The weekend's Italian football had it all as AC Milan made a dramatic comeback; inter suffered their first defeat and Juventus have finally come good under Massimiliano Allegri.
AC Milan 3-2 Hellas Verona
The Rosseneri made a stunning come back against Hellas Verona to carry on their impressive start to the season. Hellas Verona were 2-0 up after just 24 minutes. Defensive failures for Milan allowed Gianluca Caprari to score a wonderful volley past CiprianTatarusanu after Miguel Veloso reacted first to a loose ball to head his teammate through on goal.
Verona went on to double their lead through a Antonin Barak penalty, who calmly placed it into the bottom corner. Olivier Giroud cut the deficit for Milan with a trademark header after a sublime cross from the first half substitute, Rafeal Leao, landed perfectly for the French international. Leao and Samu Castillejo ran the Verona defence ragged and only a brute force could stop them, sending Castillejo to the ground and winning them a penalty, which Frank Kessie slotted away to bring Milan level.
A spectacular own goal from Koray Gunter won the game for Milan as he diverted a cross past his goalkeeper. Verona piled on the pressure in final ten minutes but could not find a leveler. The result leaves Milan in second place, two points behind league leaders Napoli.
Lazio 3-1 Inter Milan
The other side of Milan were not so fortunate however, as Inter lost 3-1 against Lazio. The current champions of Italy have been in good form in the league until this game, having been unbeaten in seven games, winning five and drawing two. It was personal for Lazio too as their former manager Simone Inzaghi left the capital for Inter Milan in the summer.
Inter scored the first goal of the game with a penalty from Ivan Perisic and stayed ahead for the remainder of the first half. Lazio came out for the second half a completely different side, scoring three without reply.
Ciro Immobile scored a penalty to tie the game and with ten minutes to go, Inter could not withstand the Lazio pressure, eventually conceding to Felipe Anderson, and Sergej Milinkovic-Savic compounded the victory in the ninetieth minute, giving the Nerazzurri no hope of way back. Losing the game meant Inter dropped to third, with arch-rivals AC Milan leapfrogging them in the table. Lazio rise to fifth, one point behind their cross-city rivals Roma.
Juventus 1-0 AS Roma
Juventus have not been the usual, consecutive title winning side ever since they opted for Maurizio Sarri over Allegri back in 2019, as they had looked to develop their tactical setup from defence first to a possession-based system. Since then, Cristiano Ronaldo had come and gone and they have very little to show for it as they allowed other teams to play catch up, with inter Milan winning the league most recently.
This weekend's win over Roma could be a sign that Juventus are back as they ground out the win against Jose Mourinho’s side. Moise Kean’s first half strike separated the two sides on the day leaving Allegri the happier of the two managers.
After teh game, Mourinho said to DAZN: “I may have seen it differently than you, but what I saw was the team that deserved to win ended up losing - that’s football."
It’s easy to sympathise with the Portuguese as his side dominated the game, with ten shots compared to Juve’s three. Roma also missed a penalty through Jordan Veretout after Wozniak Szczesny guessed the right way.
It doesn’t get easier for Roma as they face Napoli in their next league game, who have won every game they have played in Seria A this season. Juventus will also struggle as they face defending champions Inter Milan.
Empoli 1-4 Atalanta
Annual underdogs Atalanta cruised past Empoli 4-1 after a first half brace from Josip Ilicic. The Slovenian scored his first after Mario Palasic squared it across the box for him to shoot into an empty net. He then scored a sublime goal from outside of the box after fellow striker Muriel layed it off for him.
Empoli scored to make it 2-1 after a long ball was brought down by Federico Di Francesco and buried it into the opposite corner. This was as good as it got for the home side as Atalanta scored two more goals in the second half, coming from an own goal from Mattia Viti and an eight-ninth minute strike which was very similar to Atalanta's first goal as Palasic squared it for Duvan Zapata to place into the empty net. Ilicic could well have had a hat trick as he skied a penalty over the bar.
Napoli 1-0 Torino
Napoli carried on their dazzling start to start to the campaign as Victor Osimhen continues to excel in attack, despite coming up against a tough Torino side, who proved to be quite a test for the league leaders.
Napoli came into this game with seven wins from seven games, whilst Torino were sat in twelfth. Napoli had a big chance to open to scoring earlier as Lorenzo Insigne had a penalty saved, but just before the hour mark Napoli had the ball in the net. Giovanni Di Lorenzo thought he had scored with a header from a free kick but it was disallowed by VAR for being offside.
Hirving Lozano went on the hit the post and it was seeming like Napoli would not find the goal they were searching for. Torino were looking like they would steal the points as the game went on, but a flurry of late attacks were not capatalised on. Josip Brekalo danced through Napoli’s defence before having his shot expertly saved by David Ospina. Brekalo again had a very good chance of winning the game for Torino after being in acres of space but sent the ball over the bar.
Osimhen did eventually get the goal, in bizarre fashion, as some slick link up play from Dries Mertens and Kalidou Koulibaly put Mertens in behind. The Belgian international played a low cross which was met by a defender - whose clearance hit Napoli forward Eljif Elmas - looping up over the defenders into Osimhen's path who finished, giving Napoli a well earned three points.