Effects of UEFA ruling on Marassi crowd trouble

When the 2012 Euro Championship group draw was made in Warsaw in February, football pundits in Italy immediately marked the home match against Serbia as the hardest test for the Azzurri in the opening phase of the qualifying campaign.

The task looked difficult as coach Cesare Prandelli is still in the process of establishing his roots at the helm of the team. However, we all know what happened on October 12 when Italy was scheduled to host Serbia at the Marassi stadium for the clash between the two strongest teams in Group C.

The match was called off after only a few minutes because of incidents at the stand occupied by the away fans. The Serbs went on the rampage and several police officers were injured as they sought to restore calm in and outside the stadium in Genoa.

Last week, UEFA awarded Italy a 3-0 win, propelling Prandelli’s team to the top of the standings with 10 points from four matches.

The incidents should never have happened and the host nation was also fined by UEFA for failing to stem the trouble.

If any proof was ever needed, the incidents, particularly those prior to kick-off, demonstrated that Italian grounds leave much to be desired where safety is concerned and vindicates UEFA’s decision not to assign Euro 2012 and 2016 hosting rights to the FIGC.

All clouds have a silver lining though and, in the end, Prandelli and his men had cleared a very difficult obstacle without breaking a sweat on the field of play.

Considered to be Italy’s biggest challengers to top the group, Serbia were off to a disastrous start in these qualifiers in summer.

So much so, that in their first three outings, Serbia could only manage four points – a 3-0 away win vs Faroe Islands and a 1-1 home draw with current runners-up Slovenia. Four days before the trip to Genoa, Serbia were agonisingly beaten by minnows Estonia, 1-3 on home soil.

Even though there is still much to play for and anything can happen, Serbia look to be already out of the race.

Italy and Serbia will not meet again before October 2011 and, as things stand, Slovenia look set to become the Azzurri’s main pursuers in Group C. Like Italy, Slovenia have played four games, winning two and drawing one.

Slovenia suffered their only defeat at home to Northern Ireland on September 3 (0-1).

They will host Italy on March 25 and the return match is scheduled for September 6. In between, the Azzurri have two winnable fixtures – at home to Estonia and away to Faroe Islands.

Barring any surprise results, a draw in Slovenia could be enough for Italy to finish first, irrespective of the score in Belgrade next year.

In Friday’s verdict by UEFA, one feels that justice was done. At the same time, however, the 3-0 win by default will not help Prandelli in his plans to assemble a formidable squad as Italy could very likely qualify without having crossed swords with serious opposition.

In the short term, qualification to the finals will boost Il Calcio in no small way following the 2010 World Cup debacle but things might not be all too rosy for the Azzurri when they lock horns with the heavyweights in Europe in less than two years’ time.

The home and away fixtures against Serbia, in particular, were Prandelli’s ideal yardsticks to measure the progress the team was registering under his charge.

Serie A statistics

1st win for Lazio at Palermo’s Renzo Barbera stadium since January 2007 (3-0) as on Sunday an Andre Dias goal was enough for the leaders to record their fifth straight win. Overall, Edy Reja’s side are undefeated in their last eight outings (seven wins and one draw). Cagliari also ended a six-match winless run with a 2-0 home success over Bologna.

2 second-half goals ena-bled Roma to beat Lecce for the ninth time in their last 10 meetings at the Stadio Olimpico. The only time in that particular period that Lecce left the capital undefeated was in September 2004 (2-2). Lecce have only one point to show from their first five away fixtures.

3rd away win for Inter, who became the second side (after Chievo on the second day) to conquer Genoa’s Luigi Ferraris stadium so far this season. Victory also helped the champions extend their positive streak to four games (two wins and two draws). This was also Inter’s third straight away win against Genoa. In fact, Friday’s result confirmed Genoa’s truly dire home record against Inter. They have not beaten the nerazzurri since the 2-1 success of November 1994.

4th win on the trot for Udinese who scored a goal in each half to hand Bari a fourth straight defeat. Overall, Francesco Guidolin’s side are undefeated in their last five outings. Napoli left it late to hand Brescia a fifth straight defeat in Serie A. Victory was Napoli’s third away from home this season. Napoli and Sampdoria are the only two top division sides still unbeaten on the road.

5 years had to pass for Juventus to beat Milan away as on Saturday night the injury-ravaged bianconeri recorded their second win on the road – the first since their 4-0 thrashing of Udinese on the third day. Defeat was Milan’s first after four straight wins and an overall six-match positive run.

7 of the 27 penalties taken so far this season went off target. Last weekend, Paulo Barreto saw his spot-kick blocked by Udinese goalkeeper Samir Handanovic. Meanwhile, no fewer than five players received their marching orders – Giuseppe Biava (Lazio), Blerim Dzemaili (Parma), Gelson Fernandes (Chievo), Fran-cesco Totti (Roma) and Ruben Olivera (Lecce).

13 goals were scored on the ninth day. There were two home wins and two goalless draws. Four goals were scored before the break while foreign players contributed with 10 goals. Total number of goals scored so far is 202. Sulley Muntari (Inter) was the only player who started the game on the subs’ bench last weekend and scored a goal.