one is the Conference League. You win the Conference League, you get into the Europa League. So they have three doors. Yeah.
Watch them all shut within a month. Do you think they'll be in Europe next year?
No, no, I don't. I don't think so. I think they're capable of doing it, but I don't see it happening. I don't think they'll win conference.
I don't think they will win the Coppa. They have Cremonaise now in the semifinal and then they have the final.
They can do it. I don't want to be so abrupt with my no, because like you said, there are three windows, two more likely than the other, I would say. But I don't know, man. Maybe.
Yeah. Maybe. I don't think it'll happen through the league. Yeah. Yeah. You know what? I agree with that.
I don't think they'll make it through the league, but maybe through the Europa League or more likely the Coppa Italia.
Let me tell you what, man, I liked what I saw the past two games by Fiorentina. I really liked what I saw. And they're turning up that heat again.
They've got Nico, they've got Icona, who is just spinning motherfuckers. It was Davidovic and Tomori, two fucking tombstones in his bedroom.
And I think finally they've picked it up again, Fiorentina. Yeah, for sure.
I also want to highlight during Fiorentina's second goal, where was Theo Hernandez?
That happens sometimes. Yeah, sometimes it happens. You look at your left back, where is he? I can't see him anyway.
Milan are currently in fifth just outside the Champions League spot with 47 points, while Fiorentina are in 12th with 31 points.
The next game we're going to be covering is Inter 2-0. The previous encounter was a 2-1 victory for Inter away from home on matchday one.
The pressure was on for the Nerazzurri after their surprise defeat to Bologna last week, and a victory was needed to retain second place.
Joaquin Correa, Di Marco and Scrinia were still out of action.
Basquirotto was suspended for the Salentini, who also missed Castrillo, Di Marco and Marlon Pongracic.
But they did see the return of Samuel Umtiti and Federico Di Francesco, which is a massive plus for them.
Inter start in their 3-5-2 formation with Onana and Goal and the back line of Bastoni, Acerbi and Darmian.
They had Gawson out on the left and Dumfries out on the right with Mkhitaryan, Cialanoglu and Barella starting in the midfield.
Cialanoglu starting in the register role ahead of Brozovic here, with Zerko and Lautaro Martinez up front.
For Lecce it was a 4-3-3 formation with Falcone, Engole and the back line of Gendre, Tuia, Umtiti and Pezzella.
Gonzalez, Hülmend and Mahle formed the midfield tree with Trefetza out on the right, Di Francesco out on the left and Assane Cissé once again starting ahead of Colombo up front.
On the 28th minute Inter opened the scoring through Henrikh Mkhitaryan. It was a great move by Inter as Goalsons had acres of space to square the ball to Barella inside of the box,
who sent Mahle to the match at Laio with a dummy before laying it off to Mkhitaryan, who finished into the top corner in clear Mkhitaryan fashion.
That was brilliant by Goalsons, it was brilliant by Barella and it was brilliant by Mkhitaryan.
In the 52nd minute Dumfries found Lautaro in the box from the flank and Lautaro finished Bas Falcone with a first-time strike, that's his 14th goal of the season.
In the 66th minute Goalsons had penalty appeals waved away when he seemed to anticipate Alexis Blinn, but the referee and VAR saw nothing amiss.
Debatable. I think there was contact over there, sure it wasn't much contact, but I think other referees would have given that.
I mean, nothing flashy by Inter, but they controlled the game and they came out the victors.
They worked hard, they ran a lot as well. You look at this game, there are quite a few positives for Inter to take.
You look at, for example, Goalsons has actually picked up a couple of good performances now and are over-sinking back to his usual self.
You look at the fact that Denzel Dumfries as well, who was being booed by the fans, managed to get an assist on Lautaro Martinez. Lautaro instantly pointed at Dumfries and kind of told the fans,
like, hey, this is your guy, you're meant to be applauding him.
We're seeing Inter playing decently without Brozovic, which wasn't very common before.
And you look at the fact that now apparently Brozovic and Inter are not as close as they used to be with Brozovic potentially being transfer listed in the near future.
Now, that's confusing to me.
It is confusing, however, I'm going to be the devil's advocate and say they have their replacement over here.
I mean, the way Hakan has been playing in that register role, I'm not going to lie, bro. He's been very, very fucking impressive.
Yes, yes, yes. He's been very good. On certain occasions, you'd think like in the Napoli game, for example, when they beat Napoli and it was Hakan's start, his feat as a registrar,
sometimes he's straight up better, man. Sometimes he's straight up better. Brozovic is one of the best registrars in the league.
He definitely enters main number one most talented registrar, but Csala Noglu is really fitting that role. And I think it was an active choice.
He chose, Simone Nenzagi, chose Csala Noglu to start ahead of Brozovic in this match because he was better suited for it.
Brozovic, to be fair, is coming off an injury, so he probably most likely wouldn't have started this game.
But I still think that as a pure registrar, you look at Brozovic, for example, let's take Brozovic last season. Miles better than Csala Noglu at the registrar.
Csala Noglu can put in a shift as the medzal over there instead of Mkhitaryan, maybe, or shifting with Mkhitaryan.
They can both play, or Mkhitaryan can be utilized as a game changer, a super sub in the last 20 minutes of the game.
But Brozovic, in my opinion, is one of the best metronomes in the league and just letting him go because of what? There's no reason to let him go.
No, I mean, maybe wages or I don't know what the case may be that they let him go and they shouldn't because he's their number one over there.
But they have Hakann and you mentioned him playing in a medzala, for example, he can play there as well.
But as a registrar, he's really grown into the role and he's just so calm under pressure when he gets the ball in that area.
And you see him look up and he plays the right pass. People are playing it to him in tight spaces and he's cool. He's calm.
He put in a man of the match performance in this game. He tallied up four key passes, four accurate crosses, seven successful long balls.
And he had two duels won. He had a very well rounded showing in this game.
That's true. No, no, you're right. I've just Googled it very quickly.
Apparently, the how Inter managed the injuries of Brozovic actually deepened the rift between Inter and Brozovic.
So apparently it's the way he was managed when he was injured. That's quite, quite interesting.
It's the same thing as Gorsens, why Gorsens broke up with Atalanta.
Inter have been very impressive in the San Siro this year. You know how you see that good Inter and that bad Inter.
The good Inter are typically at San Siro and the bad Inter are typically away from home.
And we have spoken about their bad away form a little bit, but it's time we take a look at their home form a bit and how they are in the San Siro.
They have 12 wins out of 14 at home in this area this season, only dropping points when losing to Roma and Empoli.
Obviously, their away form is another story. But what a difference it makes.
Massive, massive. Having those fans backing you up 75, 80,000 people screaming your name makes a massive difference.
They wouldn't be fun people to travel with these Inter players. If you go on holiday with them and they just start fucking up.
Like, I'm not going out tonight, guys. I'm not feeling well. Or they go out and they pass out.
At pre-drinks.
Exactly. I want to also, bro, give a shout out to Archeribe.
Bravo. That was an export.
He was brought in to be the fourth choice centre back. You know, that first one off the bench with Bastoni, Skriniar and De Vrij, of course, being the starters.
But Archeribe has looked like the best one.
Literally, man, he's a genuine solution to the defensive woes that they faced at the start of the season when they miss key personnel.
Like, the occasion, like in this game, for example, they miss Skriniar at a point they were missing Bastoni, at a point they were missing De Vrij.
This guy is there, experienced in the middle of that three-man defence, just ensuring that everyone's in line and check and let me tell you what.
The guy is great in the air. He can tackle. To be honest, I thought he was washed up after his last season at Lazio. I really thought he was past it.
But wow, he's really slotted in well to this inter-team man.
Yes, he has at the age of 35.
Yes, sir. Yes, sir.
When leading the game, Nzaghi opted to bring on Gagliardini in the 78th minute, a player who was leaving on a free next summer, once again ahead of Aslani.
