Review: Rolling on.. Siena 1 - 0 Torino

By: Matthew | December 1st, 2008

I’m going to be honest with you, i dont know what surprised me more; the fact that Siena dominated this game with relative ease or that my prediciton for the match was correct.

The game was a first class demonstration of Siena’s home form this season. Going into the match la robur had conceeded just two goals in the previous six games at the Artemio Franchi, and with Torino to have not won on their travels for 8 months anything other than a win here would be a shock to the bianconeri.

Marco Giampaolo’s home side took shape with this season’s impressive trident of Kharja, Ghezzal and the industrious Massimo Maccarone, who is looking to finally make an impact on the scoring charts after netting only his first goal of the season against Chievo last week. Central defender Rossettini was restored to the squad as the rest of it took its predicitable shape of 4-3-3.

For the Toro, the selection headache was upfront. Rolando Bianchi is desperate to impress and wishes to show that he can reach the heights of his pre-Manchester City nightmare, he was selected to accompany Stellone upfront. Torino were buzzing after the last couple of results but for a club with such history comes added pressure, and this pressure would really become apparent if Giani Di Biasi’s team could not end their dreadful away form in Tuscany.

The first half somewhat resembled a broken traffic light; Toro facing the onslaught of an in form Siena attack. The opening quarter of an hour saw Matteo Sereni called into action twice, first a routine save from Ghezzal and then tipping a dangerous header from Galloppa over the bar. Maccarone was then able to force a good parry from the Toro ‘keeper but on 18 minutes Sereni was guilty of not closing down the striker as he capitalized on some comical defending before poking the ball past the stationary custodian.

Toro’s chances were few and far between in the first half and they were fortunate not to hand Siena further advantage as Francesco Pratali very nearly deflected a dangerous Ghezzal cross into his own net, only for the cross bar to come to his rescue.

Di Biasi attempted to shake things up at half time bringing on veteran Amoruso for the inaffective Bianchi, but a further flurry of chances would be elusive as Gianluca Curci had one of his quieter afternoons between the sticks. Diana came closest but failed to force Curci into a save when he wasted a great chance by volleying wide. Rosina showed that he is still a player with some talent but is clearly short of match fitness as he came close on two opportunities but again failed to trouble Curci’s goal. Another sign of Giampaolo’s intentions this season was the attacking change of the goal scorer Maccarone for Calaio’, and it was the sub who came the closest in the second half to sealing the game with a great speculative effort that needed a good save from Sereni.

All in all it was a dominant home performance from a Siena side that are playing with the knowledge that they are as good as any team that come to the Franchi.

Siena: Curci; Zuniga, Rossettini, Portanova, Del Grosso; Coppola, Vergassola, Galloppa; Kharja; Ghezzal, Maccarone (Calaio’ 68)

Torino: Sereni; Diana, Natali, Pratali (Di Loreto 46), Rubin; Colombo, Dzemaili, Barone, Rosina; Bianchi (Amoruso 46), Stellone (Abbruscato 67)

Ref: Morganti

Goal: Maccarone al 19′ p.t.

Forza la Robur!