On Sunday morning, three cities represented the top four in Serie A: Turin, Rome, and Genoa. Juventus wore the colors of Turin, as the veteran champions. Upstart challengers Roma, waved the flag for the capital. The rival duo of Genoa and Sampdoria, something of dark-horse dilettantes, tag-teamed in the name of Liguria.
All clashed in this four-city lalapalooza. When the dust settled, only one emerged victorious. Did Juventus once more defend their title or did Roma upset the odds? Did the Ligurian duo sneak a win or instead implode under the weight of their tenuous entente cordiale? The tale of this Sunday’s Serie A battle royale to follow.
Juventus entered the ring with the confidence of the champions. Roma leered across to them, anticipating a chance to pounce on any potential slip-up. Genoa and Sampdoria had nothing to lose… expect perhaps for the humiliation of being beaten worse than the other. The 90-minuted time limit was set. The referee signaled for the ringing of the bell. The battle was on.
Juventus got the hostilities going early — just four minutes into the bout — with their tried-and-tested Apache Forehand Chop, as Carlos Tevez unleashed the first strike. Sampdoria blocked well however, catching the blow and Roma’s attention as well. Genoa took advantage of their opponents’ moment of distraction with a sneak attack that Roma only just blocked. Shocked into action by the affront, Roma soon regained the initiative to unleash a flurry of blows onto Genoa who were quickly pinned back.
Roma let forth a three-minute barrage of flying blows starting on 14 minutes, as Radja Nainggolan, Gervinho, Miralem Pjanic and Alessandro Florenzi’s strikes were all blocked, parried and finally evaded by Genoa. Roma’s sudden aggressiveness was not all due to the earlier sucker-punch from Genoa however. Only two minutes prior, Juventus had already floored their opponents.
Juventus has since drawn Sampdoria into close-combat, going on the offensive with a series of headbutts. The Trapping Headbutts tactic finally paid off on 12 minutes as Patrice Evra flew into the air to nod in the first decisive blow. Sampdoria was shellshocked as Genoa gleefully snickered at the sight of their hated rivals on the canvas. Evra had struggled since his arrival in Turin, but on the day rose to the occasion to score an important opening goal in a big match
Roma upped the tempo against Genoa who were on the ropes. Roma wound up a haymaker to break their opponents’ guard, and Genoa — trapped in the corner with nowhere else to run — pulled a Low Blow to stop the motion. The referee caught it however, which saw Mattia Perin given his marching orders on 29 minutes. Ljajic stepped up to deliver the penalty, but only for Genoa to pull another miraculous save. Perin has been so key to Genoa’s stubborn defence this year, that losing him would have represented a tough body-blow. Eugenio Lamanna didn’t read the script however, and offered Genoa a priceless lifeline.
The battle raged on with Roma and Juventus dominating their respective opponents. Roma finally landed a decisive blow on 40 minutes with a Leg Sweep from Nainggolan. The bell for the end of the first round sounded, with both Juventus and Roma in the lead. Juventus still looked confident, and Roma still looked to press on. Much of the issues of Roma this year have been their inability to take advantage of Juventus slipping up. They showed no intention on repeating the mistake on Sunday however.
The much-awaited glimmer of hope finally shone through in the second round, on 51 minutes. Sampdoria charged at their opponents and delivered a resounding Leg Lariat through Manolo Gabbiadini that toppled the champions onto the mat. Roma glimpsed at the felled champions and immediately resumed their onslaught in order to assure their victory. Genoa held on as best they could, trying their best to minimize any further humiliation in front of their cross-town rivals. The blow buoyed Sampdoria on the other hand, who went toe-to-toe with the champions.
Roma pressed on and so did Juventus. In the end, Juventus were unable to regain the ascendancy. As for Roma, Genoa gave them one last scare with a close-range headbutt from Tomas Rincon on 93 minutes. The referee flagged it off however… Roma: saved by the bell.
When all was said and done, Roma emerged victorious on Sunday. Although Juventus still had their hands firmly on the belt, Roma had edged that much closer to grab onto it. As for Sampdoria, they proved they were more than upstarts and showed the resilience that has made them such popular underdogs this year. And for the losers of the night, Genoa unfortunately proved that the fate of their success will be heavily tied to Perin’s presence.
* All moves mentioned represent the official naming as per professional World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE)
** No players were harmed in the writing of this feature… well, except for Arturo Vidal
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWX7y1VETyU[/youtube]
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