PLAUDITS FOR BRILLIANT BARELLA
Inter Milan midfielder Nicolo Barella’s sensational form earned him rave reviews over the weekend.
The 24-year-old scored the opening goal in a 2-0 win at Fiorentina on Friday with a wonderful curling effort, leaving former Inter and Italy midfielder Nicola Berti singing his praises.
“He’s now worth 90 million euros ($108 million),” Berti told Tuttosport. “We’re talking about an irreplaceable part of the Nerazzurri midfield. He works his socks off and is one of those players who gives something extra to your team.
“It’ll be like that for the next eight to 10 years. He’s also already a silent leader, fundamental for any team.”
Former Cagliari player Barella has been a standout performer in his second season at San Siro, helping Inter to second place with three goals and five assists in 21 league appearances.
“As a former midfielder I can only admire the constant growth and talent of Barella,” former Juventus and Italy midfielder Claudio Marchisio said on Twitter.
“He's a very young player who is mature and complete. The Inter fans are fortunate, the national team even more so.”
PANDEV RECONSIDERS RETIREMENT
Genoa’s 37-year-old striker Goran Pandev isn’t completely committed to his plan of retiring this summer, he confessed after scoring twice in Saturday's 2-1 win against Napoli.
The North Macedonia international showed his instinctive eye for goal with two clinical finishes that took his seasonal tally to three goals and two assists, making him the oldest player in Europe’s so-called top five leagues to register at least two of each this season.
“I struggled a lot to recover from my last injury, but I’m still enjoying myself and feel good,” he told DAZN.
“We’ll see. My thought is to stop after the Euros, but we don’t know anything for sure yet.”
Saturday's victory continued Genoa’s remarkable form under coach Davide Ballardini, who has led his side to 17 points in their past eight games in Serie A, a total only bettered by Juventus with 18 points.
PARMA PLUMB NEW DEPTHS
The situation at Parma is looking ever more desperate after a 3-0 home defeat against Bologna left Roberto D’Aversa’s side second from bottom and three points adrift of safety.
Parma were very busy in the January transfer window, signing 10 new players, but the influx of fresh faces failed to inspire an upturn in form on Sunday.
On a 12-match winless run in the league, Parma have lost nine of their last 10 games in all competitions.
“The only positive is that we can’t do worse than this, so we can only improve,” D’Aversa told Sky Sport.
“After a week of training it was hard to imagine a performance like this. We often throw away goals and we can’t allow that in a difficult league like Serie A and in the position we’re in."