Parma-Inter, an underserved loss after a great performance

By: Francesco | January 21st, 2008

Parma went to the San Siro to take on league leaders Inter, and played a great match, definitely the best of the season so far for the Gialloblu’. However other factors led to the demise of the Gialloblu’. More on the controversial game after the jump.

Let’s start with the highlights:

Parma were in their commemorative jerseys to celebrate the 1 year anniversary of Tommaso Ghirardi taking charge of the club. Di Carlo decided to confront Inter with a 4-4-1-1, with Bucci in goal; Coly, Couto, Marco Rossi, and Zenoni at the back; Reginaldo, Morrone, Cigarini, and Castellini in midfield; and Andrea Pisanu supporting Bernardo Corradi.

As we saw in the highlights, Parma played a great game. If they played like this week in and week out the Gialloblu’ would be in the UEFA Cup zone. Parma did really well to press Inter and close the spaces, which limited their play. Couto was a rock at the back, and Marco Rossi looked like Alessandro Nesta at times. We lost Coly in the 17th minute after the hard tackle with Materazzi, which meant Daniele Dessena was put on, Zenoni was moved to right back, Castellini was moved to left-back, and the midfield was Dessena-Cigarini-Morrone, with Reginaldo moving up to support Corradi with Pisanu.

The first controversial moment was the clear foul on Corradi in the box by Cordoba. The ball the was played in, and Cordoba clearly pushed down the big striker. After numerous replays, it was clearly a penalty.

Than came the Inter goal. Off of a corner kick, the ball came out to the top of the box where Cigarini was slow to anticipate Cambiasso, who came in and slammed the ball home. Parma did well not to get discouraged and went on the attack.

Reginaldo went down the right wing and played the ball across the box to an onrushing Cigarini, who made up for his error and with great calm placed the ball past Julio Cesar in the bottom right corner of the net. That was Cigarini’s 1st goal of the season, 2nd overall in Serie A, and his stock will certainly rise even more with that strike.

The half ended 1-1, which was good for the Gialloblu’.

In the second, Inter fell asleep and Parma dominated the half. Probably the most frustrating moment was when Reginaldo, who had a great game, went on the counter-attack and 3 players were open around him, yet he refused to pass and the ball was taken away. That was a golden opportunity.

Andrea Gasbarroni then came on for the Brazilian winger, to add a little more creativity up front. On a corner kick Fernando Couto rose up and got his head to the ball, but it hit the inside of the post and then was cleared off the line by Cesar.

Materazzi then fouled Corradi near the edge of the box, just a few yards away from the sideline. Gasbarroni stood over the ball, and with great courage decided to have a go at the near post, and curled a superb shot into the near post, with Julio Cesar getting a hand on it.

Parma defended the 2-1 lead with aplomb, neutralizing Ibrahimovic and handling all Inter attacks. Cristiano Lucarelli came in for Bernardo Corradi and took his place at the center of the attack.

At 2-1, Cambiasso headed a ball to goal that he thought surely would go in, however Luca Bucci made an absolutely stunning save to keep Parma ahead. It was really a beautiful save. How Bucci is 40 years old I don’t know.

On the ensuing corner Cambiasso had a goal called back for a clear offside.

And then the most controversial moment occurred. The ball was played in, Jimenez had his low shot blocked by Bucci and Ibrahimovic took a quick shot that appeared to be going in, and Couto made a drastic clearance with his head and put it out for a corner. However the linesman said Couto used his hand, and Gervasoni red carded Couto and awarded Inter the penalty, which Ibrahimobitch slotted home.

Now let’s analyze the Couto incident:

After watching it so many times, it is clear that Couto gets his head on the ball. And it is true that the ball then takes a slight deflection off his arm. However, the best explanation comes from the utterly annoying Daniele Tombolini, the ex-referee that now shows the moviola (slow motion replays) on the popular Sunday night program La Domenica Sportiva. He said that the rule states that if a player touches the ball with a legal part of his body (which Couto does with his head) and then it hits his arm, it is involuntary, and therefore not a handball, whether it happens in your box, in the other box, in midfield, near the corner flag, etc. Also, in the post match comments, Di Carlo said Collina had sent out a memo to all Serie A coaches that went over what is and is not a voluntary handball in the box, and Couto’s clearly is not. Parma were quite simply robbed.

And then after that incident the whole game went wrong. Dessena got hurt and Parma were playing with 9, the ball came in and Ibrahimobitch chested the ball and played it past Bucci, and then almost decapitated Roberto Mancini.

After the match everyone basically said the same thing: there was a clear penalty against Corradi, the Couto incident was never a penalty, etc.

The positives Parma can take from this game was how they played. They were excellent, and if they can put performances half as decent as these every week they should be able to avoid relegation with no problems.

Next week Parma takes on Catania, however Domenico Di Carlo won’t be in charge since he got sent off against Inter, so he doesn’t have to worry about getting kicked in the butt by Silvio Baldini.

More photos on that hilarious incident here.

Expect a Random Parma Video sometime this week.