Juventus, Inter, Lazio, Milan and Atalanta are queuing up for a crack at the Scudetto after a summer of change in ItalyThe post-Scudetto cleanup in Naples took more than a month, local authorities reporting they had gathered up enough banners and blue and white ribbons to cover the length of 400 football pitches. Those were just the ones hung on public property. In bars, restaurants and the windows of homes all over the city, Napoli’s first Serie A title in 33 years will continue to be celebrated as long as there are people to remember it.Now, though, they must defend their crown. Easier said than done: Italy has had a different champion in each of the past four seasons. A...
Seven straight draws have marked a turnaround, but the manager is yet to find the right formula up front to escape Serie A’s relegation placesGenoa needed someone to steady the ship. By mid-January, the Rossoblù seemed to be disappearing beneath the waves of the Ligurian Riviera, having collected more managers than wins through the first 22 games of this Serie A season. Davide Ballardini was fired in November with the team in 17th in the table. In two months under Andriy Shevchenko, they sunk a further two places.Alexander Blessin arrived promising “high velocity” football, “made of pressing and mentality”. Supporters did not know what to expect. The newspapers promised a disciple of Ralf Rangnick – one who had coached youth...
Ole Gunnar Solskjær’s star player rescued him again but his team looked confused and overrun in a 2-2 draw with AtalantaThe genius of the modern Manchester United is that for all the attention lavished upon them, for all the granular analysis they attract, they remain a largely unknown quantity. When they take the field, you genuinely have no idea what to expect from them. And not just in terms of results, either: tactics, personnel, effort and mood are all equally unforeseeable. They are the hyperactive toddlers of English football, equally capable of moments of startling insight and unfettered joy as they are of throwing valuable household ornaments into the toilet.Naturally, this is a quality greatly prized by Ed Woodward and...
Manchester United’s win over Atalanta was made up of magnificent moments but this was a gruelling watch for home fansWith nine minutes to play on a thrilling, increasingly wild night at Old Trafford Cristiano Ronaldo made one of those half-runs, the run that isn’t quite the run, then stretched his stride as he picked up the flight of the ball from Luke Shaw’s boot on the left flank.This is one of the things Ronaldo does so well, the algebra of flight, speed, timing, gravity, contact, the millions of equations and muscle‑mnemonics that go into making these moments work. Continue reading...
A cup winner with Enrico Chiesa and Parma in 1999, the keeper repeated the trick with Federico and Juve 22 years laterAs Juventus prepared for their last shot at a major trophy this season, Federico Chiesa approached Gigi Buffon. “You won this with my father,” said the forward to the goalkeeper. “Now you need to do the same with me.”Twenty-two years had passed since Buffon claimed the Coppa Italia with Parma, playing in a team that featured Enrico Chiesa up front. Federico had not yet reached his second birthday. Who could ever have imagined that they would one day start a final together, and that each would have an essential role to play? Related: Inter fail to knock Juventus out...