Pazzini Pinches

Giampaolo Pazzini

Sampdoria 1 Milan 1

Many Italian pundits are of the belief that Giampaolo Pazzini is currently the best Italian striker in the world. And not many look beyond the fact that he needs Cassano to maintain that tag. Cassano's spat with Garrone has seen him sit out of first team football, leaving the responsibility to score and even create at the feet of Pazzini. The hitman took his time to take up this responsibility but now is duly performing. After scoring a hatrick recently, he was up to the task of proving to his boss that he can sting the net against the big boys. Unfortunately for us, he did.

Robinho has been getting better and better with time. Some whispers have begun to suggest that he has won over Pato's place in the first team and also Allegri's conviction. His movement was fantastic but now he is even finding the back of the net. The Ibrahimovic-R70 partnership is getting harder for the defenses in Italy to handle. The neutral might have had a difficulty deciding which was the home team with Milan dominating the possession and the chances. Sampdoria saw little of the ball, 37% to be precise and defended deep allowing Milan to pass the ball around to their convenience. Sampdoria recklessly tackled on the edge of the box a few times giving Milan several gilt edged opportunities. But the absence of Pirlo rendered these situations ineffective. To add to their misery, Sampdoria's best midfielder, Angelo Palombo was having a horrid night in the middle of the park. Milan's now dynamic midfield of three were running all over Sampdoria's middle men but the wide-men of the home-side relished the space they found. Zambrotta's aging legs couldn't keep up with the pace on the flanks but Abate settled in admirably. Seedorf had an off night but given his splendid outings in recent weeks, this show of incompetency can be gladly pardoned. Allegri left it late with his substitutions, again. This is an area of his management that I absolutely dislike. He constantly seems to forget that game is a 90 minute affair and not a 180 minute two-legged tie.

This blip can be overlooked purely due to the fact that we have been winning games that should have been draws given Pato and Inzaghi's absences. However, we need to get back on the winning road. Brescia next and we must quite simply make our moments count. Against Sampdoria, we had sufficient chances to win 3 games, yet we scored only once. This result should urge Milan to thrash Brescia and continue this run of form. That being said, against the smaller teams in Italy, it's easier said than done.

Sampdoria - Pazzini 59'

Milan - Robinho 43'