Serie A Round 11: Shock at the San Siro
Another eventful week of calcio has passed with some interesting results and performances to discuss.
A quick rundown of this week’s results:
Bologna (1) — (0) Lazio
Salernitana (0) — (2) Napoli
Atalanta (1) —(2) Inter
Milan (0) — (1) Udinese
Verona (1) — (3) Monza
Cagliari (2) — (1) Genoa
Roma (2) — (1) Lecce
Fiorentina (0) — (1) Juventus
Frosinone (2) — (1) Empoli
Torino (2) — (1) Sassuolo
Action kicked off Friday evening as Thiago Motta and Bologna surprised some by pulling off a victory and clean sheet against Maurizio Sarri’s Lazio. Bologna carried a 9-match unbeaten streak in Serie A, as Lazio were beginning to get back to form after a bumpy start to the campaign. This match gave us more evidence for Thiago Motta becoming a top coach in Italy, as he set up extremely well tactically and finally got a win from one of the big boys in the league, after already getting draws against Juventus, Inter, and Napoli so far this season. Bologna got the winner twenty-five seconds into the second half courtesy of a goal from Scotsman Lewis Ferguson off the back of some efficient build-up play from Motta’s side. The goal helped Lewis Ferguson get a share of the record for the highest-scoring Scottish player in Serie A, with ten goals, tied with Denis Law, the only Scottish player to hoist the Ballon d’Or, putting Ferguson in some exciting company. Motta’s men defended for much of the remainder of the match and stood firm as Lazio could only create six shooting chances in the second half, none forcing a save out of the Polish keeper Łukasz Skorupski.
There are many individuals in this Bologna squad deserving of high praise, notably Thiago Motta for putting together this exciting and effective young squad, including young star Joshua Zirkzee, Lewis Ferguson whom we discussed briefly, and the surprising young center-back Riccardo Calafiori. Twenty-one-year-old Calafiori joined the club two matches into the year after moving from Basel. He’s been thrown into the lineup prematurely due to a long-term injury to Jhon Lucumi, but he’s taken his chances very well and shows little signs of his lack of experience. I saw exceptional skill on the ball, likely due to his nature as a left-back prior to joining Bologna. If Motta can mold Calafiori into a center-back capable of dominating defensively and in possession, we could potentially see the rise of another great Italian defender.
Saturday afternoon saw Atalanta play host to league leaders Inter, where two records were put on the line. Atalanta had not lost yet at home, and Inter came in with four wins on four away trips. It was Atalanta’s record that proved to break, as Inter came away with a 2–1 win. Hakan Çalhanoğlu scored from the penalty spot in the first half, and Lautaro Martinez scored his twelfth of the season early in the second half. A defensive disaster from Federico Dimarco gifted a goal to Gianluca Scamacca, but it proved to be just a consolation as Inter held on for another convincing win, as they look to open up a gap in the title race.
Though the blue side of Milan cheered, the red side wept in despair after handing Udinese their first win of the season, in the San Siro no less. Injuries and eyes on next week’s big match against PSG in the Champions League prompted Stefano Pioli to change from his 4–3–3 to a 4–4–2, a formation I can’t remember ever seeing Pioli play with Milan. If Milan won 3–0, we’d say it was a stroke of genius, however, it was far from that as Milan were not able to put the ball past Marco Silvestri and eventually fell to a penalty goal from Riccardo Pereyra in the 62nd minute. Though Milan would be able to create chances in the second half, ten shots along with 70% possession, the goal never came, which has been the theme of Milan’s young season.
For the many shots and goal-creating opportunities that Milan set up, goals seem to be very hard to come by. It has been a very difficult few weeks for Pioli and his Milan players. Pioli has fallen under heavy criticism in the media and from his own players. One can expect regression to the mean to be imminent, but the morale in the Milan camp looks extremely low, and it will take a huge performance against PSG in order to change this. There is a lack of motivation evident among the squad and things will need to change quickly if they want to stay in the Champions League and continue their race to a twentieth Scudetto.
On Sunday, drama in the capital took all the headlines. Roma faced off against a Lecce side who started the season with three wins in their first five matches, but have slowed down and are now winless in their last six Serie A contests. After beginning very well and taking the game to Roma, Lecce took a 1–0 lead through Pontus Almqvist in the 72nd minute and looked like they were on their way to a surprising upset result at the Olimpico. Roma under Mourinho never dies, though, and in stoppage time the tides would shift all the way in Roma’s favor. Two goals in three stoppage time minutes from new signings Sardar Azmoun and Romelu Lukaku propelled Roma to a 2–1 lead, erupting the Olimpico and getting Mourinho out of jail once again. The performance was far from attractive, but in the end, all three points stayed in Rome.
After the madness in Rome, Fiorentina faced off against Juventus to wrap up Sunday’s action. Fiorentina’s ultras were hoping for the match to be postponed due to the terrible flooding around the region of Tuscany but unfortunately for them, the match was played on. I pray for good news to come out of Tuscany in the coming days as they continue to deal with the fallback of Storm Ciaran. Juventus came out to an early lead through some exciting build-up play that cut through Fiorentina’s midfield and led to a Fabio Miretti tap-in goal off the end of a cross from Filip Kostic. This marks Miretti’s first goal at the senior level for Juventus after scoring at every youth level for the club. It is very exciting for Fabio Miretti, who has shown his skill on many occasions this year and last year, but now has more responsibility upon his shoulders after the suspensions of Paul Pogba and Nicolo Fagioli. This goal could mark the true break-out for the young Italian, as he finally has the elusive first goal under his belt and can now hopefully turn his positive attacking display into more goals and assists for Juventus. After the 1–0, Juventus reverted back to their defensive structure and held firm for the next 80 minutes, only troubling Fiorentina’s goal with one more shot on target late in the second half. Juventus defended brilliantly though, showing glimpses of the defensive display that led this club to nine consecutive titles in the 2010s. Fiorentina controlled all of the possession but really were unable to create any attacking chances of substance. That is now three losses on the bounce for Fiorentina who have started to stall after a promising start to the campaign, and four wins in four for Juventus, who continue to keep the gap with Inter close.
Round 11 closed on Monday with Frosinone beating Empoli 2–1 behind more positive play from Juventus loanee Matias Soule and a goal plus assist for seventeen-year-old Arijon Ibrahimović, who is showing signs of being a real prodigy in the league. The match was followed by Torino playing host to Sassuolo, and also coming away with a 2–1 victory off the back of some dominant play from Nicola Vlasic who came off the bench for Samuele Ricci who exited with a thigh strain after only nine minutes.
European competition returns this week, as Inter and Napoli hope to take one step closer to clinching a place in the UCL knockout stage, while Milan and Lazio will fight to keep their chances of progressing in the Champions League alive. Roma look to keep their perfect record in the Europa League intact, as Atalanta will hope to amend the surprising draw from two weeks ago as they too look toward clinching a spot in the knockout stage. Finally, Fiorentina will be optimistic about getting another win and opening a gap at the top of their group in the Conference League. The sides will then return home to prepare for one more Serie A match before the league breaks for international duty, a crucial window for the Azzurri who will need four points from their remaining two European qualifiers in order to clinch a spot in the 2024 Euros in Germany next summer. This window is obviously the most important in Luciano Spalletti’s young reign, and success is mandatory here. Italy cannot afford to miss out on another tournament.
