The American has grabbed headlines with goals in his first two Serie A games but other new recruits are making an impact tooChristian Pulisic is listed on the Milan website as weighing 73kg or 161lb, but Rafael Leão lifted him off the floor like a dad with his kid at school sports day, hugging him right up into the air. When you have been carrying a team’s attack for as long as the Portuguese has, anything else feels light by comparison.Leão has been Milan’s top scorer and assist-provider in Serie A for two seasons running – though he did share the first of those titles with Olivier Giroud in 2021-22 – a blessing and a curse for his team. He...
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...
Napoli’s manager and players were tremendous, Italian sides impressed on the European stage, but chaos engulfed JuventusThree European finalists, but not a single champion. A brilliant season for Italian club football ended in the most agonising way possible, with Roma, Fiorentina and Internazionale each carving out opportunities to win their respective competitions but none able to land a killer blow. Feelings of pride in performance crashed up against the overwhelming emptiness of knowing that, for many players and coaches, such opportunities come but once in a career.Does their collective failure paint a bleak picture for Serie A? Don’t be ridiculous. From 2014 to 2016 there were three consecutive years when Italy qualified only two teams to the Champions League group...
One last game remains for Spezia and Verona, who must now meet in the first Serie A relegation playoff for 18 yearsThe Serie A season was over until it wasn’t, a goal in the 91st minute at the Stadio Olimpico ensuring that we get one more game yet. Paulo Dybala’s penalty, scored just before 11pm local time, secured Europa League football for Roma but condemned opponents Spezia to a relegation playoff. They must defend their top-flight status against Verona next weekend after finishing level in 18th place.Not since 2005 has a season ended this way. Serie A had done away with playoffs and playouts, using head-to-head records as a tie-breaker instead. Their reintroduction was announced last summer, to be used...
Milan’s narrow victory in Turin sealed a top-four finish but for Juventus the scandal over alleged false accounting rolls onIt should have been blood and thunder, two of Italian football’s biggest clubs squaring off on the penultimate weekend with Champions League football on the line. Juventus and Milan instead gave us dull, with blunders, in front of a listless crowd.Significant sections of the Allianz Stadium were empty at kick-off. Fewer than 500 Milan supporters had made the short trip to Turin, others balking at the €80 ticket price in the away section. Juventus Ultras from the Curva Sud, meanwhile, were staging a protest outside against what they perceive as heavy-handed treatment from their club, including restrictions on flags, banners and...