Citing a desire to not be the coach that’s guilty of retiring Francesco Totti, Roma’s Luciano Spalletti has threatened to quit if Totti is not offered another one-year contract extension this summer.
The 40-year-old Roman has neither confirmed nor denied a desire to play next season, but the future of the personal embodiment of the club trumps all other focuses, according to Spalletti.
This is a really good goal from AC Milan’s Suso, and it rescued a point in the 85th minute for his side against Lazio. But what really sticks out is how apeshit the Lazio defenders go after watching Suso dribble through them all.
A win for Lazio would’ve taken them to fourth, and you can tell just how devastating this late goal was. In Italy, the land of catenaccio and solid defensive organization, Suso’s ability to drift between defenders and leave two Lazio players on the floor just isn’t acceptable.
Scoring too many goals is graceless. In Italy, when a team gets a few goals ahead, an unspoken agreement settles over the pitch; the team in the lead won’t score too many goals and the team behind won’t try too hard to get back into the game. The energy and the pressure eases off and the three points are settled early on.
Juventus defeated Milan 2-1 in the quarterfinals of the Coppa Italia on Wednesday which, unfortunately for Italian football, isn’t really news. Juventus have won five straight Serie A titles, and, even with the higher likelihood of upsets in knockout football, they’ve managed to win the Coppa Italia two straight years.
Their hegemony of Italian football makes a neutral viewer more apt to turn to other competitions, like The Great British Bake Off. But the romance of Italian football can still be found if you know where to look. You should be looking at Carlos Bacca.
In the opening episode of the newest, most extravagant HBO television series, The Young Pope, the decidedly Neapolitan Cardinal Angelo Voiello, anticipating his upcoming meeting with the Holy See, lays out on a desk his three smartphones. Each is emblazoned with a slightly different cover. The Naples Trinity, Voiello calls them: the attacking trident which set Serie A on fire. Marek Hamsik, Lorenzo Insigne and Gonzalo Higuain.
We are delighted to announce there is a person in the world named Kevin Lasagna.
Kevin Lasagna is an Italian striker recently signed by Udinese (though he will stay on loan at his current club, Serie B side Carpi, for the rest of the season), whose name is, again, Kevin Lasagna.
Jeison Murillo scored a worldy for Inter Milan Tuesday as his side defeated Bologna in the Coppa Italia, 3-2, to advance to the quarterfinals. Jeison Murillo reminds me of Jason Derulo and then I hear that little toy flute loop from “Wiggle” in my head.
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle
After an endeavor to make the Old Lady young again, Juventus FC have a new logo:
Agnelli: "This new logo is a symbol of the Juventus way of living." #2beJUVENTUS pic.twitter.com/x5B3fapqGJ
— JuventusFC (@juventusfcen) January 16, 2017
Francesco Totti appeared in his seven millionth Serie A match for AS Roma on Sunday, failing to add to his total of 1,306,478 goals for the club but appearing for a 25th successive calendar year — a streak that first began in 218 BC when Totti helped defend Rome from the invading Carthaginian army led by Hannibal.
Over the course of the streak, Totti has helped Rome gain dominance over the Western Mediterranean, assist Caesar in his conquest of Gaul, witness the collapse of the Western Roman Empire and win the 2008 Coppa Italia.
For anyone wondering, let’s get the essentials out of the way: Fiorentina versus Juventus is a big match. This is truer for one side than the other, however. Before Sunday’s game, Juventus defender Leonardo Bonucci told the press that while the fixture was the most important date in most Florentines’ football calendar, it was just another game for the reigning champions.