Seems like Aslani isn't getting much of a sniff this season, a supposed signing for the future. However, he hasn't been utilised much and I think he could be being utilised more.
For sure. To be honest, I just had to check if he was at the game because it is so surprising that he keeps bringing on Gagliardini.
He was at the game, especially when you have a 2-0 advantage. You know, you look at Gagliardini was brought in in the 78th minute.
Surely he could have given Aslani those minutes. But yeah, it is very strange.
But maybe Gagliardini is just performing better in training, who knows? And maybe Simone Nzaghi doesn't want to risk it. We know what a perfectionist he is.
We know how he single-handedly stopped the entire inter-team from getting a single yellow card out of fear of being substituted early on.
Literally. There wasn't a single yellow card in this game.
Which is surprising on Lecce, but I guess they say if we concede the two goals relatively early on, well, not even relatively early on actually.
They could have got a bit more stuck in, you know what I mean?
Yeah, they missed Basquerotto in this game, which was obviously quite a big loss for them.
It's the first game he missed this season.
Yeah, it's all the chicken and rice, bro.
That's it.
He finally got Salmonella from it.
Lecce were very beta in this game. I did think they were going to put up more of a fight against Inter.
Obviously, it's not easy. Inter are a very tough side to play against, especially at San Siro, so I won't give them too much shit over there.
Cissé is a talent. Let me put it that way. Cissé is a talent. I'm not sure how high his ceiling is.
He's a 28-year-old talent.
Oh, wow. I thought he was younger than that.
He just has a baby face, bro.
Oh, wow. I did think he was younger than that, but I didn't mean a talent as in an up-and-comer, but he's not really a talent.
He's 28 years old.
But he is talented.
He is talented, though, and at a point he skipped past one of the defenders by knocking the ball around them and going the other way.
He had a crack at goal. It was Lecce's only real opportunity.
We'll see more of Cissé over Colombo, and I think Colombo is more going to be utilised as a super sub, so to say.
Perhaps. They've both had their moments this season.
I would say that Lecce will probably continue next season with Cissé, as Colombo will probably be back at Milan, and we'll see what they'll do with him there.
Perhaps they'll sell him on for some plus valence, I guess, instead of that 20 million debt.
Or they'll even play him. They can utilise him as a third choice striker.
I really don't think he's ready, man.
He's got more goals than Origi and Zlatan combined.
That's fair enough, I guess.
He would definitely be a suitable second choice striker.
He'd probably be playing for Milan, maybe not starting every game, but he'd definitely be featuring for Milan this season, Colombo, if he were on the bench.
You know how I think Milan move quite prematurely, but I think his performances nowadays have shown that Milan were actually right.
Pelegri. If he's like Pelegri, he had so much hype around him.
Then he was average, to say the least, and Milan just offloaded him.
Yes, he was one of those players that Milan felt obliged to try to rehabilitate.
The likes of Bojan back in the day, or Origi now.
Milan buy these injury-prone players and try to reignite them.
I didn't know that was his reputation, Pelegri.
Yes, Pelegri was with Genoa at 16 years old.
He won their kids' scoring goals at 16.
He got injured, he moved to France, suffered from even more injuries, and then was brought to Milan, where he suffered even more injuries.
Now he's at Torino, where he's also suffering more injuries.
Yes, he's been out for a while, and to be honest, I have no idea when we're going to see him next.
I think at this point, Sanabria is just a better option, to be honest.
Inter are in second on 50 points, now just 15 points behind league leaders Napoli.
Weiss-Letsche dropped down to 15th on 27 points.
The next game we are going to be covering is Atalanta vs Udinese.
The previous encounter was a 2-2 draw at Udinese Stadium.
Now Atalanta have found the net.
Oh, you mean the Jewish?
The Jewish.
Atalanta had found the net in each of their previous 15 matches against Udinese, scoring an average of 2.3 goals per match.
For Udinese, this wasn't a terrible result.
No.
They look at it as a kind of combo breaker, right?
Yes.
Udinese had only won one of their previous 14 matches away against Atalanta.
It was a 3-1 win in December 2016 and the opener was scored by Duvan Zapata, who now plays for Atalanta, of course.
Udinese have won just one of their last 17 Serie A matches.
Jesus.
They have 10 draws and 6 losses.
The only side in Europe's big five leagues that recorded fewer wins than Udinese and the Spurs is actually Angers.
Angers?
I guess.
I don't know.
The French team.
Angers.
Angers, I guess.
Angers.
They have been…
Udinese remind me of those old people that just speak about the good old days.
The good old days being the opening seven matches in Serie A.
Yeah, they're like that student that starts the year off really well but kind of gives up two months in.
Me?
You.
They're you.
They're you at St. Martin's.
Yeah, literally.
There we go, bro.
I'm going to use a highlighter this year.
Yeah, exactly.
This is my notepad.
So Atalanta lined up with their 3-4-3 formation with Juan Musso in goal, Jim City, Demiral and Touloui were at the back,
Ruggeri on the left to replace Zappacosta after he suffered his weekly injury, Mele was on the right,
Koupminers and De Roon were in the middle with Jeremy Boga starting on the left this time,
Lukman was on the right and Hoyland was up front.
For Udinese, it was Sylvester in goal, Bacow, Biol and Perez were at the back.
Perez was wearing a Santa hat this game.
Bolesa was on the right, Udodji on the left, Lovridge, Wallace and Arsalan were in the middle with Beto and success up front.
If you think I'm joking about the Christmas hat, go check out the highlights.
Now, the main takeaway from Udinese starting 11 was that they went for a more defensive approach against this Atalanta team,
as typically there's a bit of a ballad between Samardzic and Pereira.
They're always competing for the starting spot.
In this game, they were both benched for Wallace, Arsalan and Lovridge, and that's a very physical midfield three.
And to be honest, they did get the job done to a certain extent because I'm sure they would have taken a draw against Atalanta.
Granted, Atalanta aren't on the best form, but Udinese, as we mentioned, haven't won in eons.
Yeah, I mean, they've got to pick their battles. I don't think they were going to go for a victory in this game,
unless obviously they weren't going to purposely miss an opportunity, you know, but they weren't set up to take the victory in this game.
Exactly, they weren't set up for risk.
Exactly, they were there to tame their opponents.
The first important chance of the match came in the 17th minute when Beto tore into the middle of the field and served the onrushing Lovridge,
whose shot was powerful, but not precise. In the 27th minute, there was another chance for Udinese, with a lazy Dream City pass back to the goalkeeper.
It saw Beto take the opportunity to recover the ball, but Juan Musso was very good at coming out, reading the play and stopping the charging Beto.
Atalanta continued to grind the game out, but the opportunity only came from dirty balls that were difficult to convert into goals.
Dirty balls have never really gotten me many opportunities.
Not really. Dirty balls actually stop you from getting opportunities.
Exactly.
Now in the 37th minute, Kup Miners tried a shot from a distance. Silvestri blocked it on the ground. It was a very easy save, to be honest for him.
The second half started with Udinese pressing hard and high, and Atalanta breaking on the counter with Bogaz's speed,
and Silvestri forcing an Ederson shot out for a corner.
So you look at this, the fact that Udinese did line up with a more physical team, but they did press very aggressively.
And I wonder if that makes a difference, you know, the fact that Pereira and Samardzic aren't the most active pressers you'll ever see, but these guys really are.
You look at Wallace Lovridge and Arslan. They're very hardworking, industrious midfielders, and perhaps that's the reason they got these opportunities.
And they're like two completely different ends of the spectrum, because like you said, Arslan, Wallace and Lovridge, and Makengo as well last season, they're all really high press.
However, then Pereira and Samardzic are more like the silky dribbling type.
Exactly, they bring you the technique.
Exactly. Not much work off the ball, however. They could even be deemed by some as lazy.
