Serie A Team of the Week: Double for Di Natale continues five-star season

Jan 14, 2013 1:00:00 PM

Goal.com looks at the star performers from the latest round of action from the Italian top flight

Serie A's runners and riders made the turn for the home straight this weekend as the ritorno began in style. Things continued to hot up in the Scudetto race as well as the tussle for Champions League races, while there were also plenty of big performances for teams hoping to stave off relegation, meaning the selection of the latest Goal.com Team of the Week was far from straight forward.

Christian Abbiati returned to the Milan starting line-up with a bang, making a couple of vital first-half saves as the Rossoneri earned a point from their trip to Sampdoria.

Parma's draw with Juventus was not only notable for their attacking verve, but also for the defensive showing of Cristian Zaccardo, who helped to keep Gialloblu old-boy Sebastian Giovinco quiet. Fiorentina eventually went down to defeat against Udinese, but Gonzalo Rodriguez could carry no culpability for the reverse, and it was also his free kick which had deceived Zeljko Brkic to open the scoring. Cagliari's win in their six-pointer against Genoa was thanks in part to a superb performance by Danilo Avelar.

Lazio closed the gap on Juve with a 2-0 win over Atalanta which featured another fine demonstration of the abilities of Anderson Hernanes, while Napoli's demolition of Palermo was assisted by a great performance and stunning goal from Gokhan Inler. Fredy Guarin tapped in a clinching goal for Inter against Pescara to cap off a great personal display, and Alejandro Gomez was the inspiration behind Catania's win over Roma, netting the only goal to boot.

Antonio Di Natale earned a second straight call-up to our XI, and a fifth of the season, thanks to successive two-goal showings. He grabbed one from the spot and a second from open play as Udinese overturned a deficit to beat Fiorentina 3-1 and climb to eighth place. Nicola Sansone's equaliser against Juventus was just reward for both the player and for Parma after his arrival helped the home side to get the point they deserved, and Rodrigo Palacio sent Inter on their way to victory over Pescara with yet another strike, continuing his excellent season in front of goal.

ABBIATI

MILAN

vs Sampdoria (A)

Rating:

TOTW Apps: 1

ZACCARDO	RODRIGUEZ	AVELAR

PARMA	FIORENTINA	CAGLIARI
vs Juventus (H)	vs Udinese (A)	vs Genoa (H)
Rating:	Rating:	Rating:
TOTW Apps: 1	TOTW Apps: 4	TOTW Apps: 1

HERNANES	INLER	GUARIN	GOMEZ

LAZIO	NAPOLI	INTER	CATANIA
vs Atalanta (H)	vs Palermo (H)	vs Pescara (H)	vs Roma (H)
Rating:	Rating:	Rating:	Rating:
TOTW Apps: 4	TOTW Apps: 2	TOTW Apps: 3	TOTW Apps: 4

DI NATALE	SANSONE	PALACIO

UDINESE	PARMA	INTER
vs Fiorentina (H)	vs Juventus (H)	vs Pescara (H)
Rating:	Rating:	Rating:
TOTW Apps: 5	TOTW Apps: 1	TOTW Apps: 1