In December of 1970, the Italian playwright Dario Fo released a play entitled "Morte Accidentale Di Un Anarchico" ("The Accidental Death Of An Anarchist"). Based on the aftermath of the 1969 Piazza Fontana Bombing in Milan, which killed seventeen people, it was a play that shone a light upon the subsequent death of Giuseppe Pinelli, an anarchist activist and railway worker who fell from the fourth floor window of a Milan police station under suspicious circumstances after having already been held for longer than Italian law specified was legal without being granted by a judge.

So there were some very interesting results around Europe this weekend with the major stories making the headlines being Inter's 4-0 loss to Roma in the Serie A and Chelsea's surprising 3-3 draw at home with United.

Coming off the back of 3 poor results, Inter desperately needed a win to ensure they broke into the top 4 spot.

Edinson Cavani. Forcing us to rethink our oppression of t-shirt/suit jacket combos since 9.30am this morning. Image: Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images.

If someone else is going to go to the trouble of picking out and rewarding their favourite Serie A players, it would be remiss of us not to use the photo opportunity for a random post.

Substituted at half-time having inadvertently assisted the goal which gave the opposition the lead is not the debut Eduardo Vargas had in mind after making his £11.4m move from Universidad de Chile to Napoli. In the 20th minute of the last-16 Coppa Italia clash with Cesena ‘Edu' chased back to the edge of the area to help out defensively when an attempt to control the ball resulted in releasing.

It's clear that Michel Telo's Brazilian hit song 'Ai Seu Te Pego' is still popular within the Italian football scene, or at least to Milan's 'Carioca' Club of Robinho, Thiago Silva and Pato.

During Milan's 3-0 defeat of Novaro last night, Robinho did the famous dance move after netting the second goal.

Despite the importance of club football, Euro 2012 dominates the majority of the continent's players' thoughts going into the second half of the season. Italian football has had it's share of ups and downs over the last decade, with the elation of winning the World Cup in 2006 counteracted by scandal in the domestic game; Italy need a strong performance in the tournament.

Pato's passion no longer on the pitch.

Atop the tallest spire of Milan's cathedral sits a statue of the virgin Mary, her gaze fixed upon a Po valley split between the supporters of two giants in Italian football: A.C. Milan and Inter Milan. When these teams meet twice a year at the San Siro, the winning players symbolically join la Madonnina at the city's highest point.

Host Kevin is joined by Serie A Weekly writers Owen Neilson and Ryan Ross to discuss all the surprises and events from the first half of the Italian Serie A 2011-12 season. Podcast topics include, Juventus, Milan and Inter, players like Jovetic, Klose, Djibril Cissé and Simone Pepe, a Best XI, and also a few words on racism in football.

guest writer Luca Cetta Looking to build from a start to the season in which they sit second behind Milan only on goal difference and remain the only unbeaten side in Europe's top leagues, January is shaping up to be an important month on and off the pitch for Juventus. During 2009-2010 Juventus lost three out of four in January, while last season's disastrous loss against Parma.

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- Throughout the day, the QPR Report Messageboard has news updates, comments and perspectives - even links to other board comments of interest re QPR matters (on and off the field) along with football (and ONLY football) topics in general....Also Follow: QPR REPORT ON TWITTER
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- One of QPR's greatest-ever managers, brilliant captain, innovative free-kick expert (as player, coach and manager) TERRY VENABLES Turns Sixty-Nine.

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- Bushman Photos & Various Programme Notes from QPR's 1960-1961 Season!
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- Throughout the day, the QPR Report Messageboard has news updates, comments and perspectives - even links to other board comments of interest re QPR matters (on and off the field) along with football (and ONLY football) topics in general.

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-- Photo compilation from yesterday's Game
- Throughout the day, the QPR Report Messageboard has news updates, comments and perspectives - even links to other board comments of interest re QPR matters (on and off the field) along with football (and ONLY football) topics in general.

