Napoli cannot be stopped thanks to its attacking duo, Kvara and Osimhen, AC Milan fell against Torino in a surprising defeat and Roma won with class and heart against Verona – jumping to fourth place in the standings: let’s see what happened in the latest Serie A weekend…
INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCES OF THE WEEK – VICTOR OSIMHEN AND NICOLO FAGIOLI
The Napoli striker is experiencing a golden moment: on Saturday against Sassuolo he scored three goals and actually brought the three points to his team.
Luciano Spalletti is enjoying the talent of the Nigerian striker who apparently no longer wants to stop: first the splendid goal scored against Roma, then the hat-trick against Sassuolo. Thanks to him and his teammate Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, a real marvel at this moment (one goal and two assists on Saturday), Spalletti is first in the standings and at present there seem to be no teams able to stop Napoli’s race.
Osimhen, however, is truly in a state of grace and of course he must thank his coach.
The new name at Juventus is Nicolò Fagioli. In this difficult moment Max Allegri is drawing a lot from his boys, from younger players like Maitias Soulé, Samuel Iling-Junior, Fabio Miretti and Fagioli himself. The latter, a midfielder born in 2001, was decisive for Saturday’s victory over Lecce, with a goal that reminded a lot the “classic” ones of Alessandro Del Piero. For two days in Italy there has been no talk of anything else and comparisons are already being made.
His name actually has been around for some time, but until Saturday he still hadn’t had a real chance. He caught it in the best possible way and now Allegri will inevitably have to take him into consideration a little more, the way he did with Fabio Miretti.
PLAYER OF THE WEEK – CRISTIAN VOLPATO
Yet another young player launched by Jose Mourinho since he has been on the Roma bench. Last year Zalewski and Felix had become starters, this year we are seeing more and more – Edoardo Bove, Giacomo Faticanti made his debut in Europe on Thursday and Volpato had played since the start of the match. Against Verona, with the result still at 1-1, the Special One decided to rely “on the creativity” of Volpato, born in 2003, a player represented by Francesco Totti’s agency: the young Italian-Australian unlocked and determined the final result.
First he scored the 1-2 goal, with a great volley on Nemanja Matic’s assist, then he drew a perfect assist of his own for Stephan El Shaarawy, who got past the goalkeeper with a lob and then fired into an empty net.
It is possible that on Thursday Volpato will be back on the pitch again, as happened last year with Nicola Zalewski, today a real Roma starter. Totti had seen it right and Mourinho has launched another talented young man, with a way of working that at times recalls what he did in the early years of his career when he was at Porto.
The Giallorossi, meanwhile, are in fourth place in the standings, two points from second place and above all without two aces like Paulo Dybala and Gini Wijnaldum.
SURPRISE OF THE WEEK – SALERNITANA BEATS LAZIO
Nobody really expected this result. It’s true, Maurizio Sarri’s Lazio is missing Ciro Immobile (out due to injury), but on Sunday everyone expected an easy victory for the Biancocelesti, in a home match that came at a good time for them. But everything went wrong, despite the initial advantage signed by Mattia Zaccagni.
Davide Nicola’s Salernitana first found a draw with the former Lazio man Antonio Candreva (with a great goal), then the advantage with the former Roma defender Federico Fazio and then the third goal, scored by Boulaye Dia, one of the revelations of this league.
In all this, the worst possible news for Sarri has also arrived: Sergej Milinkovic-Savic received a yellow card, entered the field in the 64th minute to overturn the result: he would have been suspended for the next game if booked and it’s happened, for this he will miss the Derby against Roma.
At the end of the game Sarri said some rather heavy things: “If I say what I think they disqualify me for six months”.
TEAM PERFORMANCE OF THE WEEK – TORINO AGAINST MILAN
When many least expected it, Stefano Pioli’s Milan fell. The Rossoneri have not lost an away match in 17 games: Ivan Juric and his team have succeeded in a real feat. Thanks to a bad performance by one of Milan’s most fit players, namely Rafael Leao, Torino deservedly won the match on Saturday evening, even going momentarily on the result of 2-0, thanks to two goals (scored in a few minutes) by Koffi Djidji and Alex Miranchuk, the second of which is particularly beautiful and complicated.
AC Milan thus lost ground in the standings, with Napoli escaping +6, therefore two games ahead of the Rossoneri. Torino had been looking for a performance like the one on Saturday for several weeks and came right against one of the strongest and most fit teams in the league. A fresh start for Juric and his boys.
