It was another wild weekend in Serie A with some unpredictable. There was Juventus losing their first game of the season, Sassuolo and Sampdoria played out a 5-3 thriller where Fabio Quagliarella took the Capocannoniere lead, but it’s Derby Della Madonnina weekend, so that means the battle between AC Milan and Inter Milan took centre stage.
Serie A Weekend: Laurtaro for Inter Shines in Wild Derby
AC Milan 2-3 Inter Milan
The Derby Della Madonnina is always one of the most hotly contested games in the world. It brings fire, flares, and fiery flaring tempers. This game had penalties, great saves, some strange VAR decisions and a manager sent off. While Luciano Spalletti may have watched the end of this game from the stands, he had already earned his day’s work.
He made the key decision in this game to play three strong, aggressive, hard-working midfielders. With Radja Nainggolan unavailable, Roberto Gagliardini joined Matias Vecino and Marcelo Brozovic in midfield. The three of them were tough enough to control the midfield, playing Serie A starlets Lucas Paqueta and Franck Kessie onto the bench.
A lot of credit also has to be given to Spalletti for how he has handled the Mauro Icardi situation. Icardi is a great player and great goalscorer, but that is all that he brings. His linkup play is not great, nor is his holdup play, making it difficult to build a consistent winner around him, but since his refusal to report, Spalletti has empowered Lautaro Martinez and it is working out great.
The 21-year-old Argentine turned in his best performance of the season in the derby, showing off all of his promised tools. His composure under pressure is not something to be questioned at all. His game-winning penalty was taken with such calm and precision a certain superstar countryman might even take notice of.
For AC Milan, this game was a momentum breaker. They had won five straight Serie A games coming into this one but this was not a great showing. Gennaro Gattuso will have to re-group quickly if his side is going to take back third place. With ten games to go the race for third looks like it is going to be the best race in Serie A.
Genoa 2-0 Juventus
After their outstanding comeback win against Atletico Madrid in the Champions League, there was always going to be a let-down, but Juventus laid a giant egg on their trip to Genoa, and got taken apart by two players Juventini around the world will know all too well. Genoa earned their victory against the previously-unbeaten Juventus, creating even more concerns for the Biaconeri.
Genoa managed to triple Juve’s shot total (18-6) despite only having 40% possession. Their defence was airtight and did a great job of keeping Juventus from getting into the typical shooting positions. Paulo Dybala was a virtual ghost for 90 minutes, only popping up to score a goal that was ruled offside via VAR.
After setting the foundation of the game for 60 minutes, Genoa manager Cesare Prandelli brought on Goran Pandev. Then, ten minutes later, he brought on Stefano Sturaro, who scored the opener. The ex-Juve man was still there just two months ago but did great for his new club on Sunday. 36-year-old Pandev has been scoring goals against Juventus for over a decade, so it was no surprise when his rocket of a left foot fired a shot into the top corner.
The Dybala Problem
Despite giving up two goals, this game has to be about the performance of Paulo Dybala. The 25-year-old Argentine has only scored nine goals in 35 games for Juve this season, after scoring 22 in Serie A alone last season. His adjustment to the introduction of Cristiano Ronaldo has been puzzling.
Many thought he would thrive with Ronaldo coming into the team, but it has pushed Dybala out wide for much of this season. He tends to struggle out wide but thrives in a pseudo number ten position. However, playing in that position on Sunday did not help build his confidence, and with his lack of scoring and confidence comes rumours of all kinds of things.
The most prevalent right now is a potential swap deal with Dybala going to Inter Milan in place of exiled striker Mauro Icardi. The fit at Inter could do wonders for Dybala, but it would be a tough deal to get done. Dybala’s future has become the most interesting sub-plot of the Cristiano Ronaldo addition.
SPAL 2-1 Roma
Claudio Ranieri’s new manager bump only lasted one game as his Roma side were beaten 2-1 on the road at SPAL. It was hard to see what kind of plan Ranieri was going for with his team selection. He gave the start to the strike partnership of Edin Dzeko and Patrick Schick in a 4-4-2, but it did not work.
Neither Dzeko nor Schick are good at creating much, and without the presence of a creative midfielder, Roma struggled in the first half. Roma as a team was fairly awful in the first half, giving up a goal and creating nothing. Stephan El Sharaaway had an uncharacteristic stinker, as did struggling summer signing Justin Kluivert.
They played much better in the second half when Diego Perotti and Nicolo Zaniolo came on for the pair above. Zaniolo played the pass that earned Roma’s penalty goal in the second half, and Perotti scored it, but any chance of points was taken away by a questionable penalty against Juan Jesus. It drops them four points behind AC Milan with ten games to go for the final Champions League place.
Main Photo
