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"Jose Mourinho - One Medal Already"

Jose's Back! - In Serie A

The 2008/09 Serie A season is still to kick off but the first silverware has already been won by Inter Milan ensuring Jose Mourinho has already picked up a winners medal in Italy.

The Supercoppa Italia has been a pre-season tradition since 1998 and the game pits the winners of last season’s league and domestic cup against each other and the 2008 match had a familiar feel to it. 2006, 2007 and now 2008 has witnessed Inter Milan face off against Roma at the San Siro and before this season’s opener, the score after the last two years stood at 1.1

Clearly something had to give but it took a long time to separate these two sides with the tie eventually being decided by a penalty shoot-out.

The match finished 2-2 at the end of 90 minutes with both sides scoring in the final ten minutes of a pulsating encounter. Sulley Muntari got his Inter career off to a perfect start by scoring the opening goal on 19 minutes and Inter held this lead at half time.

On the hour mark, De Rossi put aside his tragic summer to haul Roma level until Inter took the lead with 7 minutes remaining. Mario Balotelli looked to have scored the goal that would clinch victory for the home side but Roma snatched a last gasp equaliser when Mirko Vucinic levelled things once again.

No further goals were scored in extra time and a penalty shootout was required to find a winner in the Italian Super Cup for the first time since 2003. On that occasion, the game was held in America so this was the first Italian based Italian Super Cup penalty shoot out since 1994 when AC Milan defeated Sampdoria.

Serie A Finally Gets Underway
Serious league action begins on Saturday 30th August with four teams playing and hoping to lay down an impressive marker for the season ahead. Serie A gets underway with a match with the match between Udinese and Palermo. The home side will be looking to maintain the fine form of last season which saw them qualify for a Uefa Cup place whereas their opponents finished in mid table. This match may not be the one that will have the purists drooling at the mouth but they do not have long to wait for the champions to get into action.

The Saturday evening kick off sees Inter travel to Sampdoria where Jose Mourinho will manage in Serie A for the first time against a team who, like Udinese, finished in the Uefa Cup qualifying places last season. There are not too many easy games in the top flight of Italian football but no doubt the “Special One” would have been wishing for a simpler start to his Italian career than a trip to the Stadio Luigi Ferraris. Although there will be real pressure applied to Mourinho to bring some tangible European success to Internazionale, the fact that the club are three time consecutive champions of Serie A will ensure the Portuguese manager will not be willing to give up domestic dominance lightly.

Shevy's Chase for Milan Glory
Although there have not been an abundance of big money moves that have caught the attention of too many people so far in Italy, it appears as though Andriy Shevchenko has finally completed his much talked about move back to AC Milan. Virtually ever since he moved to Chelsea there has been talk of a possible return to AC and the Ukrainian striker never really appeared settled in England.

Whether he will be able to re-ignite his form now he is back in Italy remains to be seen but hopes are high that the talisman like forward may play a large part in firing AC Milan back to glory after a disappointing 2007/08 season. The home match versus Bologna on Sunday 31st of August may be too soon for the forward to make his second debut for the club but if things are not going the way of the home team, he may be pitched into action. Another possible debutant for AC Milan is Ronaldinho but a lot may depend on whether the Brazilian is deemed fit after returning from the Olympics.

Ronnie may still be carrying some excess weight but he will be packing a Bronze medal from the Olympics after his team were mercilessly outgunned by Argentina 3-0 in the semi final. The fact that Argentina went on to win a narrow final 1-0 over Nigeria will not have eased the pain any and there will be many eyes on Ronaldinho to see if he has the desire to play at the top level anymore.

Possible Champions League Entrants Go Head to Head
Another major match of the day sees Italy’s two Champions League qualifiers facing each other. Fiorentina play host to Juventus a few days after both clubs will have determined their European campaign for the season ahead. It has to be said that things look good for both Italian clubs entering the second leg of the third round qualifier and it may be their toughest task this week is sitting through the qualifying round draw for the group stages.

It would take a miracle or disaster depending on your viewpoint to prevent Juventus from entering the Champions League group stages as they hold a four goal lead heading into the return tie against Artmedia Bratislava. Fiorentina are not so comfortable but a 2-0 victory in the first leg over Slavia Prague should be enough to see the Italians through into the group stages. If they both hold out as expected, they will join Inter Milan and Roma in the lucrative group stages of Europe’s premier football competition.

Tricky ties For New Teams
The three clubs promoted to Serie A this season are Chievo Verona, Bologna and Lecce and these teams all have tricky returns to the top flight. Bologna will be heading to the San Siro to face Milan whilst Lecce are facing a trip to Torino. Only Chievo Verona have a home tie to start off and Reggina provide the opposition on their return to top flight Italian football. Reggina finished just the four points above the relegation zone in the 2007/08 season so Chievo Verona may be viewing this as a perfect opportunity to get some early points on board.

International Break Stops League Action
It will be a stop start to the Italian league season with the international break meaning the next round of fixtures does not occur until Sunday 14th of September. With this gap in mind, most clubs will be extremely keen to get off to a winning start and give their supporters something positive before international football kicks in.

There may not be the same amount of goals that welcomed the return of the Bundesliga but most football fans around the world will be delighted to see the return of top flight football in Italy.

for The Silver Circle at www.footballtip.co.uk

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