VITAL WIN FOR REGGINA

Reggina reignited their hopes of securing Serie A safety with a crucial victory at relegation rivals Bologna on Saturday.

Bologna dominated for most of the game but were felled by two goals on the counter-attack by Franco Brienza and Edgar Barreto either side of half-time.

Vaggelis Moras reduced the deficit three minutes from full time to set up a tense finale but Reggina clung on to take all three points.

It was Reggina's second victory in 21 games and their third without defeat and sees them move level on points with Lecce who travel to Juventus on Sunday knowing that defeat would see them drop to the bottom of the standings.

Bologna have two points more and remain a point off safety ahead of the rest of the Serie A fixtures on Sunday.

The hosts started the brighter and could have been ahead in the fifth minute as Marco Di Vaio's effort from a difficult position flew just wide of the post.

Di Vaio almost set up the opener five minutes later when he flicked Cristian Zenoni's cross out to the onrushing Bolzan Adailton who blazed over the bar.

Bologna were playing well and pressing forward and again went close to taking the lead in the 18th minute with another good link-up between Di Vaio and Adailton but the Brazilian's swerving shot from just outside the area narrowly missed the target.

The hosts should have broken the deadlock seven minutes from half-time as Francesco Valiani stole the ball off a Reggina defender and lobbed it towards Di Vaio who headed over the bar from a great position.

They were to rue their missed opportunities as just two minutes later a swift counter-attack by Reggina led to the opening goal.

Barreto sent a long pass down field to Brienza who, having beaten the offside trap, found himself one-on-one with Roberto Colombo and he sent a lovely shot into the far corner giving the Bologna goalkeeper no chance.

Reggina could have doubled their lead in stoppage time as Brienza set up Barreto in a great position in the area but the unmarked midfielder inexplicably chose to pass it to Fabio Ceravolo who was quickly closed down by the Bologna defence.

The visitors' second goal did not take long to come, however, and the killer blow arrived in the opening minute of the second half when Barreto latched onto a terrible pass out from the Bologna defence and the Paraguay international beat Colombo with a wonderful shot which the goalkeeper, who was too far out from his area, could do nothing about.

Bologna brought on Pablo Osvaldo minutes later and the striker almost had an immediate effect as he first fired inches wide before seeing his header come crashing back off the post shortly afterwards.

The hosts hit the woodwork again in the 66th minute when substitute Dyego Coelho smashed a 35-yard thunderbolt onto the crossbar.

Reggina could have got a third eight minutes from time as Brienza raced onto a terrible backpass by Massimo Mutarelli and found himself one-on-one with Colombo but he hit his effort off the Bologna goalkeeper.

And it was to be a nailbiting finale for the visitors after they failed to deal with Coelho's corner and Moras tapped it in from close range to grab one back for Bologna, but it was to prove little more than a consolation.

(From Website : http://www.sportinglife.com/football/overseas/italy/news/story_get.cgi?STORY_NAME=international_feed/09/05/02/SOCCER_Ita-Bologna_Nightlead.html&TEAMHD=italy)

INTER CRUISE TO LAZIO WIN

Inter Milan are within touching distance of a fourth straight Serie A title after beating Lazio 2-0 at the San Siro.

Second-half goals from Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Sulley Muntari have left the Nerazzurri 10 points clear at the top of the table, and they can secure the Scudetto with victory over Chievo next weekend if AC Milan fail to take maximum points from their games against Catania on Sunday and Juventus next week.

At the other end of the table, Reggina still have hopes of staying up after securing a crucial 2-1 victory away to relegation rivals Bologna.

The hosts dominated most of the game but were felled by two goals on the counter-attack by Franco Brienza and Edgar Barreto either side of half-time.

Vaggelis Moras reduced the deficit three minutes from full time to set up a tense finale but Reggina clung on to take all three points.

It was Reggina's second victory in 21 games and their third without defeat and sees them move level on points with Lecce who travel to Juventus tomorrow knowing that defeat would see them drop to the bottom of the standings.

Bologna have two points more and remain a point off safety ahead of the rest of the Serie A fixtures on Sunday.

