Red tide as referee’s decision boosts Roma
Roma’s 1-0 win against Palermo in the Stadio Olimpico on Saturday was one of those easily-forgotten games that can turn out to be decisive come the end of the season.
Roma dominated the first half without creating much, and it was a referee’s decision that turned the game. Leandro Rinaudo fouled Matteo Brighi and referee Christian Brighi (no relation) showed the red card. Two minutes later Amantino Mancini’s header was in the back of the net.
It was a rough challenge by Rinaudo, but it might have been yellow rather than a red.
As last week, when Parma were on the wrong end of a bad decision against Inter, it seems that the smaller clubs are again losing out — although Roma could argue they had two penalty claims turned down.
Inter this week had to play with 10 men for 70 minutes, after their Brazilian midfielder Rodriguez Cesar received two yellow cards within the space of 30 seconds.
Coach Roberto Mancini refused to talk to the media after the game — he has been angered by comments that his team were being treated favourably by officials — but he commented sarcastically to Inter’s own TV channel: “When we play Juventus in the cup on Wednesday we’ll start with 10 men, that way we’ll avoid any problems.”
For Milan there were a welcome three points in a 2-0 victory against Genoa at the San Siro. After losing one of their games in hand to Atalanta in midweek this was a match that the Rossoneri had to win, and there was an additional boost for their coach Carlo Ancelotti as both goals came from Alexandre Pato.
Milan are 23 points behind the leaders but are now only just outside the European qualifying zone, and still have two matches in hand over most of the sides above them.
Fiorentina, meanwhile, continued their good run, recording their fifth win in a row with a 2-0 victory in the derby against Empoli, although it was a mediocre performance rescued by a goal from Adrian Mutu in the 85th minute and a second from Giampaolo Pazzini in stoppage time.
Mug of the day was Rolando Bianchi, just arrived from Manchester City, who was greeted by whistles when he came on as a second-half substitute for Lazio in their match against Torino.
He was booked within 30 seconds and sent off for a second offence five minutes later. The match finished 10 against 10, and also 0-0.
In Sunday’s night game Juventus defeated Livorno 3-1 to stay third.
TRIPS by Barcelona’s all-star team to play Athletic Bilbao’s all-Basque side are never easy, and so it proved again yesterday.
Leading 1-0 after a first-half goal from youngster Bojan Krkic, Barca had failed to make the game safe a few minutes earlier when a shot from Carles Puyol hit the post, and were punished with a goal claimed by Fernando Llorente but which went in off Barca’s French defender Lilian Thuram.
That 1-1 draw was a boost for Real Madrid in advance of their match against third-placed Villarreal. It was a game that justified both sides positions in the table, with Madrid ahead early on and Villarreal coming back twice, only to be caught napping immediately after their second equaliser.
UNBEATEN since November 10, Caen’s great run came to a juddering halt with a 6-1 defeat at Marseille.
Marseille were a goal down in two minutes and could have been two behind after 10, but suddenly struck the form that has eluded them for most of the season, with two goals from Mathieu Valbuena and a hat-trick from former Liverpool striker Djibril Cissé.
Marseille can now realistically aim at a place in Europe next season.
At the top, Nancy and Nice both dropped points away from home and Bordeaux went down 1-0 at Lorient. And moments away from a 1-0 defeat at St Etienne, Lyon rescued a point with a great freekick from top scorer Karim Benzema.
PSV have a five-point lead at the top of the Eredivisie after both Ajax and Feyenoord once again could only draw.
But it was a close thing for the leaders as they left it until the 91st minute before Danny Koeverman scored to give them a 2-1 win against Excelsior. A mad opening nine minutes in the second half saw Ajax score twice to lead Vitesse 2-1 before conceding a bad equaliser.
And Feyenoord once again fell behind before drawing 1-1 with Groningen. Groningen and Herenveen – 3-0 winners at De Gaafschap – are level on points with Feyenoord, but have played a game more.
On Wednesday night PSV visit Ajax in a game that could decide the title race, while Feyenoord surely have to beat AZ to stay in the hunt.
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