Serie A Round 2 Preview: Fiorentina and Udinese face off, Lazio take on Genoa

Udinese celebrating (Getty Images)
The second week of the Italian top-flight in action sees high-flying Atalanta and Palermo lock horns, while Parma seek to bounce back from last weekend’s heavy defeat to Juventus

Serie A Round 2 Preview: European challengers Fiorentina and Udinese face off

The second week of the Italian top-flight in action sees high-flying Atalanta and Palermo lock horns, while Parma seek to bounce back from last weekend’s heavy defeat to Juventus

NAPOLI: LAVEZZI WITH BRUISED HEEL

NAPOLI -  The Azzurri website reports that the team has returned to Naples and is back training ahead of the visit of league champions Milan on Sunday. Ezequiel Lavezzi however is not on the training pitch. Tests have shown heavy briusing in the player's heel and it's not known if he'll have a part to play come Sunday evening.

THIS WEEKEND’S REFEREES

MILAN - Here's a list of the referees assigned for this week's Serie A action: Atalanta-Palermo oat 12.30: De Marco, Bologna-Lecce: Russo, Cagliari-Novara at 18.00: Giannoccaro, Catania-Cesena: Gervasoni, Inter-Roma, Saturday at 20.45: Mazzoleni, Lazio-Genoa: Orsato, Napoli-Milan Sunday at 20.45: Tagliavento, Parma-Chievo: Doveri, Parma-Juventus: Valeri, Udinese-Fiorentina: Romeo.

NAPOLI – MILAN: TAGLIAVENTO TO REFEREE

MILAN - Paolo Tagliavento has been assigned as referee for the Napoli - Milan game on Sunday evening at 20.45. He'll be assisted by Massimiliani Grilli and Massimiliano Rosi. Domenico Celi will be fourth man.Tagliavento was born on 9th September 1972 and has done 106 games in Serie A. His past games with Napoli have ended with 2 wins, 4 draws and 2 losses, with Milan, 7 wins, 5 draws and 1 loss.
 

England & Spain lose their European dominance – Five things we learned from the Champions League this week

Champions League: Villarreal - Bayern Munich, Daniel Van Buyten, Nilmar
All the thrills and spills of the premier competition in European club football have returned, and after an intriguing first week of action, Goal.com reviews what we’ve discovered

Napoli return to Italy

MILAN - Napoli are the next team that Milan find themselves up against in the lague. The Azzurri played out an exciting draw away against Manchester City last night. Cavani put Napoli ahead and Kolarov equalised for City. The team returns to Napoli today and will get back to training at Castlevolturno.
 
Here's the team that took to the field against Manchester City:Napoli: De Sanctis, Campagnaro, Cannavaro, Aronica, Maggio, Inler, Gargano, Zuniga, Hamsik (89' Santana), Lavezzi (58' Dzemaili), Cavani (83' Pandev). A disp. Rosati, Fernandez, Fideleff, Dossena. All. Mazzarri

‘Zlatan Ibrahimovic was a little bit afraid of going to Camp Nou,’ says former Barcelona & AC Milan defender Francesco Coco

Italian defender Francesco Coco (AFP)
The retired defender believes the Swede pulled out of the game because of fear, while labelling the Catalan club as the strongest team in the world

LEWIS PR AGENCY: MILAN LEADER "ON THE NET"

MILAN - Who clinched the title for 2010/2011, both on the pitch and on the net, was without doubt Milan, ahead of Juventus and Inter. The club has targeted social media as a means to communicate to the fans and uses them in the best way: a website constantly updated, newsletter and RSS feed, on-line ticket sales and merchandising, a web TV that shows interviews and videos - everything a true fan needs and more! Ever present on all the most important social media sites, Milan run their Facebook page in the same professional manner the club is run, and over 5.5million fans verify this. The Milan Twitter account is updated daily. The most successful club in the world also has a YouTube account and Flickr. For the start of the new season, Lewis Pr, global PR communication agency, published the results of research to discover how much Serie A clubs use Social Media and Internet to actively inform and update ther fans. The study examined the quality of the football clubs' official sites and their presence on the main Social Networks, considering number of topics, sections, Web TV/radio, forum, Social Media links. At the end, the number of Facebook fans proved important as did Twitter followers, both regarded as indices of correct use of Social Media.

LOMBARDY REGION PRESIDENT CELEBRATES WITH MILAN

MILAN - "We had plenty of good luck," was how president of the Lombardy Region, Roberto Formigoni commented on Milan's draw with Barcelona: "I am celebrating Milan's result, but I recognise that our opponents were superior to us," admitted Formigoni. "It's an important result," conluded Formigoni, "because drawing away to Barcelona means starting off on the right foot and allows us all to dream."