Lega Serie B – General Discussion

[Messinterista]

Oh, Ok fair enough.

[Messinterista]

Serie B: Week 32

Atalanta 3-0 Piacenza
Scorers: Doni pens 34, 42 (A), Ruopolo 46 (A)

Cittadella 0-1 Ascoli
Scorers: Giorgi 53 (A)

Crotone 1-2 Siena
Scorers: Brienza 1 (S), Reginaldo 72 (S), De Giorgio 83 (C)

Empoli 1-0 Reggina
Scorer: Forestieri 61 (E)

Frosinone 1-0 Torino
Scorers: Biasi 54 (F)

Livorno 1-1 Grosseto
Scorers: Belingheri 49 (L), Sforzini pen 93 (G)
Sent off: Alessandro 56 (L)

Pescara 0-2 Padova
Scorers: Ardemagni 65, 93 (Pa)

Portogruaro 2-1 Albinoleffe
Scorers: Cunico pen 12 (P), Grossi 15 (A), Altinier 63 (P)
Sent off: Gerardi 40 (P), Hetemaj 40 (A), Bombardini 89 (A)

Sassuolo 1-1 Modena
Scorers: Perna 2 (M), Magnanelli 75 (S)

Triestina 1-1 Varese
Scorers: Miramontes 66 (T), De Luca 88 (V)

Vicenza 1-0 Novara
Scorers: Bastrini 89 (V)

Source: http://football-italia.net/brep32.html

[Lupa]

I saw this on the offside, and thought it was interesting.

http://italy.theoffside.com/serie-a/sie ... usual.html

Currently, Siena lie second in Serie B, eight points ahead of third placed Novara. The club are also only one point away from the summit, and it seems that promotion to Serie A is easily within the club’s grasp, barring any late season catastrophe. The club are somewhat fittingly preparing to build a new stadium featuring an odd characteristic: it’s partially underground.

The creative design is modeled after the ancient Greek Theater, and even won the 2011 Architectural Review Future Projects award. The stadium will fit about twenty-thousand people: definitely not one of the biggest in the world, but that should be plenty for a side like Siena to ensure that seats are always packed.

The design group, Marazzi Architetti, said that key features include the openness of the ground and the great view of the surrounding area:

Our proposal was to preserve the environmental integrity of the area and with great attention the project appears like a kind of natural incident caused by an idrogeological phenomenon or by an earthquake. Like the ancient Greek Theater, the stadium for 20.000 spectators is set within the Fossatone slopes, and takes shape as it curves through its bends, opening out to create a spacious area for concerts and outdoor events, excavated to form an inclined plane, offering a view of Siena in the background.

One side of it will be fully roofed in- the side most fully underground (This can be seen in the above picture). There will be shops and restaurants in this area of the stadium as well, should all go according to plan.

One potential hurdle is that the club doesn’t seem to have quite enough funding for the proposed idea, and are looking into private funding to help alleviate some of the costs. Promotion should help financially as well, in what would for sure be another interesting attraction for calcio.

Construction hasn’t started yet, but the plan is to build it in Isola d’Arbia.

There are a couple of pictures on the blog.

[Messinterista]

Very interesting indeed. Look forward to seeing it if does go ahead.

[RomaShield27]

Hopefully it does go ahead. We all know Italian football needs investment in new stadio (or existing stadio, for that matter). Projects like this are good to see, and a stadium like that somehow suits a club like Siena. Hopefully they get promoted (currently in second) so the project goes ahead.

[Messinterista]

Serie B: Week 35

Albinoleffe 1-2 Torino
Scorers: Pagano 21 (T), Sala 51 (A), Antenucci 87 (T)

Ascoli 0-0 Sassuolo

Crotone 4-1 Frosinone
Scorers: Cutolo 24, 27, 52 (C), Djuric 38 (C), Minelli 63 (F)
Sent off: Belec 63 (C)

Empoli 0-0 Novara

Modena 1-2 Atalanta
Scorers: Ruopolo 47 (A), Signori 78 (M), Bjelanovic 88 (A)

Padova 3-1 Portogruaro
Scorers: Tarano 18 (Po), Italiano pen 49 (Pa), Trevisan 80 (Pa), De Paula 88 (Pa)

Piacenza 0-2 Pescara
Scorers: Gessa 73 (Pe), Maniero 78 (Pe)

