Hello everybody! And to start, as usual, a little about transfers. Italian clubs in the winter transfer window are not yet very active, and most of the transitions in Serie A are leases of players, but there were also transitions on an ongoing basis.
So, for example, the composition of Lazio was replenished by Martin Caceres, who had previously played in Verona for the past six months.
Inter strengthened defender Benfica Lisandro Lopez, although the player was leased by the Milan club, but with the right to buy.
Benevento, after "not quite successfully" spent the first half of the season decided to purchase as far as possible. The composition of the "witches" was replenished: Maribor's central defender Jean-Claude Billong, forward Osmanlispor Cheick Diabate, and also attacking midfielder Legia Marques Guilherme.
Napoli in the near future is likely to part with his defender Nikolai Maksimovich. 26-year-old football player interested in Moscow Spartak and is ready to pay for the player about €15 million.
This is the main ongoing and possible transfers, of course this is not all, but too little-known these names. And now we turn to the review of the upcoming tour.
Already this weekend from the release of the Italian Serie A. The next tour in Italy will begin on Sunday 21 January and most of the matches will be held on this day, only one match will be delivered on Monday. Also on January 24 will be the postponed matches of the 3rd and 12th rounds: Sampdoria Roma and Lazio Udinese, respectively.
So, about everything in order.
All attention in this round will certainly be attracted to the Inter-Roma match. Both teams in the last rounds surrendered their positions. December made adjustments to the alignment of forces in the Top-6 Series A. Inter, which shone the first half of the season and at some point even broke out on the first line, is now 8 points behind Juventus, going second, moreover, performing unsuccessfully in this round Nerazzurri can immediately roll back to the 4th, and even the fifth position, because the teams behind the game in reserve. Roma had problems during the first round of the championship, for the most part this was due to the participation of the team in the Champions League, but until December the team stuck to the fourth place in the table. And only in the last rounds of the neighbors moved the Romans to the fifth place.
Match the first round, held at the Stadio Olimpico Roma lost with a score of 1-3 and then the Romans summed up the implementation of the moments, strikes at the gate Handanovich "wolves" dealt a lot (18 if accurate), but only three of them hit the target and only from they turned out to be scoring. In the second half, Roma missed the victory, double Mauro Icardi and goal Matthias Falero eventually brought three points to Inter.
Before leaving for the break Inter looked terrible: three points in five games, defeats from Udinese and Sassuolo and only two goals scored. Roma scored five points in the last five matches, the problems with the implementation of the moments are still unresolved. It is difficult to say in what form they will leave the team's vacation, but it is absolutely certain that both will desperately fight for points.
Among the other matches, the meeting of Sampdoria and Fiorentina deserves attention. Fifth place is now far out of reach and for the second place in the European League are now fighting at once six teams. Defeat in this match can throw both one and the other team right into the middle of the standings, and perhaps Fiorentina looks preferable in this confrontation. Sampdoria in the last five matches scored four points, beating only SPAL and sharing points with Cagliari. Well, the last match in Benevento is probably remembered with "aspiration", when even "witches" will beat the team from the Top-6. "Violets" have not lost since November 5th, but most of the matches were drawn, but given the fact that teams such as Napoli, Lazio, Inter Milan could not take three points from them, on this tour we believe in Fiorentina's success .
And for sure it will be interesting to watch the match Atalanta - Napoli. Napoli in the last five games lost two points only in a match with Fiorentina, and the defeat of Juve is still the only Neapolitans. Atalanta, having solved the problem in the Europa League with all responsibility took up the set of points in the championship, and stumbled in the last five rounds only once, in a match against Cagliari. Napoli in this confrontation is an unconditional favorite, but Atalanta may snarl in front of her tribunes.
And now a little about the past matches.
Lazio-Udinese. Lazio until very well went in Serie A, literally "stepping on his heels" to his neighbor. But after losing the "Roman derby" things in Lazio went to a decline, whether it is guilty in this refereeing or the team just began to get tired of the game "on two fronts" hard to say. Now the business of the team seems to be gradually improving, the rival in this round of "eagles" is not too serious, but nerves can tickle. Udinese rival is now much more serious, already six rounds in a row going without defeats. The confrontation will be interesting.
And, also we are confronted by the opposition of Sampdoria and Roma. Confrontation, which will continue in the next, the 22nd round of the Serie A. Sampdoria will have a difficult fight for the sixth line in the championship and the right to play in the European competition next season. For this place, as I already wrote above, there is a serious struggle. Roma, so far has a small gap from the sixth place and may not be afraid to drop below the fifth line, but if the Romans want to play in the Champions League next season in the next three matches they need to score points. I already wrote about the game form of these teams above. I will only add that Sampdoria is losing very little at home, and in this match it is quite possible to take away points from the Romans.
So, the upcoming tour can make serious adjustments to the placement of teams in the standings. Basically the whole fight will be concentrated from the third to the fifth and from the sixth to the eleventh place, here the teams share some two or three points. The second half of the standings looks relatively calmer: Udinese going to 11th place in four points of separation from 12th place, 13-16 places are far behind, the relegation zone is already in five points of separation and four teams pretending to be downgraded in the class try to score a few saving points.