With another week of chaos at Parma, The Ducali will try to ignore the off field nonsense as Roberto Donadoni’s men prepare to host struggling Atalanta on Sunday. Parma looks ready to return to action this week having missed the last two rounds due to the financial mess at the club. Parma’s last outing was an impressive goalless draw away to second placed Roma in round 24. This week’s preparations saw Donadoni put his side through their paces on Thursday with a full game against the Primavera, before an intense closed doors session on Friday. Despite not having played for two weeks, Donadoni’s side can go in to this pretty confident, considering their last display at the Olimpico, Atalanta have lost four on the bounce and are in a dire state themselves as they plunge back into the relegation zone. This awful form saw coach Stefano Colantuono replaced with ex Lazio man Edy Reja. Parma have no new injury concerns going into this fixture and they will be looking to Ishak Belfodil to take confidence from his outstanding display at the Olimpico and hope he can find his shooting boots as Parma have only found the net twice in their last five outings, Alessandro Lucarelli will skipper the side, he’ll be looking to inspire his team on the pitch with the same passion he has shown off it during these difficult times. As for Atalanta, they will be looking to heap more misery on Parma, and will be hoping German Denis can find some form against the joint worst defence in the league. New boss Edy Reja will have to do without top scorer Maxi Moralez, Davide Zappacosta and Alejandro Gomez who all miss out due to injury. The last time these two sides met was back in October in Bergamo where the home side came out 1-0 winners thanks to a last minute strike from substitute Richmond Boakye. Parma (Probable): Mirante; Cassani, Costa, Lucarelli, Gobbi; J. Mauri, Mariga, Nocerino; Varela, Belfodil, C. Rodriguez Atalanta (Probable): Sportiello; Bellini, Benalouane, Cherubin, Drame; Carmona, Cigarini, Baselli, Emanuelson; D’Alessandro; Denis By Giovanni Dougall @giovannid86
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Classic Parma: Remembering, Hernan Crespo
When you hear the name Hernan Crespo you immediately think of the 1990’s and ‘that’ Parma team. Crespo was one on Serie A’s most clinical finishers had everything. Power, pace, great in the air, bags of skill & a world class finisher. He could score all types of goals and became especially famous for that darting run across a defender ending in a lethal strike. It was not always like that, when Crespo first arrived in Italy to join Parma in 1996 he failed to score in his first 6 months at the Stadio Ennio Tardini. This would change as coach Carlo Ancelotti kept his faith in Crespo and he would go on to score 12 goals in 27 games in his first season pushing Parma to a 2nd place finish. The highlight of his Parma career came in the 1998-99 UEFA Cup Final. He scored the opening goal against Marseille in a 3-0 win. This was a typical Crespo goal, deadly and accurate. That’s the Crespo we all remember bearing down on goal hair flowing behind him in that famous gialloblu hooped shirt. This form continued and he scored 80 goals in 4 seasons helping Parma win a UEFA Cup, Coppa Italia and a Super Coppa. In the year 2000 and Lazio spent £35million (a then world record) on arguably the worlds best forward. He would spend two seasons in Rome where he scored an impressive 39 goals in 54 appearances winning more silverware with another Super Coppa in 2000. Lazio’s financial trouble forced them to sell their prized asset for €26 million Euros to Inter. Here he would only spend a season before being transferred to Chelsea where he never really looked at home, he would spend the next few years between Chelsea & out on loan deals at both Milan giants. Between these years he would win another 2 Super Coppas as well as a hat-trick of Scudetto’s at Inter. He was also unlucky not to win the Champions League in 2005 in that infamous Istanbul final when he scored the opening 2 goals. After a brief spell at Genoa in 2009 Crespo would return to the city he had such affection for and called 'home'. It was a far cry from the Parma he left 10 years earlier but he continued to score & became Parma’s top scorer for a forth time. In December 2013 Crespo was named Parma’s greatest ever player. With 94 goals in 201 games the clubs all time top scorer. Crespo has now been given the task of educating the clubs youth, and possibly find a future Hernan Crespo as he is now in charge of the clubs Primavera team, a role Crespo is thriving in and will no doubt lead to him becoming first team coach of if not Parma then one of Itlay's major clubs. By Giovanni Dougall @giovanni86 |
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