Reggina 0-1 Cittadella
Scorers: Piovaccari 10 (C)

Siena 2-0 Vicenza
Scorers: Sestu 23, 37 (S)

Triestina 0-0 Livorno
Sent off: Dionisi 78 (L)

Varese 3-1 Grosseto
Scorers: Pisano 17 (V), Sforzini pen 45 (G), Tripoli 49 (V), Ebagua 92 (V)
Sent off: Freddi 75 (G), Rincon 80 (G)

Source: http://football-italia.net/brep35.html

[RomaShield27]

Siena and Atalanta bounce straight back to Serie A
15:07 BST, Sat 7 May 2011

ROME, May 7 (Reuters) - Siena and Atalanta both won promotion back to Serie A at the first attempt on Saturday.
SERIE A

Siena drew 2-2 at home to Torino while Atalanta thumped Portogruaro 4-1 at home in Bergamo to join the Tuscan side on 74 points, 10 ahead of third-placed Novara with three games left. The third promotion place will be decided by a four-team playoff. Bari have already been relegated from Serie A.

http://football.uk.reuters.com/leagues/ ... 74608L.php

[Messinterista]

Siena had a big win over 4th placed Varese (5-0) just to prove that they deserve their spot in Serie A next year.

[RomaShield27]

So one round left in Serie B, Atalanta and Siena already promoted, the play-offs will be between four from Novara, Varese, Reggina, Padova and 5th place Torino. Torino have Padova at home, too, so can overtake them in the standings.

Fixtures: http://soccernet.espn.go.com/fixtures/_ ... an-serie-b

[Jocksboy]

Siena and Atalanta up to Serie A, playoffs for remaining promotion slot between Varese, Novara, Reggina and Padova.
Triestina, Portogruaro and Frosinone down. Play out for last remaining relegation between Albinoleffe and Piacenza.
Play off first round games this Thursday and Sunday. Playout games this saturday and next Saturday. All should be live on www.calcio.eu

[Bagg10]

Wednesday 1 June, 2011
Drinks spiked in betting scandal?


There are some bizarre allegations after 16 people, including Beppe Signori, were arrested in a betting scandal, including Inter-Lecce and drugged players.
This morning police swooped in several cities to break up what they claim is a betting ring that was involved in match-fixing, bribery, intimidation and even spiking drinks.

Former Lazio star Signori was named as the ‘ringleader’ by the court order and is now under house arrest, while others include Ascoli players Vincenzo Sommese and Vittorio Micolucci.

Atalanta captain Cristiano Doni is among those under investigation, but has not been arrested, while former Fiorentina midfielder Mauro Bressan and ex-Bari man Antonio Bellavista are also implicated.

The Cremona public prosecutors allege that at least 18 games between Serie A, B and Lega Pro were involved after examining unusual betting patterns.

According to the paperwork signed by prosecutor Guido Salvini, Signori is “the undisputed leader due to personal prestige in the Bologna area. He is involved in a betting ring on fixed games, placing €150,000 on the Serie A match Inter-Lecce.”

This is an interesting case, as the bets were for at least three goals in that Inter-Lecce game, but it ended 1-0 for the home side.

The result prompted alleged retaliatory attacks on those in the betting ring who had not done enough to ensure the fixture went as ‘planned.’

Brescia-Bologna on April 2 saw unusual betting patterns on a home victory, which emerged 3-1.

Another game pin-pointed was Atalanta’s Serie B 3-0 victory over Piacenza, which ended 3-0 on March 19. The prosecutors wrote that “Doni was one of those players who allegedly agreed the result with Piacenza defender Carlo Gervasoni. The second goal was a penalty from Gervasoni’s foul on Doni.”

It’s also alleged that both teams automatically promoted from Serie B this season, Siena and Atalanta, had games that were part of this betting ring’s focus.

Perhaps the most disturbing allegation is that Cremonese players had their drinks spiked ahead of the 2-0 victory over Paganese on November 14, 2010.

Several players and members of staff felt ill during and after the game, with some requiring hospital treatment. It’s alleged they were given sleeping draughts.

http://www.football-italia.net/jun1r.html

[Jocksboy]

Sorry, that should have been www.calcion.eu
The playoff semi-fianls are wide open after last night's first legs. Reggina and Novara fought out a goalless draw, while Padova gained a narrow 1-0 advantage over Varese. Second legs are on Sunday. The Albinoleffe - Piacenza relegation playout firts leg is on Saturday. All are live on Calcion.

[Jocksboy]

It's advantage AlbioLeffe in the relegation play-out after last night's first leg. 'Leffe battled to a hard fought 0-0 draw at Piacenza. Now they only need to draw the home match next Saturday to ensure safety. (In Italian play-oofs and play-outs, if the match is a draw overall the higher placed team in the league is adjudged the winner. A very sensible system in my opinion.)

[San Paolo]

and so Padova beat Varese in a thrilling 3-3 draw.

[Marco_Italia]

Hope Pandova make it to Serie A. Would love to see El Sharawwi in Serie A next season.

[maro]

People in Padova have got better things to do than going to watch football - like spending time in the Scrovegni Chapel, for instance.

[Italiamia]

[Jocksboy]

Saw the Varese - Padova game on Calcion - an absolute cracker. Padova meet Novara in the final. Novara and Reggina drew 2-2, another very watchable match - for a 2-2 aggregate, so Novara progress by having finished higher in the league.
El Sharawwi I think is owned by Genoa, who may recall him next season.

[RomaShield27]

– BY SCOT MUNROE ON JUNE - 9 - 2011

Sampdoria
It started off on a bit of a downer as they were eliminated by Werder Bremen in Extra time in the last qualifying round of the Champions League. Then in October it started to go all wrong for the club as the club president Ricardo Garrone and star man Antonio Cassano fell out over Cassano not going to an awards meal with Garrone. It all went downhill from there as Antonio Cassano was frozen out of the squad and then was sold to AC Milan for a pittance.
Also in January another top player of Sampdoria Giampaolo Pazzini was sold to Inter Milan for over £12m and he has flourished on the blue side of Milan. With that the replacements for the outgoing was very very poor in Massimo Maccarone and Federico Macheda. Macheda bombed at the club scoring one goal in a Coppa Italia game and Maccarone also failed with some very poor displays. The manager Domenico Di Carlo was sacked early in 2011 and he was replaced by Alberto Cavasin who was not a massive success and after the AC Milan game in April the players and the manager was attacked and had to have the Police help them out on the training ground.
What will happen for next season is that there will be an exodus of players as Reto Ziegler as already decided to jump ship to go to Juventus and the Co-Ownership deals of Fernando Tissone, Stefano Guberti, Daniele Mannini and Gianluca Curci are up for review and they could be returning to their parent club. One thing that could be a bright and shining light is that both Nicola Pozzi and Angelo Palombo stated that are willing to stay in Serie B and scrap it out.

Bari
After a really good first season after promotion Bari succumbed to the second season syndrome. After defeating Juventus 1-0 on the opening day of the season on a very sunny Sunday evening in August it went pear shaped. The big problem was the injury to star striker in Paulo Barreto who only played 13 games scoring 4 goals. The other problem was that Bari lost Leonardo Bonucci and Andrea Ranocchia and the club failed to find replacement for the two. With four rounds to go the club was mathematically and they went down with a whimper. Bari will lose 8 players straight away as the club had 8 players on loan and they will return to the parent club. Clubs will come sniffing around a few players including the keeper Jean Francois-Gillet, Salvatore Masiello and Andrea Masiello ET all. But one of the players that could be a star in Serie B next season is the hat-trick hero of Francesco Grandolfo who done a stellar job on the final day of the season. Bari could struggle next with their financial problems.

Brescia
The final of our relegation is Bresica and it was a sole season back in Serie A and it ended badly as they were relegated 10 months later. The table doesn’t lie and Brescia laid second bottom behind Bari and they have had a horrific season on returning. Brescia lost 20 out of the 38 and they looked all of a Serie B side they are now. Two players stood out for me and it was Alessandro Diamanti who on more than one occasion was the star man and excelled in Brescia shirt. A year earlier he had a one year stint in London at West Ham and i think that year in England as really helped his game. The other player in the giant of a target man which is Andrea Caracciolo who by far the best player and he scored some crucial goals but it came up in vein. He had the chance to leave in the January transfer window to go to England and join Fulham but he stayed and stuck it out. I could imagine that these two players could be on the way if Brescia gets inviting offers. As I write about this Shakhtar Donetsk are interested in Alessandro Diamanti and Brescia could have a fight on their hands to keep him.

[taz]

Sampdoria have appointed Gianluca Atzori as their new manager.