By Scott Balaam (twitter @footiefun)
Results over the weekend in Italy mean Milan are closing in on the Scudetto after beating rivals Napoli.
Could Milan end their drought?
With 11 games to play, Milan are five points ahead of city rivals Inter – on the 3rd of April the two teams meet with the league leaders at home.
Having suffered a Scudetto drought since the 2003/04 season when Andriy Shevchenko led the line and finished with 24 goals that could all change this season.
With their new look team, they have a lot of attacking prowess with Zlatan Ibrahimovic on loan from Barcelona, Brazilian Alexandre Pato, ex-Manchester City player Robinho plus they signed Antonio Cassano in January and they still have veteran Filippo Inzaghi on their books.
Last night Milan took on Scudetto rivals Napoli, after a tight first half Ibrahimovc scored from the spot at the start of the second half before substitute Kevin-Prince Boateng made it 2-0 before Pato made it three with an excellent finish from outside the box.
The result means Napoli stay in third and are six points behind Milan but the Neapolitans are in an excellent position to qualify for the Champions League.
Best of the Rest …
The most impressive result saw Udinese hammer Palermo 7-0, yes SEVEN as the videprinter would have displayed. Highly rated Chilean Alexis Sanchez showed why Udinese’s President was right not to sell him in January as he scored four and Antonio Di Natale got a hat-trick. The result has seen ex-Lazio boss Delio Rossi sacked and replaced with Serse Cosmi.
Vincenzo Montella took charge of Roma for the first time; they found themselves 2-0 up against Parma on home soil but once again failed to hold onto their lead when Amauri scored twice to give the away side a point.
Inter moved into second place with a 2-0 win over Sampdoria courtesy of second-half goals from Wesley Sneijder and Samuel Eto’o – Leonardo has done an excellent job since taking over from Rafa Benitez but it will be hard to catch their city rivals. Bologna shocked everyone as they beat Juventus 2-0 in Turin thanks to two Marco Di Vaio goals against his old club – The result means if Juve lose to league leaders Milan on Saturday head coach Luigi Delneri could be sacked.