(From Website : http://www.sportinglife.com/football/overseas/italy/news/story_get.dor?STORY_NAME=international_feed/09/05/02/SOCCER_Ita-Serie_A_Review.html&TEAMHD=italy)

Juventus hit back after Genoa climb

Juventus recovered from a goal down to defeat Serie A strugglers Bologna FC 4-1 and reduce FC Internazionale Milano's lead at the top to four points on a day when Genoa CFC boosted their hopes of a top-four finish.

Del Piero double
Bologna took the lead midway through the first half when a defence-splitting pass by Serie A's leading scorer Marco Di Vaio sent Massimo Mutarelli through on goal and the former S.S. Lazio midfielder placed a shot between the legs of Gianluigi Buffon. The Bianconeri responded and after Sebastian Giovinco tested Bologna goalkeeper Francesco Antonioli, Hasan Salihamidžić (47) headed in the former's corner. Giovinco put the hosts in front 19 minutes from time after receiving a pass from Vincenzo Iaquinta, and four minutes later Alessandro Del Piero controlled a ball in the box, turned and sent Antonioli the wrong way with his shot. With the visitors down to ten men having lost defender Miguel Ángel Britos to injury when they had already made three substitutions, Del Piero added a fourth with three minutes remaining. Inter host ACF Fiorentina on Sunday evening.

Olivera winner
Earlier on Saturday, Genoa's push for a place in the 2009/10 UEFA Champions League Play-off round gained momentum with a 1-0 victory at ten-man Cagliari Calcio which lifted the Rossoblu into fourth. The Sardinian side had Andrea Cossu sent off six minutes before half-time following a second booking but continued to fashion the better chances, Diego López directing a header against the post moments before the break. Genoa goalkeeper Rubinho then denied Michele Fini and Andrea Lazzari yet it was the visitors who secured all three points when Rubén Olivera headed in a right-wing cross from Raffaele Palladino with six minutes remaining. Fiorentina and AS Roma will go back above Gian Piero Gasperini's team if they win their respective matches on Sunday.

(From Website : http://en.uefa.com/footballeurope/news/kind=16/newsid=808481.html)

Pick of the week

Slingshots were nowhere to be seen in the UEFA Champions League as the four Premier League challengers continued the recent trend of English supremacy. Yet a David did emerge in the small Scottish footballing outpost of Paisley to knock out a Goliath in Celtic FC and show just how long a week can be in football. uefa.com brings you the standout stories of the last seven days.

Team: Manchester United FC
Liverpool FC may have grabbed headlines and attention by thrashing Real Madrid CF in midweek, but it is their misfortune that the no-frills victory of arch-rivals Manchester United over FC Internazionale Milano could yet live longer in the memory. By edging out Inter with a goal in each half, Sir Alex Ferguson's quintuple-chasing team set a record of 21 matches unbeaten in UEFA club competition. The English, European and world champions' last defeat in continental competition came away to AC Milan on 2 May 2007, when they lost 3-0 in a UEFA Champions League semi-final second-leg tie. The statistic ignores United's 2-1 reverse at the hands of FC Zenit St. Petersburg in the UEFA Super Cup last August. Juventus had established the record of 20 games unbeaten in the early 1970s.

Player: Steven Gerrard (Liverpool)
Liverpool's talismanic captain appeared to have run out of gas – and heroic rescue acts – when he limped out of the Reds' recent defeats by Everton FC, in the FA Cup, and by Middlesbrough FC in the Premier League. But he was back to superhuman strength in Tuesday's 4-0 dismantling of nine-time European champions Real Madrid at Anfield. Gerrard marked his 100th appearance in European club competition by scoring his team's second and third goals as they wrapped up a 5-0 aggregate win, his typically emphatic penalty being followed by a side-footed half-volley past Iker Casillas.

Goal(s): Lukas Podolski (2), Anderson Polga og, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Mark van Bommel, Miroslav Klose, Thomas Müller (FC Bayern München)
Collective praise this time for the Bayern side who, in rattling seven second-leg goals past Sporting Clube de Portugal in their first knockout round second leg in Germany, registered the biggest margin of victory in a UEFA Champions League knockout tie. Throw in the five unanswered goals in Lisbon which preceded this 7-1 mauling, and you also have the largest aggregate win in the competition's modern-era history.

