Parma-Livorno: Well, That’s Better

By: Francesco | October 28th, 2007

Parma got back on track today with a win over hapless Livorno. Parma are now at 9 points in the table (1 behind Lazio and Milan!). The goals came from ex-Livorno midfielder Stefano Morrone, defender Massimo Paci, and misunderstood genius Domenico Morfeo. Game summary after the jump.

Di Carlo surprised all the pre-match experts, leaving young midfielders Luca Cigarini and Daniele Dessena on the bench in favor of Francesco Parravicini and Davide Matteini. Andrea Pisanu was preferred to Andrea Gasbarroni at the last minute. Parma got off to a good start and attacked Livorno. In the 10th minute, the Tardini erupted when ex-Livorno midfielder Stefano Morrone headed the ball into the net from a corner by Pisanu. The ball bounced in front of Corradi, who missed the shot, and Morrone came in and finished the job. Livorno came back and started to press, and found the equalizer in the 23rd minute through Francesco Tavano. Filippini stole the ball from Morrone and passed to Tavano, who with a deft chip beat Luca Bucci. Livorno controlled the rest of the 1st half but could not find the go ahead goal.

Di Carlo started the second half by taking off a disappointing Matteini for Domenico Morfeo to try and add some creativity to the match. But 4 minutes after the restart Parma found themselves in a hole. Defender Massimo Paci was called for a handball in the box and the referee Rizzoli pointed to the spot. Tavano stepped up and placed the ball in the lower right corner for his 3rd goal of the season. Luca Bucci was centimeters from saving it.

Parma started attacking and a free kick from Morfeo was deflected out for a corner. The corner was whipped in and Paci, who caused the penalty, made up for his mistake and headed the ball into the net past Marco Amelia. Parma believed in themselves and pushed forward. Di Carlo threw on Cigarini so he could create some chances. Cigarini made an immediate impact, assisting a Corradi goal, but it was called back for offside. In the 70th minute Parma completed the comeback. Cigarini played a long ball to Reginaldo, who crossed into the box for Morfeo who headed home. There were some doubts of whether the ball crossed the goal line before Reginaldo crossed.

From there Parma controlled the game, and in the last minute De Vezze was sent off for Livorno for stepping on Morfeo when he was on the ground. De Vezze looked surprised when he got the red card, but the replay showed he clearly stepped on Morfeo. He’ll probably get more than a one game ban.

Overall, a good win for Parma and a precious 3 points, especially since many teams at the bottom of the table lost today. Di Carlo saves his job for another week but Wednesday there is a difficult away encounter vs. Palermo.

Here are the ratings of the Parma players, still waiting on highlights. I got the ratings from datasport.it:

Bucci 6.5 - Not at fault for both of the goals. The post saves him in the 74th minute on a shot from Tavano.

Couto 6 - The expert defender gave a little too much space to Tavano for the first goal, but besides that he didn’t make many mistakes.

Paci 6 - Causes the penalty, but makes up for it with a goal.

Castellini 6.5 - Gives a good push down the left flank. Sends interesting crosses to Corradi and tests Amelia with a long range drive.

Coly 6.5 - Pays good attention to his right flank. In the middle of the game he performs an influential recovery on Tavano.

Zenoni s.v. - only entered the game for Reginaldo in the 80th minute. No rating.

Cigarini 6.5 - Enters immediately in the flow of the game and is excellent in attack and defense. In the final minutes he narrowly misses a shot from outside the area.

Parravicini 6 - He gave a nice performance defensively in the center of the field.

Morrone 6.5 - Gives an good performance in midfield winning balls from the Livorno players. Scores with his head from a corner kick.

Morfeo 7 - His entrance into the match was decisive. Creates many chances for the strikers and scores the winning goal with his head.

Corradi 5.5 - He was a dangerous threat in the air but never troubled Amelia.

Pisanu 5.5 - Opaque performance for the winger, who only did a few good plays.

Matteini 5 - Inexistent through the first half. Substituted for Morfeo at half-time.

Reginaldo 6 - He was only dangerous with a few plays. Goes close to scoring in the 48` with a shot that just misses the post and gives Morfeo the assist for the 3 goal after chasing down a ball that appeared to cross the goal line.