Yeah, I mean, sure. Lookman had a shot saved well by Silvestri's foot, and he shot wide in a separate play shortly after.
That was a really good chance where he cut in onto his left.
Lookman does this amazing thing where he goes to shoot with his right, but feints taking it onto his left.
You know, it's a really silky move.
In the 63rd minute, Maillac crossed, Becau managed to intercept it. In the 75th minute, Suvan, who had just entered, shot from a favorable position, but the shot was not strong enough.
And the match ended with Pasalouj trying to place the ball into the back of the net, but the shot got blocked.
And from the corner, Touloui had a shot, but it was saved very well by Silvestri.
For me, the man of the match was Silvestri.
I think so as well, man. I think so. I think you'll give it to any one of the three defenders of Odinese as well.
They did have a very good performance, and it's no easy task neutralizing Hoiland, Lookman and Bogard.
And I think they did a fantastic job of that, so credit goes to that back four for them.
Yeah. These are two struggling sides over here. I'm sure they'll both take a draw at the moment.
Perhaps Atalanta would be bitter not to get the victory.
Absolutely, when they see that Milan slipped up and they recently lost a six-pointer against them.
They'd be bummed about it.
And they could have cut the distance with Juve as well.
Atalanta have won one win in their last five games. They have lost to Lecce, Milan and Sassuolo.
They have beaten Lazio and drawn to Odinese. So a bit of a mixed batch over there for them.
I can't really place what's going on at this Atalanta side and what's not working.
The main thing that I notice when it comes to the successful Atalanta team of the past and this one are the fullbacks.
Absolutely. 100%.
These guys are not as good. You look at Mele, okay, sure, he's fast. He's quite dangerous, but he's nowhere near as...
Okay, let's not focus on Mele actually. Let's look at Mele as a direct substitute of Hans Hattaberg.
They're very similar players. They're both industrious. They both cover the ground well.
Up and down, up and down. All game three longs, right? Sure. They're not very different.
But then when you look at that left side, when you had that prime Gossens working tirelessly,
a player that can score a player with such good technique for a fullback,
and then you're going to the likes of Ruggeri and Zappacosta, I think that's the biggest blow for Atalanta.
Because you look at the other departments, granted, Freuler was a great player and a big loss for them,
but Kuk Miners is no joke. He's a fucking good player as well. Probably an even more complete midfielder than Freuler is.
The thing is, they haven't replaced Gossens. And when they offloaded him to Inter when he was injured,
I thought it was a bit of a rush decision by Atalanta. It's almost like they were frustrated with his injuries,
so they let him go thinking he wasn't going to... I think he wanted to leave, right? Because of the way they managed his injuries.
They aggravated it. Yeah, it was that as well. But they haven't really replaced him.
I mean, they stuck to their old guns and Zappacosta, who isn't the player that he used to be, sure he puts in a shift.
But he's obviously no Gossens. Ruggeri is still finding his feet. And they struggle a lot down that department.
That's why I like seeing Boga on this team, because he gives them that pace on the left-hand side, man.
But then I also like having Hoyland and Lukman playing together up front as a front two rather than Lukman on the wing,
because Lukman is dangerous in front of goal, man.
Yeah, at this point, play Mele on the left and play Brandon Sopi on the right.
Fair enough. Yeah, I agree. I agree.
But anyway, yes, Lukman, Boga, Hoyland is not a bad three players to have up front at all.
That's definitely not the reason that they're not doing well. Perhaps it's the options coming off the bench, third place Hoyland.
You look at Muriel and Zapata. Zapata can barely catch a break from injuries at the moment,
while Muriel looks like he's on a pack of Marlboro gold and does a four-kid cat a day at the moment.
That's a little diet. Those two need to go. They need to go.
At this point, it's over for you here. The good old days are behind you.
And I think even, bro, obviously they lost Papu a while ago now, but still they lost Papu.
And they had Miranchuk, they had Pessina, and they had Malinovski.
And they just fucking lost them all, bro. They lost them all.
And they kept Kope Miners, they kept Pasalic, who really has been underwhelming this season.
And obviously, their own we can't complain about because he's the absolute metronome of that team.
But they're not really playing with a Trecortista anymore. They're not. They're not.
I think that's the reason they're floated, all these players.
The only one they kept was Pasalic, but he's the most versatile of the lot, so it makes the most sense to keep him technically.
But it doesn't mean because you're not playing with an attacking midfielder that you don't keep an attacking midfielder.
Because sometimes if you need to change mentality in the match, you're going to be utilising someone in that area.
Now, sure, Kope Miners can go there, but how many lungs does Kope Miners have?
How many pairs of legs does Kope Miners have?
I feel like removing those three, especially after losing Papu, it wasn't the best decision for Atalanta.
They focused so much on offloading. And then, sure, they got Bogar, they got Kope Miners, they got Hoiland, they got Lukman.
Great fucking signings. But where's that rotation that they had?
And the thing is, it was weird because when Bogar was brought in, they were playing a 3-4-1-2 formation of Malinovski in the hole, right?
And Bogar was probably looking at that thinking, where the hell am I going to play over here?
I'm not going to do the defensive work a left-wing bag does, and I'm not going to play as a striker at Czech Vardisca.
And he was being brought on as a Czech Vardisca. Now, that was weird.
Now they've changed to a 3-4-3, not now, sorry. And then after that, they changed to a 3-4-3 formation.
And they actually kept Malinovski, and Bogar could actually go into the left wing.
And Malinovski was looking at every game, you know, every game 3-4-3-3, thinking to himself, where the fuck am I going to fit into this?
This isn't for me, you know, so it is hard to keep a player like that.
Then you get Ivan Tudor calling you with Marseille, and obviously you're going to go away.
Yeah, I mean, that's it. I think, to be honest, we nailed down.
Igor Tudor, sorry.
Igor Tudor, yeah.
What did you say?
Ivan.
Ivan, yeah, I mean, similar.
Atalanta currently sit in sixth as they continue to fall from the top four spots.
They've got 42 points, while Udinese have fallen to tenth with 32 points.
The next game we're going to be covering is Torino's victory over Bologna, one goal to nil.
The previous encounter was a victory for Bologna, on the other hand, beating Torino to one.
When it comes to injuries and suspensions, Ricci was suspended for Torino, while Dominguez for Bologna was out due to any injury.
This was a potential battle for Europe, really. We might not see either of the teams in Europe,
but it was a battle for Europe in the grand scheme of things.
So Torino started in their 3-4-3 formation with Vania and Goal and the back line of Bonjor, Nossoors and Gigi.
They had Ricardo Rodriguez out on the left and Singo out on the right.
Linetti and Illich in the middle with Karamo and Miranchuk starting behind Sanabria.
It was nice seeing Ricardo Rodriguez out on the left.
Hey, hey, I mean, nice because it's a throwback, yes, but I'm sure that the fans of Torino weren't too happy with that.
He can't really advance beyond the halfway point because if they counter he's fucked, yes, he'll get caught out.
Especially when you have Voivoda, you know what I mean?
Yes, but perhaps, you know what that must have been?
An attempt to control Orsalini a little bit, to keep him in check, because you have two defensive players on that left side
and Ricardo Rodriguez and Bonjorno who can actually handle him.
Hey, it worked. For Bologna it was a 4-2-3-1 formation with Skorupski and Goal and the back line of Posh, Lukoum, Misosa and Cambiaso.
They had Morrow and Schouten as the midfield too with Orsalini out on the right, Soriano out on the left,
Ferguson as an attacking midfielder and Moussa Barrow up front.
Now in the 22nd minute Karamo opened the scoring.
It was a moment of magic for him as the ball seemed glued to his foot as he managed to dance past the tight Torino defence in their box before slotting past Skorupski.
Ricardo Orsalini wasted Bologna's best chance a few minutes later, seeing Torino defend their pair Schuurs,
performing a lovely, timely recovery run to prevent him from kicking the ball from the edge of the box with only Milinkovic-Savage in front of him.
