Alberto Bignoli joined an exclusive club of scoring Serie A keepers, while Perisic’s hat-trick took Inter above Napoli, and Lazio showed character to beat SampdoriaWith Napoli hosting Juventus on Friday night, we split the regular Serie A blog in two this week. The main piece, covering that game, is here. But the rest of the weekend turned out to be rather lively as well … Related: Benevento win first Serie A point after keeper's injury-time header stuns Milan ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE, WHEN YOU THINK YOU'VE SEEN IT ALL... INJURY TIME, GOALKEEPER DIVING HEADER EQUALISER Sensational drama at Benevento pic.twitter.com/3q7qVYbvYU Related: This was supposed to be Milan's revival season. Instead they have regressed | Paolo Bandini Continue reading...
With no Italy in the World Cup draw Neapolitans were looking for a little joy and Friday night escapism but were again left feeling blue by their former strikerIf Italians were looking to be distracted from a World Cup draw taking place without them on Friday, they had no shortage of options. In fact, some were aggrieved at an excess of watchable TV. Napoli’s game against Juventus had been scheduled at the same time as new episodes of Gomorrah. Such was the outcry that Sky wound up making the latter available on-demand from breakfast time so viewers would not have to choose. In Naples, this was not truly a dilemma. As popular as Roberto Saviano’s crime drama has become, it...
Standing there at Mestalla, it no longer felt impossible for them to compete to be champions for the first time since the late Jaume Ortí wore an orange wigRodrigo Moreno sprinted towards the near post, slotted the ball past Marc-André ter Stegen and ducked behind the goal at the north end of Mestalla, team-mates racing to join the celebrations. In front of him, Valencia’s fans went wild; behind him a ballboy in a grey bib was busy reaching into a plastic carrier bag. David Vassilev is 14, he plays for Valencia’s Infantil A and in the middle of all the noise and excitement, the gathering crowd, players piling on, he had a job to do. He pulled out a big...
All that really matters is that Vincenzo Montella’s approach was not working, which is why the club’s owners have terminated his services at San SiroVincenzo Montella did not see the curtain coming down. San Siro might sometimes be referred to as La Scala del Calcio – football’s answer to Milan’s famous opera house – but his team’s performances this season had rarely been worthy of such a stage. On Sunday, the Rossoneri drew 0-0 at home to Torino. It was their fourth consecutive home game without a goal in Serie A.An audience of 54,000 people jeered at the conclusion. Still, Montella continued to see his glass as half full. “We dictated the game from start to finish,” he insisted. “The...
For a few weeks Borussia Dortmund’s problem has clearly been confidence, but that won’t have been helped by the remarkable 4-4 draw with SchalkeThe 151st Revierderby was, and will continue to be, notable for a number of reasons. Perhaps chief among them was that it was that rarest of sights; a match which leaves both sides shell-shocked at the final whistle. “This derby will go down in history,” said Schalke’s Amine Harit, who scored the team’s second goal. It was just that, a moment to say in the future “I was there”, to always be remembered. Franco Di Santo grabbed his phone to take a commemorative selfie with Naldo, who scored the equaliser, and skipper Ralf Fährmann. The defender, who...