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Serie A - Euro Bites - July 26

MILAN DERBY SETTLED BY A STUNNER

The cross-town rivalry of the two teams of the city of Milan, Inter Milan and AC Milan, was played out for the first time this season on Friday in Shenzhen, China with a pre-season friendly in the International Champions Cup. It was AC Milan who won the game 1-0 with a spectacular finish from Philippe Mexes. Millions of Milan fans around the world were impressed by the technical prowess and speed of their new forward, the Colombian Carlos Bacca. Inter’s performance, on the other hand, was less impressive with Roberto Mancini playing his younger players and keeping his stars on the bench for most of the match. Although it was not a memorable one, it was an authentic derby with numerous yellow cards and the dismissal of AC Milan’s Antonio Nocerino and offered an appetiser for the season ahead.

JUVENTUS BACK ON THE FIELD

Juventus inaugurated their new season on Saturday with a friendly match against Borussia Dortmund in San Gallo, Switzerland. Just 50 days after their Champions League Final defeat to Barcelona in Berlin, Juventus played without Carlos Tevez, Andrea Pirlo and Arturo Vidal, three superstars who were sold this summer. New acquisitions Paulo Dybala, Mario Mandzukic, Neto, Daniele Rugani and Simone Zaza made their debuts with the black and white Juventus jersey. In the first half, Borussia Dortmund dominated and held the lead thanks to a 40th minute goal from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. The match finished 2-0 with Marco Reus sealing the victory for Dortmund. Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri commented that “it’s never fun to lose, but we’ve been training for only few days. This match was good training for us.”

WORLD CUP 2018 DRAW

In the draw for qualifying games for Russia’s World Cup in 2018, Italy landed in Group G with Spain, Albania, Israel, Macedonia, and Lichtenstein. The Spanish team is undoubtedly the most threatening one in the group despite their disappointing performance in the last 2014 World Cup when defending champions. Only the winning team of each group will qualify directly for the World Cup. The best eight teams finishing in the second placed spots in their groups will go into playoffs with the four winning teams advancing to the finals in Russia in 2018. After the draw in St. Petersburg on Saturday, Italy’s coach Antonio Conte observed: “To come up against a strong opponent like Spain represents an important challenge for the team. Our main priority now though is qualifying for Euro 2016.”

AS ROMA IN INDONESIA

Almost 90,000 spectators watched AS Roma play a “family friendly” in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Saturday. Roma coach Rudi Garcia divided his players in a “White” team and a “Red” team as they played against each other in two 40-minute halves. Seydou Keita gave spectators a thrill with his goal, which was followed by Francesco Totti’s penalty kick and Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa’s header. Garcia is focused not only on training, but also on potential acquisitions. At the moment, the only newcomers are striker Iago Falque and goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny - something causing fans concern with the season less than a month away.

VIOLENCE ERUPTS AT FRIENDLY

A case of violence between fans occurred on Wednesday near Bolzano, where a friendly match between Bologna and Spezia was about to begin. Sadly, the bloody fight took place in the Bologna Fan Village, an area near the pitch that had been set up with children’s games. Although there were no casualties, children and other fans looked on as Bologna and Spezia supporters battled in another episode of violence in Italian football.

HIGH-TECH DRONE BECOMES NEW MEMBER TO THE TEAM

In the past, professions in football included coaches and players. In recent years, though, new football-related jobs have come to include strategists, nutritionists, psychologists and massage therapists. And this year at SSC Napoli and Inter Milan, a high-tech drone has come to be part of the staff. Used exclusively in training and friendly matches, the drones take videos from above and enable coaches to study positions and movements of the players, particularly in defence. The drone used by the Napoli team has a software programme capable of recognising each individual player and following him on the field. The new member of Napoli’s “staff”, however, isn’t perfect. Because of technical problems, the drone couldn’t fly at a recent training session and instead had to pay a visit to the team’s “doctor”.