We are now half way through the Serie A season and the main performance of the week 19 weekend was Roma’s 5-1 win over Cesena on Saturday evening. The Luis Enrique project now seems to be taking shape. Later that night Juventus won away at Atalanta and with that win were crowned winter champions. Inter Milan now have won eight games in a row in all competitions after beating Lazio 2-1 in the big Sunday night game.

Saturday 21st January
There were two games on Saturday evening/night; the first game of the weekend was Roma’s 5-1 demolition of lowly Cesena in the capital. Roma stormed into a 3-0 lead after eight minutes as Francesco Totti bagged two and Fabio Borini netted his second goal for the club. With the two goals Francesco Totti has now scored 211 goals for Roma breaking Gunnar Nordahl’s record of the 210 goals he scored for AC Milan. Eder scored a wonderful goal for Cesena, dinking the ball over the rushing Roma keeper Maarten Stekelenburg before slotting it into an empty net.  Juan and Miralem Pjanic added late goals for a Roma side who now seem to be comfortable with the Barcelona-inspired ideas of their boss, Enrique.

The second game was Juventus’s tricky away trip to Atalanta, a side who had only lost once at home all season. It took until the second half for Juventus to break the deadlock and it was the creative force of Andrea Pirlo that unlocked the home side’s defence. The former AC Milan playmaker swept in a lovely lofted pass to Stephan Lichtsteiner who was charging into the box at the far post to meet Pirlo’s pass and head the ball home from close range. Juventus added a second late on in the game in what was one of the goal’s of the week.  Coming on as a substitute, Luca Marrone played a lovely ball to Emanuele Giaccherini who volleyed home from the penalty spot with aplomb.

Sunday 22nd January
On Sunday at lunch time Bologna entertained Parma. Despite a promising start the game dissipated into a lacklustre affair that was anything but entertaining. It ended 0-0.

Cagliari and Fiorentina played out the other 0-0 draw of the round in a game that kicked off thirty minutes late as workers of a nearby aluminum plant decided to block off the roads nearby the stadium causing the two team buses to arrive late to the stadium.

Just four days after Milan beat Novara at the San Siro in the Coppa Italia, the two sides played each other again but this time on the artificial turf of Novara’s home ground. The champions secured the points thanks to a wonderful second half performance that saw Zlatan Ibrahimovic find the net twice outside of a Robinho tap-in. Ibrahimovic got the ball running for the away side just before the hour mark after Massimo Ambrosini’s delightful chip into the area found the Swede alone in front of goal and the recently awarded Best Serie A player of 2011 does not miss from there.  Stephan El-Shaarawy then crossed in for Robinho who scored from close range before Ibrahimovic added gloss to the score line with a cheeky back heeled finis late on.

Napoli’s indifferent form continued as they struggled away at Siena. Former Napoli striker Emanuele Calaio showed class by not celebrating his goal that put the Tuscans ahead. Napoli were awarded a penalty ten minutes from time after Lavezzi was fouled in the area by Gataeno D’Agostino. But, Edinson Cavani fluffed his lines from the spot as he shot was saved by then had his penalty saved. But with time ticking by Goran Pandev headed home brilliantly to give Napoli the spoils.

Udinese remained unbeaten at home as they overcame Catania 2-1. Pablo Armero, who has been in great form this season opening the scoring following a swift counter attack by the Zebrette. Inevitably, captain Antonio Di Natale got himself on the scoresheet with a fantastic volley. Francesco Lodi got a late consolation from the penalty spot for the visitors.

Lecce fought back from two goals down at home to Chievo to steal a point thanks to a late David Di Michele goal. Chievo raced into a two- goal after Milan-owned Alberto Paloschi found the net twice in the first 25 minutes of the encounter. His second was one to savour; a brilliant lob over Lecce ‘keeper Massimiliano Benassi. Andrea Esposito pulled one back soon after to level mattters. It took until the last minute of play for the Southerners to find the equaliser and it came courtesy of David Di Michele.

There was an eight-goal thriller between Palermo and Genoa in Sicily as Bertolo Mutti earned his first win since taking over the Rosanero with a 5-3 victory. Rodrigo Palacio opened the scoring for the away side before Palermo hit back with three quick goals thanks to Igor Budan, Matias Silvestre and Andrea Mantovani. Rodrigo Palacio pulled his side back into the contest after scoring from the penalty spot just before the hour. Put Palermo showed real determination by scoring two goals in nine minutes that effectively sealed all three points for the home side. Bosko Jankovic got a consolation in the eight goal thriller.

The Sunday night game pitted Inter Milan, who had won their last seven games in all competitions, against a well organised Lazio side. Lazio took the lead when Chrisitian Ledesma played a defence splitting ball to Tomaso Rocchi whose angled drive beat Julio Cesar. But before half time Inter rallied and got the equaliser as a lovely one-two between Ricardo Alvarez and Diego Milito sent il principe in on goal and he made no mistake as he slotted the ball into the bottom right corner.  Inter got the winner in the second half after some poor Lazio defended allowed Giampaolo Pazzini to pounce on a loose ball and lob it over the retreating Federico Marchetti. The last twenty minutes proved a rather scrappy affair and it was not helped by the poor San Siro pitch.  With this win Inter took their winning streak to eight games in all competitions and have now firmly put themselves back into the race for a Champions League spot.