Milan slumped at home to Sassuolo, while Monza rocked Juventus. Is there anyone who can now stop Napoli?By the end, it felt like a cup final: two teams playing as if everything needed to be settled right here. One moment Roma’s keeper, Rui Patricio, was making a save at his near post and the next he was sprinting toward the opposite goal, joining the attack for a corner. As teammate Gianluca Mancini’s final attempt on goal was blocked, Napoli players spilled from the dugout punching the air, yelling, embracing.Why should it matter like this? José Mourinho had told us on Saturday that the Serie A title race was already over, offering his congratulations. “I don’t want to be misinterpreted …...
Against Atalanta, the show went on after the announcement of a severe penalty but so much remains uncertainFor a couple of hours, Juventus allowed themselves to forget. The buildup to their game against Atalanta had been overshadowed by news of a 15-point penalty, a punishment nobody saw coming. Even the prosecutor leading the case against them had only asked for nine.Anger at that decision was palpable inside the Allianz Stadium. The Serie A anthem was loudly whistled and the positioning of league-branded materials on the pitch before kickoff met with hostile chanting. A banner hung by fans on the gates outside read: “Serie A or Serie B, we are always here. Only for Juventus FC.” Continue reading...
Run of eight Juventus league wins without conceding was ended emphatically by a dominant 5-1 Napoli win and displayIt took 30 years for Massimiliano Allegri’s career to come full circle. In May 1993, as a young midfielder, he scored the goal that set Pescara on the way to an unforgettable 5-1 win over Juventus. The Bianconeri would never concede that many again in Serie A until Allegri, as manager, took them to face Napoli at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona on Friday night.The context was very different. Pescara were already relegated in 1993 while Juventus’s minds were on the beach after winning the Uefa Cup a fortnight before. This season, everything is still to play for. Allegri’s team travelled to...
‘Bomber, Champion, Legend: thanks to you we know nothing is impossible.’ It was left to other teams to prove that last pointThe match was over but nobody wanted to go home, as if leaving this place meant letting go of him. To stay was to hold on a little while longer. One more time, Sampdoria’s supporters at the Marassi started to sing. “Luca Vialli, Luca Vialli, Luca Vialli alé alé, we love you and we adore you, you are better than Pelé.”There was no malice toward the Brazilian here, no intent to disrespect the memory of a player who died at the end of December. This has been their ode to Vialli for decades, since he was a twentysomething firing...
Edin Dzeko’s header proved decisive as the Serie A leaders started 2023 by seeing their lead at the top cut to five pointsThe mid-season World Cup interruption felt that little bit longer to many Italian football fans, left without a team to cheer for, so Serie A’s organisers opted for total immersion on its return. If you thought four games in an afternoon was a lot during Qatar’s group stage then how about 10, scheduled in pairs to kick off every two hours throughout a regular workday?Typically, the Italian top flight would return from its winter break on the Christian feast day of Epiphany, 6 January, a national holiday, but that falls on a Friday this year. Playing then would...