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- (Photos - of course - from the Bushman Archives)
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- Throughout the day, the QPR Report Messageboard has news updates, comments and perspectives - even links to other board comments of interest re QPR matters (on and off the field) along with football (and ONLY football) topics in general.

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Tony Currie Turns Sixty-Two
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Happy New Year to all QPR Fans across the Globe
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- Throughout the day, the QPR Report Messageboard has news updates, comments and perspectives - even links to other board comments of interest re QPR matters (on and off the field) along with football (and ONLY football) topics in general.

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- (Photos from Bushman archives)
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- Throughout the day, the QPR Report Messageboard has news updates, comments and perspectives - even links to other board comments of interest re QPR matters (on and off the field) along with football (and ONLY football) topics in general.

SPANISH FOOTBALL Club ATLEICO DE MADRID presented officially to the media today their new Coach, ex- player DIEGO SIMEONE. The new Coach comes with Argentine Football title experience & a stint in Italian Football. The man is remember at Atletico for his years of loyal dedication, strong play & for carrying the Clubs shield in many Spanish Football battles.

An interesting statement recently revealed by Milos Krasic's agent, Dejan Joksimovic, stating that the wantaway Juventus winger is being seriously monitored by Chelsea.

The agent also stated that his client most likely will leave his current club because he hasn't been featured in the plan of the Turin giant's new tactician, Antonio Conte.

There are a number of ways to get called up to a historically prestigious national team, among them simply owning an Argentinean passport between the years 2008 and 2010. Not on that list is being a 29 year old defender for a minnow languishing near the bottom of Serie B. Typically, anyway, if things are being judged on merit.

The unfair distribution of superior genes is alive and well at this particular Italian football club, and in the name of full disclosure, there's a few things you need to know about your ovaries before watching AC Milan's bubba-rific holiday video (set to a banjo remix of Jingle Bells):

1.

As the Serie A season enters the winter break, Lazio sit firmly in fourth position on 30 points after an encouraging start to the season. They have only lost two games in the league (against Juventus and, once high-flying, Genoa) and they have qualified from the Europa League group stages. The additions made to the squad in the summer have been incredibly influential in helping carry the squad.

Former Chelsea Coach Carlo Ancelotti believes that English sides Arsenal and Chelsea will struggle against Italian opponents AC Milan and Napoli. The 52 year old further went on to say that state of the game in England is 'unwell'.

These are very interesting remarks coming from a coach who helped led the Blues to the Premier League title in 2009/2010.

Hi guys, I was watching the Napoli v Roma derby yesterday,and I haven't watched Roma play for a good couple of years and to my surprise with along with young talents like Bojan in their team Totti was playing.Yes at the grand old age of 35 Francesco Totti was starting and captaining Roma.At the heart of AS Roma's attacking threat Totti was there.

Milan's Rocchi Horror Show hogged the headlines but can Udinese steal the title?

MirrorFootball has teamed up with some of the blogosphere's best new writers to bring you even more great football reads every single day. Today it's our Serie A blogger, footballitaliano.

The return of Juventus as a force in Italian football has coincided with the arrival of Andrea Pirlo on a free transfer and with former club captain Antonio Conte assuming control of coaching duties. Both Pirlo and Conte have been influential in Juve's rise with the former Milan midfielder proving indispensable in several matches while coach Antonio has helped revive the squad's damaged spirit.

Juventus came from 3-1 down to grab an unlikely 3-3 draw with Napoli at the San Paolo to remain top of Serie A and preserve their unbeaten start to the season. In a match which smashed all the stereotypes about ‘boring Italian football', two of Serie A's high flying sides put on a thrilling display [.

England's narrow 1-0 victory over Spain proved that Fabio Capello's Italian influence can force England to play without the cavalier tendencies that cause them to be knocked out of every major tournament.

Rather than arrogantly attacking the World and European champions at Wembley, England played with rare discipline and composure.