Great tracking back by Schuurs or Orsalini would have hoped to do better over there.
Voivoda could have doubled Torino's lead but didn't finalise a quick counter-attack, sending his header over the bar from an excellent position and the game ended 1-0 in favour of Torino.
Torino had 12 shots to Bologna's 11, 5 on target to Bologna's 1. It was quite a tight affair.
I think Torino managed to shut out Bologna way more than the latter managed to shut out the former.
That goal by Karamoh was a masterpiece. Karamoh on great form scoring 3 goals in 5 games.
Absolutely. I thought it was 4 goals in 6 matches.
That's even better.
Two of which were winners. He had this one against Bologna and then the 1-0 against Odinese as well.
Bro, I've got Karamoh on my fantasy football and I also have Dzeko, Jurru, Petania and Dzeko.
And your third.
Yes, your second.
So I'm never playing Karamoh because obviously I'm playing Dzeko, Jurru, Petania or Dzeko, Jurru, Abraham.
I also have Abraham. Karamoh can't get a sniff but he's always on the bench with a 10.
Always. I'm like, shit dude, I'm going to have to play this guy but who do I drop?
And then the thing is the other three just aren't scoring so I could technically drop any of them.
But I know the second I drop one of those guys, they're scoring.
That's just the nature of fantasy football. That's Mein Kampf, bro.
It's always frustrating having so many options on Fanta.
When you have a lot of options, I don't just have your go-to starting 11 and then the Amra bats which are guaranteed starters but only get you a 6 or a 5.
It's frustrating because you have to make big calls every week and sometimes it stresses me out so much.
When you have two keepers, one's playing Atalanta and the other one's with Sassuolo but they're playing against Cremonaise for example.
Which one do you start over there? The team that can keep a clean sheet or the team that are playing in the relegation side?
I've gone for the one-goal approach at this point. Just take a keeper and his two subs and you're good to go.
You don't have to think about it in that department.
But anyway, let's get back into this. It was a vital win for Torino and a potential race for Europe.
After losing 4-2 in the Derby della Mole in what was another race for Europe.
That was another one. Great recovery from Ivan Juric and La Granata Bologna.
They're no easy feat at the moment. They're red hot.
They're coming off a win against Inter and I've shown that they are a very dangerous side for anyone under Thiago Motta who has really managed to get the best out of his players, especially Orsolini.
Orsolini overall is the most dangerous Italian striker in the top five leagues.
He has scored seven goals in 21 Serie A appearances in 2022-2023.
Wow, nice. There we go. There's his national team call up.
I was thinking about the national team the other day, the Italian national team.
And apart from the fact that Orsolini should definitely be called up, you look at Italy's centre-back partnership right now.
I'm going off on a bit of a tangent here, but it is an interesting point.
Can you name a better Italian centre-back at the moment than Romagnoli?
Probably Atcheri B.
Atcheri B, okay. Maybe. Sure, fair enough.
But Atcheri B is old, you know, he's not going to be there for any of the major competitions coming up.
Do you look at, for example, Romagnoli, Trasale?
That's probably the best centre-back duo you have and they play together every week, so it might be useful to take them both to the national team.
Well, that's sad for Italy. I know. That's very sad. They're known for that.
I mean, Maldini, Chiellini, Nesta, Bonucci, Barezzi, all these guys.
Then you have Romagnoli and Trasale. But hey, man, who knows? I mean, they're playing very well.
Yeah. Which one of these teams gets Conference League?
So I think...
That's a juicy... none of them, bro. None of them. Neither of them.
Okay, then who does?
Who gets Conference League?
Juve. No, no, Atalanta. Juve get Europa League.
Okay, okay. That's a good shout. That is a very good shout. At the moment, I would go so far as to say that.
Wait, am I even convinced? I'm not convinced, bro.
What aren't you convinced about?
You fucking broke my brain. That's what you just said. I don't know how I meant to fucking know, dude.
Between Bologna and Torino, who do you think is more likely to get Europe?
Okay, okay, okay. So I'm going to forget the other teams.
So between Bologna and Torino, who's more likely to get Europe?
Bologna.
I agree.
Bologna.
I agree.
And it's simply because if the going gets tough, they have a goal scorer.
Yeah.
They have many outlets to score goals. Torino tend to struggle to find goals.
This recent emergence of Karamo. Is a very good one.
They've also experimented with Sec up front. It's not bad. Sanabria is not a bad shout, as we always discuss.
But Bologna, always, remember, they have Arnautovic. They've got Arnautovic coming back.
They've got that Zerg Zay guy. He's fucking pretty good. Or Solini is on the form of his life.
So I think both teams are good at shutting up shop. So I'm not worried about that.
The thing is, can they win games? And to win games, you need to score goals.
And I think Bologna are more capable of scoring goals.
I think so as well, which goes to show just how good Torino's performance was in this game.
It was a very, very tight affair. But to scrape out a 1-0 victory like that,
when the stakes are so high, always has great things about Torino and Devan Juric.
They currently sit in ninth on 34 points. And just one point ahead of them in eighth is Bologna on 35.
Level on points with Juve. That race is red, red, red hot.
Yes, it is. The next game we're going to be covering is Monza 2-1.
The previous encounter was a 1-0 victory for Empoli. So this is sweet, sweet revenge for Monza.
This game featured the two youngest tacticians in Serie A going head to head in Palladino and Zanetti.
Beautiful.
Empoli haven't won a game since January 23rd, and that's when it came against Inter.
Since then, they've had a draw against Torino, a loss against Roma, a draw against Spezia,
a draw against Fiorentina, a loss to Napoli, and a loss to Monza.
Empoli have...
Mirrors last year, huh?
It does, exactly.
When Empoli got off to a flying start, and then they just drew, drew, drew, and drew.
Yeah, they love a draw, Empoli. And in fact, Empoli have drawn the most Serie A games in 2023.
Wow.
With five, exactly. No side in the big European leagues has drawn more this year.
Wow.
This year being 2023, of course.
Empoli have conceded the most Serie A goals from corners this season, eight,
while Monza have scored only once from these situations with Paolo Mari scoring against Spezia in October.
Now, guess how Monza won this game?
Obviously.
It's either from a corner.
And it's crazy, these stats sometimes they come to fruition.
Now, Monza lined up with a 3-4-2-1 formation with Di Gregorio and goal, they're done with Craniot.
Yeah, absolutely. They tried him, didn't work. Back to Di Gregorio.
Poor guy, poor guy, poor guy. And Craniot is like 28 years old nowadays.
Yeah.
Caldi Rolla, Mari and Itso are at the back with Carlos Augusto out on the left,
Berindelli on the right, Pessina and Sensi in the middle with Petania, Caprari and Shuria up front.
For Empoli, it was a 4-3-1-2 formation with Perizan in goal and my brother and I, we were very confused at this guy.
Yes.
Perizan, who?
Yeah, and there was the other game as well of Hellas Verona where they featured, because Montepo was out injured,
they started a gentleman, Perilli.
Ah, Perilli.
Perilli, yes.
Close enough.
Yeah, Perilli, he was quite good.
He was.
He was shaky at the start but then he grew into it.
Now, Stojanovic was out on the right, Parisi was out on the left with Luperto and Ismael as the centre-back duo.
Bandinelli, Marin and the ever-impressive Akba Akpra were in the middle.
Baldanzi was playing in the hole with Satriano and Ciccio Caputo up front.
Empoli started the game off well, scoring a goal, however, that was ruled out for offside
and then in the 19th minute, it was Monza's turn to strike back as Caprari played a long forward ball to Petania
who flicked it on gorgeously to Shuria.
It was a silky little flick.
Yeah.
Shuria had to take it on his left and he converted it expertly.
