A week without a headline matchup still gave us plenty to talk about in Serie A. With Gattuso’s Milan finding their form, Juventus continuing to win, along with Roma and Lazio picking up 3 points. Carlo Ancelotti rotated his Napoli side and still cruised to victory. And Inter finally got a couple goals from Mauro Icardi in a wild Serie A Weekend.
Serie A Weekend: Big Boys Get Big Wins
Juventus
When Juventus make their yearly trip to Udinese they don’t expect to get anything less than all three points. They certainly did that on Saturday, scoring two goals and keeping a clean sheet. One of those goals was scored Cristiano Ronaldo on a rocket left footed shot into the far corner. The other goal, scored by Rodrigo Bentancur was scored right infront of Ronaldo and from there it was smooth sailing for Juve.
I wanted to highlight the performance of Joao Cancelo. The portuguese right back came over this summer, before the other Portuguese guy, from Valencia. He started last season on loan for Inter, bombing up that right flank as both a full back and winger. For Allegri at Juve his ability to get forward while having the pace to cover his position makes him their ideal fullback. Allegri likes him so much he said before the season he could be the best rightback in the world. As the weeks go by Allegri looks more and more correct.
Napoli
Napoli played host to surprising Sassuolo at the San Paolo on the back of their outstanding 1-0 victory over Liverpool in the Champions League. Ancelotti made loads of changes from midweek including bringing in Adam Ounas and Amaduo Diawara from the start. He would be rewarded almost immediately when AC Milan loanee Manuel Locatelli played an awful backpass right to Ounas.
After a tough initial control, Ounas was able to get the ball on his favored left foot wide open in the middle of the box. He smashed it into the top of the net to give Napoli a very early lead. From their, Sassuolo struggled in the first half but made a couple changes at halftime. Bringing on their star player Domenico Berardi. He made a difference, and Sassuolo began to look threatening.
But in the end it was not enough; Napoli had too much power. As soon as it looked like Sassuolo might get their goal, Ancelotti brought Insigne and Callejon off the bench, and Napoli turned it up. It took a few minutes but they finally got their insurance goal thanks to another lovely curler from Lorenzo Insigne. 2-0, the three points sealed for Napoli.
AC Milan & Inter Milan
Another building block for Gattuso’s Milan as they took care of business at home against Chievo. The two goals from Gonzalo Higuain came from lovely play by Milan’s best playmaker Suso. The pass played through to Higuain on the second was a lovely reverse ball that none of the Chievo defenders saw coming; giving Higuain all the time and space he needed.
Inter meanwhile went away to take on SPAL and they knew it would not be easy. However it’s a little easier when you score early, especially when captain Mauro Icardi is the goalscorer. It was only his second in Serie A this season, so Inter will be very happy to get him scoring. They were a lot less happy when Alberto Paloschi scored a lovely equalizer to give SPAL something to try and hold onto.
They did not hold on long as just six minutes after Paloschi’s goal, Mauro Icardi popped up and scored again. It was Inter’s favorite partnership Ivan Perisic to Mauro Icardi, as Ray Hudson would say like Lennon and Mccartney. It sets up what will be outstanding Derbi Della Madonnina after the international break. There are few things like the San Siro on Derby Day and it should be an absolute cracker.
Piatek still scoring
Krzysztof Piatek, Europe’s top scorer so far this season, bagged another against Parma on Sunday. He scored a lovely opener, though it was the only nice thing Genoa did all game. They were down 3-1 by halftime and lost by that same scoreline. That’s 13 goals in 8 games for Genoa though for Piatek so maybe he just needs to do a little more.
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