Week 18 Inter Milan v Palermo 16th March 2008

Balance
Profit €41.75

Result Albinoleffe 1 (Conteh 94) Messina 0

Not the goal fest I predicted last week but Sierra Leone defender Kewullay Conteh scored a late late goal to keep the Seriani dream alive.After a defeat yesterday to Pisa they remain one point beind top team Chievo in what promises to be an exciting finish in the race for promotion with four points covering first to sixth.Also heading for an exciting and surprising climax is the race to win the Italian title.It was only a couple of weeks that this blog wrote off the run in for the Scudetto as more or less over with Inter leading by nine points at the time but after Roma beating AC Milan yesterday the gap is only three points now.Inter today take on one of Kewullay Conteh's ex clubs Palermo today.It is sure to be a tense affair and with Inter licking their wounds after a midweek exit to Liverpool in the Champions League expect the Nerazzurri to bounce back today if they of course can keep their discipline.They will be boosted by Mancini's decision to change his mind about stepping down at the end of the season.My choice this week is to put €40 on Zlatan Ibrahimovic to score at 7/5 and €10 on him to bag the first goal at 9/2 both with Paddy Power.The Swede had a great chance on Tuesday night which he hit wide and with Mancini picking five strikers in his squad for the Palermo game he will be looking to hit the net today to keep his fellow strikers behind him in the pecking order.
Inter's opposition today are best known for their colourful attire,the hard men from Siciliy wear pink shirts,a unique colour in sporting clothing.Why pink?No the shirts didn't run in the wash.The club originally wore red and blue but in 1905 club member Giuseppe Airoldi in a letter to club chairman Joesph Whitaker suggested that the club change their colours to pink and black as red and blue was already used by many teams.He wrote that pink and black were the colours of 'bitter and sweet' and because Palermo's results were 'as alternate as a Swiss clock' the new colours would be apt.Not everyones cup of tea on choice of colours.A little in the feminine side but there have been worse.
Footballpunts three least attractive kits ever are as follows
3. Chelsea away 2007-2008.
The official colour is electric yellow,to me it looks like ugly luminous green.Abrahomvic would do anything to get his hands on the Champions League,trying to blind the opposition is taking it to new levels!They look more like men at work than professional footballers.
2. Republic of Ireland France 1998 qualifiers.
The orange jersey wore in a game remembered as one of Ireland's all time lows.Two penalties given away for handball ,Jason McAteer sent off for impersonating Bruce Lee and of course the ugly orange jersey never to be wore again.The game became a benchmark for bad and in training a player would receive a 'I had a Macedonia bib' if they had poor session.
1.Norwich City 1993
In 1993 Norwich City knocked Bayern Munich out of the UEFA Cup in what is known as their finest hour.They done it in style winning in Munich with a Jeremy Goss screamer however their jersey wasn't stylish at all in the fashion sense of the word.The ugliest jersey I have seen has to be that 'bird shit' shirt that the canaries wore that season.Decide for yourself below!



STATS
Ibrahimovic league goals this season 15.Nine of those have been first goals.

TRIVIA
Why do Italy play in blue despite the colour not featuring in the national flag?
Last weeks answer Filippo Inzaghi.