Now, this was initially ruled off, called off for offside, but the referee was soon to find out that he was wrong and the goal stood.
Birindelli, Ismaeli and Carlos Augusto also got close to scoring in the first half, but it ended 1-0.
In the second half, Marin whipped the ball in, Mari got ahead to it, but it wasn't enough as the ball snuck through to Satriano at the far post who headed it in.
Now, the celebrations were massive for Empoli over here as they ran to their fans and the scenes were crazy as a fan gave Ciccio Caputo a beer and he took a massive gulp out of it.
And that's just the classic Ciccio Caputo that we know and love.
We didn't even score this time and he celebrated by actually drinking beer.
So that's great to see.
You know Ciccio Caputo has his own beer company and he used to give people who played him on fantasy football when he scored three samples of his beer.
What?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
If you played Caputo and he scored, you would send Caputo a screenshot of your fantasy football with Caputo on the starting 11 and he would pick people every time he scored and send them beer.
I love shit like that.
I love that shit.
Fantastic marketing Ciccio Caputo.
Now, Marin almost scored from a direct corner.
Yep, the magician that he is.
The magician.
And then in this 67th minute Monza found the winner through a caprari corner and the net.
So, Heather, they managed to shut up shop well after that and they took home all three points.
Yes, sir.
Now, brother, what did you make of this game?
I mean, it was quite an even affair.
I think Monza just have a little bit more flair to them.
To be honest, this game, you never really know how it's going to go.
Empoli got the upper hand in the game before that.
We know that on their day, Monza are more dangerous than Empoli.
They're faster than Empoli, but you can't help but love the way that Empoli play, the way that they're set up, their transitions, so on, so forth.
But it was that silkier football that got the victory over here, two goals to one.
And you will find that they perhaps do have more outlets to get goals.
Empoli always need to take an extra five, six, seven steps to get into a goal scoring opportunity,
whilst Monza sometimes just need a simple overlap and the goals are gold.
So that prevailed for them.
Yes. In fact, Monza weren't as silky as they usually are and they haven't been.
Perhaps it's because they've come off two losses now.
They tend to sit back a little bit, especially against Empoli over here.
Empoli had the majority of the ball for most of the game.
They played more vertically, though. You're absolutely right.
Empoli do try these little flick-ons, these very silky moves, these one-twos in the middle of the park.
While Monza, this game, were literally playing vertically. Let's go.
Boom. Direct, direct, direct. And it actually paid off for them.
So it was a good tactical set-up by Palladino.
I mean, look at their set-up. Look at how Monza are set up. Look how offensive this team is.
Carlos Augusto, left wing back. Birindelli, right wing back.
Double pivot, fuck it. Sensi Pessina, left wing, Caprari.
Right wing, Churia. Striker, Petania. Probably the most defensive fucking player out there.
And then at the back, Itso, one of the most offensive centre backs that there is in Italy.
He gets very, very involved. You see him running down the wing at times.
This is a very, very frightening team to play against.
And then you look at Empoli, they are a team that is designed to hold possession and to slow down play.
Bandinelli, Marin, Akpak, Pro. And then they have Schor, Baldanzi.
And then two strikers who are fantastic with their back-to-words goal.
Satriano and Caputo. Yeah, yeah.
And they do play very neat football, Empoli as well.
Itso is another Shauta, by the way, for the national team.
He is. 31 years old. It might be his time.
And it's been years. Itso has been good for years. He was top at Torino.
Yes, but then after Torino, he had a time where he lost himself.
Uh-huh. You know?
Uh-huh. He can be quite inconsistent in long periods.
So he's either, he has like a very good season and he has a bad season.
It's never like he has a good couple of games and he has an off day here and there.
He's consistently very good for Monza this year though.
Yeah, he's a protagonist on this team for sure. Yeah.
Think about what Monza can achieve in five years' time.
Sky's the limit, man, I would say.
Now, of course, they have also had their struggles this season.
But guys, this is a team that was promoted this year.
You know? And they, a team that, it's their first time playing together.
I mean, Petania Caprari, Churia, Pessina, Sensi, Itso, Di Gregorio.
These guys have never played football together before.
Mario on loan from Arsenal.
And they've really managed to gel together.
And they're using Raffaele Palladino as a manager,
staying true to their caretaker manager who's had good performances,
beat fucking Juve in his debut.
And I mean, the Sky is the limit for this team.
Now, I know that they have a lot of players who are in on a loan,
but I think they have the cash to trigger any of their clauses.
Most definitely.
And with their pedigree at the moment, even if those players do go,
they could loan in a fresh batch of talented players and actually work with them.
Palladino has proven to actually be very good at developing these guys.
They have Raffaele as well. They do, for fucking hell.
They're a really, really good team.
So yeah, the Sky is the limit for them.
Well, perhaps not the Sky, but that Conference League spot in the next five years
might represent the Sky for this Monza team who currently sit in 11th with 32 points,
while Empoli sit in 14th with 28 points.
They could really use a victory, Empoli, in the coming days.
It's been a while since that intergame.
Yeah, they really, really can, man.
The next game we're going to be covering is Sassuolo.
Three Cremoneses, totally different to the previous encounter,
which ended in a 0-0 draw.
We know that Cremoneses were coming in hot form after beating Roma,
their first win in Serie A.
Starman Domenico Berardi was suspended for this match for Sassuolo,
but Laureante was back from his enforced absence,
while Ferrari was suspended for Cremoneses, and Aiwu was out with a tie injury.
Sassuolo played their classic 4-3-3 formation with Concilie in goal,
con Concilie, apologies.
Rogerio, Rouan, Erlich and Zortéa formed the back four,
with Henrique, Lopez and Frattesi forming the midfield three,
and Laureante, Pina Monti and Defrel all playing in the attacking third.
For Cremoneses, it was their 3-4-1 formation with Karnes Ecke in goal
and a back line of Kirikis, Bianchetti and Vasquez.
They had Cernicol out on the right and Valeri out on the left with Piquel and Benassi in the middle.
Afenajan was the right winger, Ocareke left winger and Sassuolo, your boy Sassuolo, up front.
Hit the post, eh?
Yes, sir.
In the 25th minute, Laureante netted a free kick from just outside the area,
Simeone should get the ball over the wall with great power.
Karnes Ecke will be disappointed that he couldn't keep the shot out as it was a very central strike,
however, it was hit with a lot of power and he didn't see it coming over the wall.
So, I don't know, still should be doing better,
but brilliant strike by Laureante nonetheless.
In the 41st minute, Laureante intercepted a weak pass in a dangerous area and carried the ball forward.
After a few coming together with defenders and an interchange with Lopez,
Laureante backheeled the ball to Frattesi who finished on the turn.
That's already a goal and a contribution by Laureante.
In the 62nd minute, Cremoneses' long balls forward finally paid off
when Ehrlich's attempted clearance fell perfectly to substitute Dessers,
who finished past the oncoming Consiglie.
That was terrible defending by Ehrlich.
The ball was coming right at him and he headed it literally direct to Dessers,
who had no problem finishing over there to one.
In the 71st minute, Maxime Lopez produced a goal line clearance,
avoiding Cremoneses' equalizer as Cremoneses were really piling men forward over here.
And then the 82nd minute, Karnes Ecke's hoofed ball forward landed to Dessers,
who rounded Consiglie before finishing from a tight angle.
Once again, the defense of Sassuolo was way too shaky.
It wasn't one person's error this time, but just shaky defending all around.
And then in the 91st minute, Laureante provided a perfect cross with the outstep of his right foot,
which was volleyed in first time by Bayrami for a fantastic goal for his new team,
getting them a victory, a very hard-earned victory over Cremoneses over here,
as he's replacing their key man.
A very, very, not even a fair, but Sassuolo started the game off brilliantly.
Cremoneses came out in the second half brilliantly,
and then Sassuolo managed to prevail and their experience allowed them to get that goal in the 91st minute.
But you look at the stats, 54-46 possession in favor of Sassuolo,
13 shots to 13, 7 on target for Sassuolo, 6 on target for Cremoneses.
This was one hell of a game of football.
I was very disappointed not to see Cremoneses get the point, but fuck it.
Sassuolo continued their very, very highly improved streak.
Brother, I'm going to start off.
I cannot stress how impressive this Armand Lauriente is, much better than Raspadoori and Traore,
who they lost and they thought it was detrimental that they lost them,
but they really found a solid-ass fucking replacement and upgrade over here.
I'm going to go so far as to say, here we go.
Should Leão not extend his contract like Milan?
Who? Noah Lang? Who? St. Maxime?
No man, you go for Messi, dude.
Obviously, you go for Messi or you get Chiesa.
Stop it. Lauriente.
Yeah, of course. I worked in catering for so long with these fucking casuals.
The Meradoc player, Messias.
International audience.
Messias is not a good player, man. You have to buy Chiesa.
This guy is going to fund it.
Do you not think at all, you fucking imbecile?
Leão, if he doesn't extend his contract at Milan, I would not mind Lauriente being discussed as our opponent.
Sure, but after this season, Lauriente is not going to go for a treat.
He's 24 years old. He looks like a bowler.
When you look at the league's top three wingers at the moment, you're going to see, okay, so it's Gavrát Scélia.
This season probably takes the cake as number one debatable controversy.
Leão would be second.
Perhaps. People have different opinions on the matter.
So it's Gavrát Scélia and Leão first or second, give or take.
And then you have who's in the third slot.
So if you're looking at purely wingers, so you're not taking Kostasic, for example, into consideration, it would be Lauriente.
Absolutely. Yes, for sure.
I mean, I struggle to think of. I mean, then you have the likes of, for example, left wingers.
I mean, the ball plays out on the left sometimes, but not.
Pedro sometimes again on the left. But again, these guys are the same.
Lauriente for sure. Yes. When it comes to sheer technical ability, goal contributions, Lauriente is up there, man.
He's having a fantastic first season.
And can you imagine this guy next season?
And it's not only because he got a goal and two assists in this game, because, by the way, he got a goal and two assists and each one.
The goal was super. His goal was great.
I mean, free kick. He can do that as well, apparently.
He backheeled the ball to Frattesi for Frattesi to get the second.
And then that assist to Bayrami just whenever I see these Travellers or whatever the hell they call them with the outstep.
Beautiful assist. Really put it not on a plate.
I mean, still have massive Bayrami balls to hit that in on a volley first time and execute it the way he did.
But wow, really, really great performance by Lauriente.
He just hit 10 goal contributions in 18 games this season with five goals and five assists.
With a team that was struggling so much at the beginning of the season, for most of the season.
Yeah, a team that was a potential relegation candidate.
Yeah, there you go. There you go.
Now, the fact that Sassuolo got all three points in this game shows how far they've come this season.
Cremonaiser just got their first win against Roma and the momentum was fully in their favor after the SS got the equalizer,
but they were capable of keeping their cool and they managed to get all three points.
Now that comes with experience. It's not just a run of form.
Sassuolo for them to be able to concede two goals, be 2-2 against Cremonaiser and not crumble.
Takes a lot, man.
It really does. It really does.
To get that last minute winner, that was quite impressive.
You look at the fact that Sassuolo have 30 points and Juve in seventh have 35.
Bro.
They have an objective they can actually aim for. It's quite crazy.
What a league, what a league, what a league.
I mean what a league because it feels like these guys have been slipping up since the beginning of the season.
I mean anyone can get relegated this season.
Anyone can get trapped in the league.
In the bottom three in the league you have Empoli, Valdinez and Juventus.
Bro, Sassuolo are still terrible defensively though.
No, of course.
They are still terrible defensively.
Incredibly error prone both as a unit and then they're individuals.
They're just not set up to keep clean sheets.
And Consigli hasn't been at 100%. There's nothing he could have done in this game but he hasn't been at 100% and they're an incredible league.
Yes, if I were Sassuolo I'd take a punt on Craniot.
I'd try to bring in Craniot and rejuvenate his career.
When it comes to the centre backs literally any of the teams that get relegated take their centre back.
Any of them are better than your guys.
That's true.
I mean Tressoldi or one of his names is nothing special.
Ehrlich seems to make a mistake every game. Ferrari's past it.
Yeah, they do need new centre backs as well.
Absolutely man.
Karne Sekki, so here's the thing. Young goalkeeper.
22 years old.
22 years old. Up and comer. He is going to be a star.
Right? This is his first experience in Serie A with fucking Cremonaese who concedes so many shots.
Two of these goals in this game, brother, Laurenti's free kick, quite central and Bayrami's volley could have done better.
And it's not the first time we said he should have got that at his near post but he's young.
He should have saved that. It was right at him but he's young.
He should have saved that but took a bit of a deflection but he's still young.
Now, again, his ceiling is very high but should Cremonaese experiment a little bit with Radu who was having good performances for them barring that one mistake?
Or should they keep Karne Sekki on the pitch for as long as they can to maintain that young Italian talent?
That's a good question. Karne Sekki I believe is not owned by Cremonaese.
He's on loan from Atalanta.
Exactly. So the fact of the matter is that Karne Sekki is a good shot stopper overall.
Now, the fact is when you play a 22-year-old over the stretch of a full season, you are going to see mistakes.
It could be the hottest talent. It could be a generational talent. You look at Donnarumma, for example.
No, Donnarumma was an incredible shot stopper for Milan and he did make mistakes that actually lost them games.
Karne Sekki is going to face many shots in games and he is going to make mistakes at the moment.
Is Radu error-prone as well? Yes, he is.
So you might as well just play the better shot stopper in Karne Sekki. I don't know. I don't see him as that bad.
This was probably his worst performance of the season so far and it's funny because it's a game that he actually got an assist in.
So he actually contributed to a goal which is very unlike a goalkeeper to do but of course it was not enough to actually call this performance a good one.
Yeah. And I think as well, you can't really have rotating goalkeepers because you're playing with both their confidence.
Look, you're both not good enough to start. You're both kind of ass sometimes but you're both kind of good sometimes.
So yeah, I'm just going to rotate you. That doesn't really work, does it?
Not really. Not really, bro. So yeah, I think I still think that Karne Sekki has a very bright future ahead of him.
Just had a bit of a bad performance. Kermanez are full of fight but you can tell that it is nothing more than a good spell really as they lack quality and experience all around to be quite honest.
And this is evident when you look at this match and the Torino match where they get themselves in a good position and are unable to maintain it.
The Roma game was a bit of an exception where they got that late penalty and they converted it and they have a history against Roma.
But yeah, Kermanez leave a lot to be desired.
And I would say they lacked experience coming into this mostly because now you look at a few of these guys, they're natural leaders.
You look at Vlad Kirikes at 33 years old. You look at Benassi at 28 years old. You look at Bianchetti at 29 years old.
And even the rest, they're not that young like Ocareke 25, Valeri 24 and Vasquez 24.
So these guys actually have developed their team as the season has gone by to be more of an experienced unit.
But I feel like at this point it's a bit too late for them.
Yeah, they are very improved and that's what sucks because I said that the Torino match and this match showed it, but they are finally getting in those situations where they find themselves in good positions in a game.
Something that they couldn't dream of in the past. And they're playing better, but they're just not good enough in my opinion.
So if Kermanez win the Coppa Italia and gets relegated, will there be a Serie A team in Europe? Is that how it works?
Is there someone you can call to give us this fucking information, man? Yes, yes is the answer.
Yes, right.
I mean, those are the rules. So I don't think they should be bent for anything.
That would be mental. I'm going to confirm that by the way and in the next episode I'll see if that will happen or not.
You'll forget for sure. Probably.