Who needs Messi when you've got Masini? What better way to set the fourth-tier of Italian football alight than with an incredible slalom run that Lionel Messi would be proud of, finished exquisitely by a self-indulgent rabona. That's precisely what Teramo's Gerardo Masini did during his side's match against San Nicolo last weekend.

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In this week's review section, we congratulate Ronaldo, while former Juventus boss is jailed and Wigan defender causes a spitting row. You can listen to these and other stories on our weekly podcast and can find explanations of key vocabulary in bold below, or highlighted in blue.

Here's Gianluigi Buffon showing you how to DO IT - even in the face of an emergency! Juventus' match against Napoli had to be postponed yesterday for fear of flooding and the goalkeeper promptly left his hotel. Naples' Mayor Luigi De Magistris ordered the postponement because the pitch was already soggy and there was concern 65,000 fans could be trapped in flooding or cause traffic problems.

by Adam Bate

There are many over-used and misleading phrases in football and "one-man team" is surely right up there. In 1969-70, Cagliari had a quality side. Players such as Ricky Albertosi, Pierluigi Cera, Comunardo Niccolai and Angelo Domenghini all played for the Azzurri. And yet, the simple and remarkable fact remains Gigi Riva won the Scudetto for Cagliari.

Guardate questo.... The Milan tifosi have outdone themselves once again! This time, it's a little more blasphemous than usual. They've compared their very own Pope Benedict XVI to Pippooooo Inzaghi - aligning the veteran and exceptionally passionate striker to God.

In the past, Lazio have always been lacking the final step to reach the "big" Serie A clubs. While the club has always been competitive under Claudio Lotito's control, they have never managed to push into the highest echelon of Italian football/soccer. Yet this season it seems that Lotito has created the perfect team.

This season's Serie A campaign has saw a number of different teams fighting for dominance, as perennial challengers Inter and Milan have started slowly. Juventus sit on top of the pile after seven games, but their newfound confidence will be tested with tricky away fixtures in Milan and Naples.

The Italian Serie A since yesterday has an unexpected leader: Udinese Calcio. After the amazing 4th place of the last year Francesco Guidolin's team is now at the top of the league despite the selling of many foundamental players during the last summer market.

Players like Gokhan Inler, Alexis Sanchez and Cristian Zapata have been sold for more than £ 60 millions and replaced with less expensive players such as Gabriel Torje ( £ 5 millions from Dinamo Bucaresti) and Danilo Larangeira (form Palmeiras).

Serie A Weekly welcomes writer Kirsten Schlewitz to our Italian football frontpage For some reason, when gearing up for Napoli's match last week, I was convinced that they were playing Cagliari. Perhaps I simply had a premonition that the Partenopei were about to be beaten by Parma – at the San Paolo, mind you.

Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it. | Subscribe: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

In this week's review section, we look back at stories from Serie A, La Liga and the Liverpool-Manchester United game. You can listen to these and other stories on our weekly podcast and can find explanations of key vocabulary in bold below, or highlighted in blue.

The Euro 2012 qualifying group stages are done, some teams are in, some still have a playoff and others start the road to World Cup 2014 qualifying. Ginge and Richard are back to cover all the news from that, along with spending some quality time with Kirsten Schlewitz discussing all things Italian football.

Juventus: Old Lady, new lease of life is a post from: Just Football

by Gianfilippo Scarpati

The 8th of September 2011 marks an historic date for the old lady of Italian football. The opening of a new state of the art stadium is every bit reflective of the new lease of life she has had breathed into her.

Italian football blog: Prandelli's progressive approach is bad news for Northern Ireland but good news for Juve

For the new season, MirrorFootball is teaming up with some of the blogosphere's best new writers to bring you even more great football reads every single day.

by Adam Bate

Sam Wallace (The Independent): "You go to Stoke, they've got an identity. You go to Bolton and that club's got an identity. When I watch Serie A you don't feel that so much about the smaller clubs there."

Shaun Custis (The Sun): "You watch Serie A do you?