Perugia's 2003-4 campaign has gotten off to a good start with a 2-0 home win over Alianssi of Finland in the 3rd round of the InterToto Cup. Goals were by new English signing Jay Bothroyd and Massimiliano Fusani. Gheddafi, jr watched from the stands; apparently, he's still awaiting some finalization of the transfer by the Libyan federation.
Perugia has passed easily into the InterToto Cup semifinals by beating Allianssi away, 2-0 and taking a 4-0 aggregate victory. Goals were scored by Gatti and Ferreira. "Geddhafi jr" has still not been cleared to play and did not participate. Next up for Perugia is a much tougher matchup with French team Nantes.
Perugia is in action tonight in France. According to this preview article: http://www.uefa.com/competitions/IntertotoCup/news/Kind=1/newsId=86425.html the game is not at Nantes' home ground and the French 9th-place finishers will not be playing all their starters, with an eye to the French league kickoff this weekend. Sounds like an opportunity for Perugia to get a leg up.
BTW, Wolfsburg has beaten Croatian team Cibalia 4-1 in their first leg today and looks to be the likely finals opponent of the winner of this tie.
Per Perugia's official website, the "Grifoni" have taken a 1-0 lead over Nantes in the 60th minute on a header by Di Loreto off a cross by Ze Maria. Gotta love the away goal.
Amazing. Especially when you consider the league doesn't start till... oh wait, we don't know when it will start.
Second leg is at halftime in Perugia, and it's 0-0. I tried finding a radio broadcast or webcast of the game but no luck.
Perugia has held Nantes 0-0 and advances to one of the three InterToto Cup finals against Wolfsburg of Germany. The winner moves on to the UEFA Cup. If they somehow beat Wolfsburg (the team of Andres d'Alessandro), I'll declare that Serse Cosmi is a genius.
If he wins and Ghaddaffy Duck plays then he is a genius. Perugia has some talent, so they should do okay.
This is today's lineup: Kalac; Alioui, Diamoutene, Di Loreto, Gatti (Obodo - 46'), Grosso, Ze Maria, Tedesco, Bothroyd, Fusani, (Loubutis - 26' s.t.), Vryzas (Bilanovic - 43' s.t.). Aside from maybe Ze Maria, not a one that I'd call anything close to a household name.
Di Loreto and Ze Maria are being chased by EPL clubs Grosso - belongs to Juve or at least 1/2 Tedesco solid pro Vryzas - good player. Gatti and Obodo are highly regarded as well.
I Grifoni will surely miss Miccoli this season. But that is what Perugia is known for. They develop players who are loaned to them, discover young talent, and mine talent from new soccer frontiers (Asia). Gaucci can be a burden for Perugia fans...buy low, sell high; and any publicity is good publicity.
They'll have another talent ready to take his place. I wouldn't worried. Bad publicity could be bad business, but gaucci some how manages to stay ahead. Look for Obodo to be the big sale item this year.
Halftime of the first leg at home against Wolfsburg and the score is: Perugia 1 Wolfsburg 0 Goal by Jay Bothroyd Here were the starting lineups: Perugia 1 KALAC 17 ALIOUI 14 DIAMOUTENE 22 DI LORETO 27 OBODO 11 GROSSO 2 ZE’MARIA 4 TEDESCO 9 BOTHROYD 20 FUSANI 15 VRYZAS Wolfsburg JENTZSCH 29 SCHNOOR 5 THIAM 6 WEISER 7 KLIMOWICZ 9 D’ALESSANDRO 10 BILISKOV 13 TOPIC 14 PETROV 21 MULLER 23 FRANZ 33
1-0 is the final score and Perugia has still yet to concede a goal in five matches. Return leg in Germany will certainly be tense.
Alas, whatever are they going to do ....! Apparently, Bothroyd got a second yellow and will miss the return leg in Germany.
It's close to the moment of truth for Cosmi's boys. The return leg in Wolfsburg starts at 3pm Eastern.
Perugia leads 1-0 (2-0 on aggregate, with an away goal, meaning Wolfsburg needs three clear goals to win the tie). And - Wolfsburg is down to 10 men!! UEFA Cup dream for Perugia is looking likely ....
Perugia added another goal in the dying minutes and won it 2-0. Truly amazing. And they never conceded a single goal in all six matches. Cosmi is a genius. Now Perugia enters Friday's UEFA Cup draw along with Parma, Roma and Udinese. http://www.channel4.com/sport/football_italia/aug26k.html