After another great round of Serie A football, the league table is beginning to take shape and there was plenty of action to enjoy even before the Juventus vs Napoli game at the end of the weekend.
In the big Sunday match, Antonio Conte’s Inter Milan were aiming to continue a perfect start to the season against Lazio at the Stadio Olimpico, but they had to settle for a draw in a bad-tempered match which ended with ten players on either side.
So let’s take a look at the Serie A 2020 highlights from some of the games this weekend and pick out the winners and losers.
Winners: Atalanta
Away from the big match in Rome Gian Piero Gasperini’s Atalanta went top of the Serie A table after hammering Cagliari 5-2 in the lunch-time kick-off. That made it three wins from three and 13 goals for La Dea who seem intent on continuing their free-scoring form of the 2019/20 season. Atalanta score goals from everywhere and had five different goal-scorers in this resounding victory.
Our Serie A 2020 betting tips still expect Inter to be the biggest challenge to Juventus’ vice-like grip on the Scudetto, but at odds of around 7.00 Atalanta are worth keeping an eye on.
Luis Muriel opened the scoring today, on four minutes, and Papu Gomez, Mario Pasalic and Duvan Zapata all scored before the break as Atalanta raced into a 4-1 lead. Sam Lammers made it five late in the game as Gasperini’s side reached the summit of the table. To score five is impressive enough, but to do so against a defence marshalled by the legendary Diego Godin is something else. SBOTOP football fans know all about Godin as the lynchpin at the heart of Atletico Madrid’s record-breaking defence, and this will have hurt. The Uruguayan hard man helped himself to a goal but that won’t have improved his mood.
Losers: Fiorentina
La Viola had a great chance to move up the table on Friday night with a home game against Sampdoria who started the game on zero points. Home advantage is not what it was when the stadiums were packed but after Dusan Vlahovic had equalised Fabio Quagriaella’s opener the hosts looked likely to win. But Sampdoria picked up their first points of the season when Valerio Verre hit a late winner.
This was a missed opportunity for Giuseppe Iachini’s Viola who had 65 per cent of the possession and 22 shots.
Winner: Pedro
Roma’s summer signing Pedro made his mark at Udinese with a stunning strike from outside the area which flew into the top corner, giving keeper Juan Musso no chance.
Pedro scored the winning goal for AS Roma during their Serie A match against Udinese
Roma head coach Paulo Fonseca is a winner too as he managed to field 11 eligible players after his team forfeited their opening game against Hellas Verona when 23-year-old Amadou Diawara stepped onto the pitch. I Giallorossi listed their player in the under 22 section of the squad rather than the senior 25 man squad; a costly mistake but Fonseca can be happier with his work since then.
Things are looking up for Roma and this was a good result to add to their recent 2-2 draw with Juventus.
Losers: Ciro Immobile and Stefano Sensi
So let’s get back to where we started at the big game of the day at the Stadio Olimpico. The high profile clash was perfectly balanced when Sergej Milinkovic-Savic equalised for Lazio after Lautaro Martinez had given I Nerazzurri a half time lead. But 2019/20 top scorer Ciro Immobile lost his head when Inter enforcer Arturo Vidal floored him, kicking out at the Chilean midfielder and earning himself a straight red card.
Not to be outdone, Inter’s Stefano Sensi received his marching orders for violent conduct after a coming together with Lazio right back Patric.
Retaliating is never a good idea, and it rarely turns out well chaps!
Winner: Stefano Pioli
While Inter were frustrated by Lazio, Milan had a profitable afternoon with a 3-0 win over newly-promoted Spezia at the San Siro. Portuguese striker Rafael Leao scored twice and French defender Theo Hernandez added a third as I Rossoneri made it three wins from three, scoring seven and conceding no goals to join Atalanta at the top of the table.
Head coach Pioli must now prepare his side for the Milan derby on the 17th October.
Loser: Giovanni Stroppa
It’s going to be a long hard season for Crotone and their head coach Stroppa. The newly-promoted side have lost their first three games and sit rock bottom of Serie A. On Saturday they lost to Sassuolo. With the game still alive at 2-1, Stroppa made a double substitution bringing on Tomislav Gomelt and Denis Dragus to replace Milos Vulic and Luca Cigarini on 77 minutes.
The move didn’t work as Sassuolo ran out with a 4-1 victory.
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The post Serie A: Atalanta On Fire and Red Cards in Rome appeared first on SBOTOP.