Sampdoria, Nil, Salernitana, Nil. The previous encounter was a Salernitana 4 and Nil stomping.
Weird, Nicola didn't get a promotion that day.
Now, Sampdoria haven't drawn any of their seven league games against Salernitana. They have been three victories for Sampdoria and four losses.
Crazy. So this was the first draw. You look at these stats sometimes they either prove to be completely consistent or they prove to be record breaking.
Salernitana have won each of their last two games against Sampdoria and Serie A before this game. They never won three on the bounce against a specific opponent in the top flight before.
So they had the opportunity over here to make it three against the team, but they did not manage, of course, as it was Nil Nil.
Now, listen to this very interesting stat, bro, before we get into the game. Salernitana averaged the most touches in the opposition's box in Serie A this season.
Salernitana. That's probably Pjantec just not shooting.
Yeah. And speaking of Pjantec is the player who has attempted the most shots in Serie A in 2023 without scoring so far.
Not shooting my ass then.
Yeah, he had scored three goals with his previous 17 shots in the competition. So things are not going his way.
Pjantec was playing well off the ball, but has been very wasteful as of late.
Yeah, I guess.
Now, we saw a bit of a different Sampdoria side this time without their own goal.
Amione, Nuitinck and Zanoli were at the back without Gelo on the left, Lerri on the right and Rincon and Harry Wanks in the middle.
Sabiri and Quissans were playing behind M'Gessi. We call him M'Gessi.
No, Hesse.
I don't want to call him Hesse personally.
Why Hesse?
What's the matter, Hesse?
What's the matter, Hesse? Why Kesse?
What's the matter? Cholo, you want to go?
I don't want to go.
No, okay. Hesse Rodriguez, yes. Hesse Rodriguez played up front.
We spoke about Hesse Rodriguez potentially changing Sampdoria's season.
He looked lively, but he does not quite look... he doesn't look quite fit yet.
Just another nanny.
Oh, he's just another nanny.
So Ochoa was in goal for Salernitana with Danilo Lich, Gyomber and Pirola at the back.
Sambia was on the right and Brada Rijksjö on the left with Kullibaly and Cernigo in the middle.
Kastanos and Kanjeva playing off the shoulders of Pjontek.
Pum-pum.
Yes. This game was a 0-0.
Of course, we saw a couple of interesting opportunities.
Quissans getting close to scoring. One of his shots was fucking incredible.
Two attempts, man. The two attempts were brilliant.
I'm really impressed by Quissans. He really seems to have upped his game from his Venezia days.
And I do think that he's a very hot talent nowadays.
I wonder, is he owned by Bayern Munich still?
No.
He was bought by Venezia?
No, he was bought by Venezia for like 3. something million.
I believe in fact it was a big deal because they spent money, Venezia spent money.
And he was only a bit cheaper than they had spent on Henry.
He's still owned by Venezia in fact.
So that's an interesting player who will definitely be up for grabs considering Venezia's situation in Seba.
They don't seem to be getting promoted anytime soon.
He's a player who has featured for the France national team all the way from under 16 to under 20.
He's a player who has had appearances for Bayern Munich and Marseille.
He is a player who obviously has a lot of talent.
Nifty footwork.
Very nifty footwork.
And you look at the likes of Sabi Rikwesan's Hesse, that doesn't look that bad.
That doesn't look that bad at all.
So Sampdoria who do leave a lot to be desired at times actually don't look too bad on paper at the moment.
And even in game can actually do some things.
Ochoa, once again a wall, saving many opportunities.
At one point earlier on in the game, Castanos released Candreva with a brilliant through ball.
Brilliant through ball.
And Candreva decided to cut in on his left foot instead of just shooting with his right.
And I was quite...
He displayed a lack of confidence which isn't something I'd ever thought I'd see with Candreva
who's always looked so confident when it came to his shooting ability.
But watching him cut onto his left and just giving Odair a time to recover
and to actually come out and block the shot was quite sad.
It was very beta.
Yeah.
Yes. Lerri, Augello and Zanoli all tried their luck to score but it was all in vain for Sampdoria.
Yes, that's what I was trying to say.
Sambia once again delivered a very good free kick.
It was saved well by Ochoa.
And Brotherish tried to capitalize on a somper at the end of the game but failed.
So yes, bro, I don't know if there is anything you'd want to add from this.
It seemed to be a lower tier dog fight which was hard fought but with no fruition.
You look at the position that Sampdoria dominated for the most part.
When it comes to shots he had 9 to 10.
But no one really deserves to win this in my opinion.
Yeah, I would agree.
I'm still scratching my head over why Dia hasn't been starting.
I know that he is or was recovering from an injury.
I think he's fine, bro.
He's fine now.
I think he's fine, dude. I think he can bring him on.
I don't know what the hell he's doing.
So I said, why the hell wouldn't you play Dia?
He brought him on at one point, yes, sure.
But this guy was one of the protagonists of the Sambdoria team this season.
The Salenitana team this season.
Yeah, absolutely, man. Absolutely.
He's their best player.
Their most dangerous player and he should be being utilized.
On the other hand, Sambdoria, another failed opportunity for them to get three points.
Are they gonna fucking get three points under Stankovic because they leave so much to be desired?
I'm gonna go out and say that they're not gonna get three points under Stankovic so that they get three points in the next game.
That means next game they're winning, dude.
I'm just saying this for them to get a victory.
No, they are more likely to actually get a victory.
But man, they're just not a team.
They're not much of a unit.
You know what I mean?
Obviously, their performances have gotten better, but a unit capitalizes on a game like this.
A relegation dog fight against Salenitana.
Where Salenitana, it's not their best performance on paper.
They need to be more dangerous.
They had a couple of attempts through Quissans who turned wine out of water in this game.
I mean, that long range shot from the right hand side, the curling one, just over.
And then at a point, someone hit the post that landed to Quissans and he had some really nifty footwork.
No, sorry.
No, it was offside.
There was a save.
Then Quissans got the ball, did some nifty dribbling and then he hit the post.
Exactly.
It was all offside.
Yeah, but they can't rely on bringing in Jose Rodriguez.
They can't rely on Sabiri.
They can't rely on bringing in Quissans.
To me, Sampdoria are a failed system this year.
Yes, and they've been going downhill.
Now, when you look at, there's an expression in Maltese.
I'm not sure if it translates in English.
The fish rots from the head down, which is very true because you look at Sampdoria's problems.
They stemmed from the top.
Now, with Ferreiro, who actually attended this game, by the way, the former president who declared bankruptcy.
The former Sampdoria president.
He still, I believe, the Sampdoria president.
He was also charged as a criminal.
I think at the time where he, you never know how it is with these guys.
But he received a severed pig's head as a death threat to his door.
And his reaction to that was to show up to the game.
Veramente, he's a beast.
He's a beast.
He's a fucking crook.
So, by the way, we're talking about Cremonesa before potentially winning the Coppa and getting relegated and playing in Europe.
Apparently, it happened in England once in 2013, 2014.
Wigan won the FA Cup.
Yes, they won the FA Cup.
And they got relegated and they played in the Europa League for the first time.
That's fucking wild, bro.
So can we see that happen with Cremonesa?
Wigan won Tres.
Come on, dude, I really want that to happen.
Same, same, rooting for Cremonesa.
Come on, Cremonesa.
So, yes, I'm going to conclude this game.
There isn't much to say.
Sampdoria's dead last with 12 points, as Salernitana are in 16th with 25 points.
The next and final game we're going to be covering was another 0-0 relegation dogfight.
This time it was between Spezia and Verona.
The previous encounter was, in a way, a victory for Spezia with a score of 2-1.
Now Simone Bastoni, Emil Homme, João Mutinho and Zoet all missed out,
while Verona were without Miguel Velo, so Aydin Hrstic, Milan Djuric, Cep Kerini and Thomas Henri.
