Week 24 of the Serie A featured two massive top of the table matchups.  The headliner of course being the Derby della Madonnina.  The Milan derby was an exciting match with its share of controversy.  Adriano’s opening goal was clearly a handball that went past Milan keeper Christian Abbiati.  Dejan Stankovic put a one-timer past Abbiati in the 43rd minute after Zlatan Ibrahimovic headed down a long ball to give The Nerazzurri a 2 goal lead.

The Rossoneri pressured Julio Cesar in the 2nd half especially after Pippo Inzaghi come on for an apparently injured David Beckham.  Pato’s 71st minute goal came when Marek Jankulovski got to the goal line and pulled the ball back to Pato who put it into the back of the net.  Inzaghi had a goal nullified for offsides after he skillfully roofed a shot past Julio Cesar.  The 2-1 victory spoiled Paolo Maldini’s last Derby della Madonnina and put Inter 11 points ahead of 3rd place Milan & 9 points ahead of 2nd place Juventus.

The other top of the table match was a 6 goal thriller featuring 4th place Fiorentina & 5th place Genoa.  I Viola rallied from 3 goals down at Genoa’s Stadio Comunale Luigi Ferraris.  The Florence side were saved by their franchise player, Adrian Mutu who scored a hat trick in the 2nd half including the point stealing goal in the 93rd minute.  Genoa went up 3-0 despite playing with 10 men after Giuseppe Biava was red carded in the 30th minute but blew a great opportunity to move into 4th place and that final Champions League spot.

Here are the results from Week 24 [Home Teams Listed First]:

Saturday, February 14th

Lazio 1 – 1 Torino
LAZ: Siviglia (75′)
TOR: Abate (36′)

Napoli 1 – 1 Bologna
NAP: Maggio (20′)
BOL: Di Vaio (23′)

Sunday, February 15th

Atalanta 3 – 0 Roma
ATL: Capelli (52′) & Doni (56′ & 59′)

Cagliari 2 – 0 Lecce
CAG: Fini (49′) & Matri (90’+4′)

Chievo 1 – 1 Catania
CHI: Colucci (90’+2′)
CAT: Ledesma (pen 12′)

Genoa 3 – 3 Fiorentina
GEN: Motta (12′), Palladino (38′), Milito (pen 56′)
FIO: Mutu (pen 60′, 80′, 90’+3′)

Juventus 1 – 1 Sampdoria
JUV: Amauri (62′)
SAM: Pazzini (10′)

Reggina 0 – 0 Palermo

Siena 1 – 1 Udinese
SIE: Maccarone (50′)
UDI: Di Natale (72′)

Inter Milan 2 – 1 AC Milan
INT: Adriano (29′) & Stankovic (43′)
ACM: Pato (71′)

Check out the highlights from the Genoa-Fiorentina match

Standings: