AC Milan continued their magnificent form with a 2-1 away win against Sampdoria and maintain their unbeaten start as the Serie A moved into the 10th round.
Inter Milan kept up with their local rivals by beating Bologna, Napoli didn’t have any problems against Crotone and Juventus had to sweat to overcome Torino in the Mole’s derby.
Sassuolo and Roma drew in a tightly contested match, whilst Lazio defeated Spezia. These were the standout results, but let’s see how the main action unfolded.
The Turin derby is White and Black again
This week of games was opened by the match between Spezia and Lazio at Manuzzi’s stadium of Cesena. The team trained by Vincenzo Italiano demonstrated one more time that their opponents will have to fight and suffer if they want to conquer the three points.
That’s what Lazio did: the Biancocelesti took the lead in the 15th minute with Ciro Immobile being perfectly assisted by Sergej Milinkovic-Savic.
The Serbian then became the very protagonist of the game by scoring an incredible goal from a free kick in the 33rd minute.
Even at 2-0 it wasn’t all plain-sailing for Lazio. Spezia reacted and had opportunities to halve the deficit and finally broke through in the 64th minutes with M’Bala Nzola jinking past Francesco Acerbi to score an incredible goal.
Over in Turin, Serie A strugglers Torino also made life difficult for holders Juventus who battled to a 2-1 victory. The Granata took the lead in the 9th minute when Nicolas Nkoulou took full advantage of some sloppy Juventus defending from a corner.
Torino had at least two clear chances to double their advantage, but Simone Zaza was hypnotised by Wojciech Szczesny, and Andrea Belotti’s attempt ended over the crossbar.
In the second half, Juventus came out stronger and started creating apprehension to Torino. The Bianconeri equalised with a great shot from Juan Cuadrado, but the referee ruled out the goal due to Leonardo Bonucci blocking the goalkeeper’s view from an offside position.
The ‘old Lady’ had to wait until the 77th minute to level, when Weston McKennie scored with a header. Finally, in one of the last attacks of the game, Juve found the decisive goal with a header by Bonucci who made amends for his earlier offside.
Inter and Bologna concluded Saturday’s action. The Nerazzurri seem to have found their playing mechanism and their 3-1 victory against Siniša Mihajlovic’s team kept them within touching distance of Milan. Inter attacking wing-back Achraf Hakimi was the outstanding performer and capped off his display with his first brace in Serie A.
Romelu Lukaku scored the opener in the 16th minute after tidying up his initial missed volley and showing the composure to place a finish high past Łukasz Skorupski.
Hakimi doubled the lead on the stroke of half-time, cutting in from the right to latch onto a perfectly clipped through ball by Marcelo Brozovic and placing a cool finish into the bottom corner.
Bologna came out fighting in the second half and Emanuel Vignato halved the deficit to leave Antonio Conte looking more nervous on the touchline. But, two minutes later, Hakimi put the game beyond doubt with a splendid solo goal to move Inter above holders Juventus and two points behind city rivals Milan.
Milan look an unstoppable force: are they serious title contenders?
Verona and Cagliari began the Sunday fixtures in the lunch-time kick-off.
Even if they were in the middle of an emergency, Cagliari put in an outstanding performance and caused real trouble for one of Serie A’s surprise packages.
In the first half, the Gialloblù took the lead in the 21st minute thanks to key player, Mattia Zaccagni. Cagliari woke up after going two goals behind, but had a goal ruled out for offside which sparked them into life.
Their equaliser came just after half-time with Răzvan Marin exchanging a neat one-two with Leonardo Pavoletti and burst through the heart of the Verona defence to finish neatly in the bottom corner.
From that moment on, the Rossoblù took control of the match but couldn’t find their way past Verona’s inspired goalkeeper Marco Silvestri.
Parma-Benevento and Roma-Sassuolo both played out a scoreless draw, but the game at Roma’s Stadio Olimpico wasn’t without controversy.
Experienced Roma winger Pedro made two silly fouls in the first-half which left his team playing with a man down for the majority of the game. However, the Giallorossi didn’t lose their heart and put in a spirited display to keep Sassuolo at bay.
At the sunset of the first half, Henrikh Mkhitaryan thought he’d given the home side an unlikely lead but the goal was chalked off by Fabio Maresca because of a foul by Edin Džeko in the build-up.
Sassuolo had a recrimination of their own. Lukáš Haraslín, who came on for Jérémie Boga, scored an incredible goal but VAR found the Slovak’s starting position was offside.
Napoli had no problems against Crotone in Calabria with a comfortable 4-0 win. The Azzurri continue their march to the podium and are now just one point behind Inter.
Lorenzo Insigne put in another man-of-the-match display. Napoli’s captain contributed to two goals with an absolute pearl of a finish to net his fourth of the season and supplying Hirving Lozano in the 58th minute.
German international Diego Demme netted a 78th minute goal to double his tally in Italy before Andrea Petagna settled the result in added time to make it 4-0.
Can anybody stop the ‘devil’? Milan stormed to a 2-1 away win over Sampdoria at the Luigi Ferraris.
Samp had the first proper chance of the game with a header from Lorenzo Tonelli, but Gianluigi Donnarumma made a miraculous save to deny his fellow Italian.
Milan’s Ante Rebić had an attempt brilliantly cleared off the line before the away side were awarded a penalty just before the break for a Jakub Jankto handball with Franck Kessié converting.
In the seocnd half, the Rossoneri had chances to pull clear but had to wait until the 77th minute when Samu Castillejo doubled the lead with a first-time finish from a Rebić cross.
Sampdoria’s Albin Ekdal clawed one back in the 82nd minute with a header that appeared well-saved by Donnarumma but had just crossed line. This made it a nervy last eight minutes for Stefano Pioli’s side but they held on impressively to claim all three points.
Honours even for relegation-threatened Fiorentina and Genoa
In Monday’s nights relegation battle, Fiorentina and Genoa played out a 1-1 draw at the Stadio Artemio Franchi.
The game look destined for a goalless draw before the game sprung into life when Marko Pjaca put the Ligurian ahead in the 89th minute against one of his former teams.
Genoa came seconds from a crucial away win but Fiorentina never gave up and Nikola Milenkovic’s 98th minute equaliser broke Genoise hearts.
Udinese-Atalanta was also scheduled this week but the match was postponed due to the heavy rain that fell on the Dacia Arena.
FULL RESULTS
SPEZIA 1 – 2 LAZIO
64’ Nzola 15’ Immobile
33’ Milinkovic-Savic
JUVENTUS 2 – 1 TORINO
78’ Mckennie 9’Nkoulou
89’Bonucci
INTER MILAN 3 – 1 BOLOGNA
16’ Lukaku 67’ Vignato
45’ Hakimi
70’ Hakimi
VERONA 1 – 1CAGLIARI
21’ Zaccagni 48’ Marin
PARMA 0 – 0 BENEVENTO
ROMA 0 – 0 SASSUOLO
UDINESE – ATALANTA postponed
CROTONE 0 – 4 NAPOLI
31’ Insigne
58’ Lozano
76’ Demme
91’ Petagna
SAMPDORIA 1 – 2 MILAN
83’ Ekdal 45’ Kessie (P)
77’ Castillejo
FIORENTINA 1 – 1 GENOA
98’ Milenkovic 89’ Pjaca