They also lost goalkeeper Lorenzo Montepeau at the last minute due to flu symptoms,
so Simone Pirelli made his Serie A debut.
Now Spezia lined up in their 4-3-3 formation with Drangovski in goal,
and the back line of Reka, Nicolao, Ampadu and Amian.
They had Agudelo, Ekdal and Borabja in the midfield, with Giaci, Nzola and Verde in the final third.
On the other hand, Verona played a 3-4-1-2 formation with Pirelli in goal,
and the back line of Mannyani, Hien and Coppola.
Davidovic probably is fucking dying.
Faroni out on the right, De Pauli out on the left with Thames and Duda in the middle.
Lazović played the attacking midfield role with Sirilingonj and Gaetsch up front.
Sirilingonj!
Now I forgot to whip out the soundboard for this episode.
You did forget.
No problem, I haven't updated it. For the next episode I'll hit you up with a few new ones.
Amazing. So there was another early blow for Hellas Verona,
as Sirilingonj went off with a sprained ankle after just 9 minutes and he was replaced by Jaja Calon.
In the 68th minute, Jaja Calon used his pace very well to find himself clean through on goal,
but Drangovski made himself big and denied him a rare goal.
In the 73rd, Nzola hit the post with a header, and Giaci had penalty appeals waved away,
as he just lost his balance when battling with Pirelli and Hien for a loose ball after a deflected shot,
but it was enough to get Spezia goalkeeper Federico Marchetti sent off for a descent from the bench.
I mean, the guy just screams descent, Dave, with his comments.
He thought he was on Blessin's Instagram over there.
Yeah, literally.
In the 88th minute, Amjanskeller looked destined for the top corner,
but debutant Pirelli produced a magical stop to keep the sides level at 0-0.
Spezia dominated possession with 69% to Verona's 31.
They had 20 total shots, only four of which were on target.
I mean, as opposed to Verona's 11 shots, three on target, I mean,
Spezia did look like the team that were going to get something out of this, no, bro?
Yeah, man, they had the most opportunities this matchday.
Pirelli came in and had to deal with a couple of shots over there.
He made, I believe, four saves, four decent saves as well at that,
and Nzola went mental this game, just shooting, trying to get the goals in.
But yes, man, and it wasn't actually Nzola who shot the most.
Nzola hit the post, but you look at most of the shots,
they came from the right side, actually, with Verde, Borabja and Amjane.
They were all having it, and even Jazi, I believe, had three.
So it was a dogfight at the bottom once again.
Spezia have been quite impressive with Semplice,
the way they've turned their style around to become more of an offensive team,
a team that actually creates opportunities.
Absolutely, man, absolutely.
It's crazy how every manager has a different position for Kevin Agudelo.
Yeah, it's true.
You know, when someone doesn't see anything with you,
just think of yourself as Kevin Agudelo, bro.
But at the same time, they see everything in him.
That's what I'm saying, brother. That's what I'm saying.
As in it's the metaphor of it.
I'm sorry, I didn't get it. Perhaps I'm too...
You're not romantic.
I'm too dumb, man.
I'm just dumb.
Are you surprised at all by the nil-nil result in the build-up to the game
and because of the actual game itself?
In these games, sides tend to take a more cautious approach,
and what surprised me is the manner of the nil-nil.
I didn't expect Spezia to come out guns blazing like this
and to end in a draw, you know, when you look at the amount of chances there were.
Especially when you look at a direct encounter between 17th and 18th,
a draw would be a good bet to make in a game like this, I think.
Both sides, for opposite reasons, that's why this happened.
Yeah, exactly.
I think Spezia came out wanting to...
I think both teams wanted to obviously either catch up to the other
or get a six-point gap in between,
but I think Verona were more open to the idea of a draw coming into it
and saying, look, we'll live to fight another day,
but if we increase the gap from 17th, 18th to six points,
then we're in serious danger.
I think like this, Verona live to fight another day.
They do.
Spezia are still in danger.
Even with Salernitana-Samadoria drawing nil-nil and Kremenaer's losing,
nothing has changed in that department.
So there's still the opportunity for Spezia to get relegated,
for Salernitana to get relegated, for Verona to survive
or for Verona to get relegated.
But yeah, Spezia really came out looking for that victory though,
and I think they scared off Verona a little bit and they decided,
okay, let's sit back and make sure that we don't fucking lose this game.
Especially with the early exit of Cyril and Gange, they were like,
fuck it, we're probably not going to score.
Even though they brought on Calhoun, who isn't bad.
Yeah, Yaya Calhoun, he's a fucking rapid man.
He is, he's really fast.
And by the way, Alfonso Gai, again, good player, good player.
Nowadays, 24 years old, I did think he was a bit younger,
but has a good future ahead of him.
Absolutely.
Perilli really came in clutch for Verona in the final moments of the match,
a great save, he'll be proud of that.
Yeah, yeah.
I mean, another relegation dogfight, a bunch of chances,
yeah, the nil-nil result means that everything is as it was.
Spezia on 21 points in 17th place, Verona on 18 points in 18th place,
averaging a point a game now.
Quick maths, because I'm a genius.
There we go, bro.
There we go.
Done and dusted, huh?
Another episode.
So while we were recording this,
Lazio lost their Europa League game to AZ Alkmaar.
The former Milan player Kyrgues scored, he's a left-back,
he was a primavera player for Milan.
He celebrated doing the Theo phone call celebration.
OK.
So maybe he's his idol over there.
Do you think that Milan and Inter will go through to the next round?
So Milan, they both have the one-nil advantage, no?
Yes.
Remind me, bro, who are Inter against?
Porto.
Come on, bro.
Porto got a red card in their game.
It was, what's his name?
A good player for them.
Fuck.
You know I don't think they go through, man.
Ottavio.
I don't think.
I think Inter can get a draw.
I think Milan are going to struggle a bit against Spurs.
I think Inter go through and Milan's debatable.
The best Milan could do is try their best to keep a clean sheet.
I think Milan will go out very defensive in that game.
3-4-3, black 3, just fucking Tonali and Benassir.
I see him starting here.
I see him starting here in the Champions League like he did in the first leg.
A bit of rotation as well, maybe.
Look, for me, I can't see Milan keeping a clean sheet.
But the way that Milan play in the Champions League, the way they're so inspired over there,
I think Milan will go and get a draw and go through to the next round.
I'm going to be optimistic over here.
And I'm going to be pessimistic and say that Milan lose 2-0
and both goals come from set pieces or corners.
Oh, good.
Because Spurs, bro, are good from set pieces.
From set pieces they're great and Milan are bad from set pieces.
Inter, I think, will also get the job done against Porto.
Maybe a draw and Porto away from home or no easy feat.
They have Ottavio off with a big loss for them.
And I think Inter will actually go through to the next round too.
Perhaps that's too optimistic to have two Milan sides in the quarterfinals.
Maybe. Maybe.
Tune into our Instagram, guys.
We'll be posting a bit of content of us watching Milan Spurs.
As you know, we are Milan fans, so that's the game we're going to be watching and reacting to.
We will have the other games on our laptop with the fellow Italian teams.
Just to keep tabs over there.
But tune in, engage with us.
We'll even obviously have a chat and we can stay talking and stuff.
But yeah, talking football, obviously.
I mean, if you guys want to get personal.
You up.
Like you up, you know, and you want to talk about something on your mind.
We're here. We're your friends.
You know what I mean?
We don't think you have someone to listen to you.
Hold that serious spotlight.
There we go. We'll talk.
We'll be here.
We always reply.
Always.
Ask anyone who's ever messaged us. We always reply.
Send us a message.
Send us a message and you'll see if we reply.
We'll reply.
Absolutely. 100%.
Love you all guys.
Don't forget to rate our podcast wherever you're listening.
Send us voice notes if you want to feature on our podcast.
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We've been Serious Spotlight.
Thank you for tuning in and we love you all.
Thank you. Good night.