 17-01-07, 07:29 PM | #83 (permalink) |
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 Torino - Lazio 10th of February 2007 Stadio Olimpico, Turin Italian Serie A 2006/2007 - Week 23     23'  Elvis Abbruscato, 85' Elvis Abbruscato - 34' Tomasso Rocchi
Elvis Abbruscato had another stellar display in the Torino sheet as his double got Granata another victory that put them 5 points clear of second placed Milan!
Torino didn't have much problems, with just Stefano Fiore staying out of the game as Masashi Oguro made a quick survey from a flu got earlier this week to make it to the bench.
Game started with Lazio pressure and Goran Pandev hit the bar just one minute into it as he had already beated Cristiano Lupatelli with his 25 meter volley. From the following corner kick Lupo catched a Pasquale Foggia central shot.
Pandev again threated but this time his shot even further away from goal was easily pushed wide by Lupatelli.
Torino was starting to eat themselves into the midfield more and more and Luis Figo long range free-kick hit the sidenet, but Angelo Peruzzi had it under control.
Breakthrough game in the 23rd minute though, Nikola Lazetic got an assist over a long time after a brilliant break through into the box to put it up for Elvis Abbruscato who obviously headed it in the near post.
 Abbruscato opens scoring
After that both teams took some time to get used to the new pace, but for the final ten or so minutes things livened up. First Rocchi lobbed the ball past an empty goal from nearly 50 meters, but then Lazio got the equalizer.
From the following goal-kick Abbruscato mishit his header into the path of Borja Oubina who set through Tomasso Rocchi one on one to comfortably send the ball under the hand of Lupatelli into the net.
Christian Ledesma long range volley was saved while Luis Figo's free-kick didn't cause much problems at the other end.
Though Simone Barone curled a powerful effort from 30 meters which was tiped away by Peruzzi for a brilliant save and the same guy hit the bar from that distance again and Abbruscato incredibly couldn't head the ball that bounced back into the empty goal.
Both teams got another chance, but goalkeepers were on their toes and it remained 1:1.
At half-time rather average Luis Figo was replaced with Iacopo Balestri.
The second half wasn't much of a show, Lupatelli made a great save on Valon Behrami low shot in the box. Tursk tried to refresh his luck with bringing in Cedric Konan for Roberto Stellone to add pace to the attack.
It paid off, though a little bit later than planned. Cedric Konan was the guy who headed through Elvis Abbruscato like a through targetman in a brilliant counter attack as Abbruscato chiped the ball over outrushing Angelo Peruzzi into the back post.
 Abbruscato scores another double
The final minutes didn't bring much joy, though if Konan would've not been made a brilliant tackle on he would've probably set up an empty net for Abbruscato for a hattrick.
With the victory Torino even secured the 2nd place as many important contenders had surprise results. Marco Di Loreto was Sky Italia's surprising man of the match.
Torino: 28-Cristiano Lupatelli; 3-Gianluca Comotto, 2-Raffaele Schiavi, 25-Marco Di Loreto, 16-Giuseppe Pancaro; 5-Luis Figo (45' 22-Iacopo Balestri), 8-Simone Barone, 17-Nikola Lazetic; 10-Alessandro Rosina; 19-Elvis Abbruscato , 11-Roberto Stellone (68' 24-Cedric Konan)
Cautioned  : 67' Simone Barone, 76' Nikola Lazetic
Other Results
Atalanta 3-1 Empoli
Inter 4-1 Palermo
Ascoli 1-0 Milan
Cagliari 0-1 Sampdoria
Catania 0-3 Chievo
Reggina 0-0 Livorno
Roma 1-1 Parma
Udinese 3-0 Messina
Fiorentina 2-0 Siena
Torino Position: 2nd |
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