Italy

They call him “Braveheart.” Of course they do. What else would you call a Scotsman from Livingston, some 15 miles west of Edinburgh, who came up through the ranks at Celtic before making the somewhat unusual move to Bari in Italy’s Serie B during the January transfer window?

However, Liam Henderson’s signing with the club based in southern Italy was/is not a gimmick, and there are many around Celtic who think the Glasgow giants made a mistake in letting him leave. And, it’s important to note, that Henderson is not the first Scot to make the jump.

Reading about a scoreless draw is pretty boring, right?

No goals, no costly mistakes, no tactical masterstrokes which decide the game. We might as well not bother. But here we are, with an article about a nil-nil match which happened on Saturday night when most people were somewhere having much, much more fun.

AS Roma did just enough to overturn their deficit against Shakhtar Donetsk in the Champions League Round of 16 on Tuesday, Edin Dzeko scoring the lone goal in the 52nd minute to put Roma through via the away goals rule, 2-2 on aggregate.

Shakhtar went about their business professionally in the opening 45, looking dangerous on the counter and assured in possession while Roma struggled to generate any chances of note.

If last week’s round of Serie A fixtures was dominated by tragedy, then this week’s matches were defined by flashes of beauty peering through the gloom. Across a number of games, there were flashes of brilliance which pierced through the fog for vastly different reasons. Even if, ultimately, the moments meant nothing, the surge of emotion and energy was undeniable.

Let’s begin with the most astounding of all.

The death of Davide Astori was announced on the morning of March 4. The club captain of Fiorentina, he had been expecting to take part in a run-of-the-mill away game against Udinese. Instead, every match in Serie A was postponed in the wake of the news. 

The night before, Astori had been playing videogames with the Fiorentina goalkeeper, Marco Sportiello. The next day, as the players sat down to breakfast, his absence was noted. According to coaches, the center back was typically one of the first to rise on a match day. 

Even though Lazio obliterated Steaua Bucharest on Thursday on their way to the Europa League round of 16, no person in his or her right mind would contend that Lazio defender Patric had a good time.

Patric, a product of La Masia in his first season with Lazio, is probably wishing he was back in Spain. If he can even remember being back in Spain.

That is how you defense

We were all wrong. Let’s take a moment to come together, as a community, and admit that we all assumed the appointment of Gennaro Gattuso as AC Milan manager was absurd to the point of hilarity. Our sides were splitting. Our guffaws echoed along the corridors of the internet. We laughed and we laughed and we laughed. 

But we were all wrong. 

You see, it turns out that Gattuso might just be exactly what Milan needed. 

Apparently, soccer comebacks are all the rage right now. Landon Donovan is back playing with León, Freddy Adu rediscovered his love for soccer with the Las Vegas Lights, Marco Reus is back scoring for Dortmund and now a Gianluigi Buffon Italy return appears imminent. 

For the first time since the 2011-12 UEFA Champions League Round of 16, Arsenal have been drawn against AC Milan in European competition. But, with the encounter now taking place in the Europa League and the added coinkydink of both sides sitting sixth domestically (both are also eight points back of fourth place), there’ll be a lot of glorious nostalgia mixed with contemporary handwringing before the San Siro first leg on March 8.

This was a big week for Juventus. Not only did they get a hiding in the Champions League, they also released a self-glorifying TV show and lined up against their old cross-city rivals, Torino.  

This kind of glitz and glamour is what we’ve come to expect from the reigning six-time champions. It shows why they’re one of the countries best loved and most hated teams, all at once. 

But what did we actually learn from this week?