Results from round eight:
Serie A table:
Pressure on Thiago Motta’s Spezia can finally ease
Spezia get their first victory in a month, doing so by coming-back to win 2-1 against Salernitana, thanks to Viktor Kovalenko’s stupendous second-half display.
Salernitana were on the back foot, but held on to be up at half-time, with Simy Nwankwo’s first goal for the club. Surprisingly, Salernitana are the side with the most clean sheets on the first fraction of play (six in eight games).
However, Spezia’s tenacity paid its dividends and Kovalenko’s wonder goal made the Stadio Alberto Picco erupt with joy.
Lazio overturn Inter with controversy
Inter keep demonstrating their inability to keep control over a game for 90 minutes and lose despite dominating two thirds of it after Ivan Perisic’s penalty put them up.
The Croatian is the first player to score a penalty in the Serie A both with his right and left foot, but it won’t be the most talked point of the day. Lazio got back in contention with a penalty from Alessandro Bastoni’s handball after a corner-kick.
Felipe Anderson later made it 2-1, but there were protests for Lazio’s gamesmanship, as it all developed with Federico Dimarco lying on the ground and Maurizio Sarri’s team not putting the ball out. Fights broke out, but Inter’s protests were vain, as they got their first defeat of the campaign.
Samu Castillejo’s return brings Milan fans extreme joy
A poor first-half show and the score stating 2-0 for Hellas Verona at half-time weren’t surely what injured troubled Milan expected from Saturday night’s game.
Then along came Stefano Pioli’s subs, with Rafael Leao entering for the injured Ante Rebic and Samu Castillejo making his return after being put out of the team and not being wanted by the fans, who criticised him for not leaving over the Summer.
Milan’s group never gives up and after Olivier Giroud got one back, Castillejo gained a penalty and later caused Koray Gunter’s own-goal for a 3-2, to end the game with tears of emotions under the Curva Sud.
Joao Pedro thrives Cagliari to their first win
Cagliari are Joao Pedro-dependent, with the Brazilian finally giving the Sardinians their first win with a brace against Sampdoria.
New manager Walter Mazzarri will take credit, claiming it was a much-needed result and that their season is set to begin now.
Sampdoria are experiencing struggles after finishing in the top 10 last year and are tied to their city rivals Genoa and Cagliari just out of the relegation zone with six points.
Josip Ilicic is reborn against Empoli
With his first two goals of the season, Josip Ilicic helps Atalanta win against Empoli, despite missing a penalty when on course for a hat-trick.
The Slovenian scored twice in the first-half, but Federico Di Francesco’s goal gave Empoli some hope, up until Mattia Viti and goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario had a misunderstanding and let the ball in.
Duvan Zapata’s 100th Serie A goal sealed the game late on, becoming the first Columbian to achieve this milestone in the Italian league.
Scamacca’s brace isn’t enough to punish his former team
Scamacca’s quick one-two, scoring two goals in four minutes, appeared to be lethal, as the 22 years-old striker, who played for Genoa last year, put Sassuolo ahead.
Mattia Destro was having none of it, getting a goal back for the Grifoni for his fifth of the season.
Both teams had multiple chances to score, but were all wasted up until the last minute of normal time, in which debutant Johan Vasquez headed in a corner to equalise for Genoa.
Wasteful Bologna are held by Udinese
Despite registering their second-ever biggest amount of shots on target since this statistic is collected, plus playing in 11vs10 for almost an hour, Bologna can’t go beyond a 1-1 with Udinese.
A lot of the credit goes to Marco Silvestri, whose saves helped compensate Roberto Pereyra’s silly second yellow card.
Led my Musa Barrow, the Rossoblu finally scored and thought they had done it, but Beto equalised for Udinese, despite all the protests of the Bologna players for a foul on the goalkeeper.
Osimhen is evolving into an amazing player
With his eighth goal in nine games, Osimhen gives Napoli their eighth win, to keep a full score, being the only side in Europe to do so.
Osimhen is a dominating presence on the pitch, demonstrating incredible physicality and goal instinct. The Nigerian prevented a scare, after Napoli came so close to scoring, but were denied by an offside, the post and a penalty miss.
For only the sixth time in 93 years of Serie A history, a team wins all the first eight games. Ironically, the last team to do so was Napoli in 2017/18, who were stopped on Matchday nine by Luciano Spalletti’s Inter.
Coming up is Roma, the longest-serving club in Spalletti’s managerial career. He coached Roma for 299 games, winning three trophies. Will Napoli maintain their streak against Jose Mourinho’s side?
Juventus are back, but Roma complain
Juventus may not be the best team offensively right now, but they surely became one of the best at managing the game, winning 1-0 despite struggling to outplay Roma.
It’s an important win in the name of Moise Kean, but Roma will deeply lament the episode occurred just before the first-half. Tammy Abraham scored, but play was interrupted, as referee Daniele Orsato gave a penalty, ignoring the advantage rule.
Jordan Veretout showed up on the spot. The Frenchman, 27 out of 29 from the spot before the game, ironically went on to miss.
Giorgio Chiellini, who blocks Gianluca Mancini on the rebound, is well inside the box before the shot, but no review is taken, as Roma’s second-half pressure was well contained from the Bianconeri.
Surprising Venezia move out of the relegation zone
Mattia Aramu leads the Lagunari up to 15th place with eight points, with his goal determining a win against a disappointing Fiorentina.
La Viola are Venezia’s lucky team, recording their 10th win, which is a record for the green and orange side in Serie A against a single opponent.
It’s a very positive debut for goalkeeper Sergio Romero, who returns to playing in the Serie A after almost seven years, as Venezia’s journey is proving much better than their fellow newly-promoted team Salernitana.
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