Injury: Ramón (PFC CSKA Moskva)
If CSKA Moskva end up winning the UEFA Cup this season, they should keep the coveted silverware out of reach of midfielder Ramón. The 20-year-old Brazilian is clearly no respecter of metals precious or otherwise after injuring himself trying to kick a lump out of a glass – which, no less sensibly, he had mistaken to be a piece of aluminium. CSKA coach Zico explained that "Ramón saw something on the floor in his flat and decided to kick it." The resulting injury kept the youngster out of CSKA's first-leg meeting with FC Shakhtar Donetsk in the UEFA Cup Round of 16.

Number: Four
Four, as in 'Big Four'. The label given to the group of four clubs who seem each year to represent England in the UEFA Champions League now carries increasing weight in the competition itself. As happened last season, so Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal FC and Chelsea FC are again through to the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals. Where will it end? Well, last year with two English finalists after three of the cartel had contested the semis. Indeed, five of the last eight UEFA Champions League finalists have been English, with Liverpool featuring twice and the other three clubs once apiece.

Returning hero: Joey Didulica (AZ Alkmaar)
Injuries may be part and parcel of football but Dutch championship pretenders AZ Alkmaar could have done without the self-inflicted broken hand suffered by goalkeeper Sergio Romero last week. The No1 damaged himself punching a dressing-room door after his mistake had led to the winning goal in AZ's Dutch Cup defeat by NAC Breda. Romero's act of madness, however, resulted in a long-awaited opportunity for former Australia goalkeeper Didulica, which he seized by keeping a clean sheet in the Eredivisie leaders' 1-0 victory at NEC Nijmegen last Sunday. It was certainly a happy return for the 31-year-old Didulica: not only was it his first top-flight appearance since October 2006, but his shutout also extended AZ's unbeaten run in the league to a record 24 games – equalling the sequence set in their title-winning campaign of 1980/81.

Excuse: John Heitinga (Club Atlético de Madrid)
If with fatherhood comes responsibility, then nobody has bothered to tell new dad John Heitinga. Atlético's Dutch international defender was quick to pass on the blame for his tired legs in the second half of last week's derby draw at Real Madrid to three-day-old daughter Jezebel. "Since she was born I haven't been able to sleep, and being kept awake these last three nights was the reason I had nothing left in my muscles." Daddy, for his troubles, was hauled off with ten minutes to go at the Santiago Bernabéu. His fatigue, a temporary affliction; the name Jezebel will last a lifetime.

Quote: Wayne Rooney (Manchester United)
Wayne Rooney's relationship with his first and boyhood club Everton may never be the same again following his eight-digit transfer to Old Trafford. But his upbringing on the blue half of Merseyside will guarantee the usual 200 per cent effort whenever Liverpool are in opposition. With Liverpool's visit to United looming on Saturday, the striker told reporters after the Inter game on Wednesday: "I am very excited. I grew up an Everton fan, my whole family are Everton fans and I grew up hating Liverpool."

Underdogs bite back: Saint Mirren FC
Seven days earlier they had been on the receiving end of a 7-0 thrashing by Celtic FC in Glasgow. However, as if to prove exactly how long a time a week in football can be, it was Saint Mirren who were dishing out the humble pie in Paisley on 7 March. Billy Mehmet's 55th-minute penalty secured a remarkable rebound victory for manager Gus MacPherson's underdogs while knocking league leaders Celtic out of the Scottish Cup at the quarter-final stage.

Lament: Gazzetta dello Sport (Italy)
Things have come to a pretty sorry pass when you have to resort to pantomime language to get your message across, but that was the predicament facing Italy's famed football pink, the Gazzetta dello Sport, on Thursday morning. So it was that the front-page headline 'Maledizione' screamed at readers after the country's remaining three UEFA Champions League representatives exited the competition in midweek. This particular 'malediction' was experienced by hundreds of thousands of supporters as Inter, Juventus and AS Roma all succumbed to English rivals. It will take more than a genie in a bottle to get them back in contention for Europe's élite club prize.

(From Website : http://en.uefa.com/footballeurope/news/kind=2/newsid=810249.html)