 15-01-07, 05:45 PM | #81 (permalink) |
| Used In Squad Rotation Join Date: Nov 2006 Posts: 366 Thanks: 74 Thanked 3 Times in 1 Post Nominated 0 Times in 0 Posts TOTW/F/M Award(s): 0 | 
 Empoli - Torino 4th of February 2007 Stadio Carlo Castellani, Empoli Italian Serie A 2006/2007 - Week 22     50'  Francecso Mariani - 26'  Alessandro Rosina, 45+3' Simone Barone
Two first-half goals were enough for Torino to beat Empoli who played all of the second half with ten men.
Lot's of first teamers returned from injuries and suspensions for the must win game at struggling Empoli. Massimo Taibi, Diego De Ascentis and Stefano Fiore were the only missing players, even Iacopo Balestri was back on bench after many months out.
Sergio Almiron created the first opportunity for the home side, bus his shot from nearly 30 meters wide of the far top corner he was aiming at.
Elvis Abbruscato, who got called up for Italy earlier this week, had his header bunched over by Zeljko Kalac as there hadn't been not much in the opening minutes.
It took the brilliance of Alessandro Rosina to open up the scoring. He found his way between two Torino defenders to send a fantastic angled shot over the goalkeeper into far post.
 Rosina scored one of Torino's best goals of the season
Buzzegoli headed Luca Saudati cross over the far post at the other end as Empoli enjoyed far more possession, but failed to get past the defence line of Granata.
And it paid costly, deep into the added time Torino were handed a corner which fell to Elvis Abbruscato after a clearence. Abbruscato sent the ball low into the unmarked Simone Barone in the middle of the box who then sent an unbeateable bomb into the top corner.
 Barone puts Torino comfortably ahead for half-time
At half-time Cedric Konan came in for Luis Figo and he immediately created some danger, but his soft shot was saved by Zeljko Kalac.
Just a minute after that Francesco Marianini was involved in a scramble with Roberto Stellone and he got sent off for kicking Torino's striker and it was set to be a walk in park for Torino after that.
After that Nikola Lazetic's fantastic effort from 45 meters was barely kept out by Kalac who was under small cross-fire.
Iacopo Balestri returned to Torino action with replacing Giuseppe Pancaro while Australian goalkeeper Kalac made another fantastic save on Simone Barone's powerful effort from the edge of the box.
Vitaly Denisov also got a a brief game time with replacing Nikola Lazetic for final minutes. Roberto Stellone's low shot was blocked on the line after a scramble in the box while Empoli's Fabio Moro scored miles over from the edge of the box.
The game ended 2-0 so Torino continues their incredible march on the second place with amazing run of results.
Torino: 28-Cristiano Lupatelli; 3-Gianluca Comotto, 2-Raffaele Schiavi, 25-Marco Di Loreto, 16-Giuseppe Pancaro; 5-Luis Figo, 8-Simone Barone , 17-Nikola Lazetic; 10-Alessandro Rosina ; 19-Elvis Abbruscato, 11-Roberto Stellone
Cautioned  : None
Other Results
Cagliari 2-2 Inter
Lazio 1-1 Ascoli
Livorno 0-1 Cagliari
Palermo 0-1 Roma
Parma 0-0 Udinese
Sampdoria 2-1 Atalanta
Siena 2-1 Reggina
Messina 0-0 Fiorentina
Milan 2-0 Catania |
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