Standings implications: Milan dug deep and scavenged a late equalizer to avoid losing against Verona, stay on top but could not pull away from the chasers. Sassuolo could not find a break to bend Udinese and had to settle for a nil-nil draw Friday, but maintained the second position. Roma surged to the third spot with their fourth success in the past five rounds as they easily upended Genoa: they are on a par with Napoli, which had to sweat it out against Bologna. Juventus were literally pipped at the post by Lazio, squandering a good opportunity to pick up a quality win, and they sit behind the Giallorossi. Atalanta-Inter ended in a fitting tie given both teams’ recent troubles.
About everything went wrong for Sampdoria in Cagliari as the Rossoblù marched toward a two-nothing W, their third in the past four fixtures. Fiorentina and Parma shared the spoils in a snooze-fest, same thing for Torino and Crotone on Sunday. Spezia emerged victorious in commanding fashion in the head-to-head clash versus Benevento, thus making a significant jump in the standings.
Confirmations: despite a frustating game where he skied a penalty kick, Zlatan Ibrahimovic did score his eight goal thus far, tying it at the buzzer for the Rossoneri. Cristiano Ronaldo notched one more goal, moving to six in the season. Joao Pedro found the target for the fifth consecutive match by nailing a PK. Two goals in a row for Spezia’s talented midfielder Tommaso Pobega, who did not take long to find his footing in Serie A. Antonin Barak made the stat-sheet for the second week in a row, while second goal in the season for Marko Pjaca.
Guess who is back: Henrikh Mkhitaryan had provided a bunch of assists thus, but he had yet to score; he fixed his seasonal numbers with a hat-trick against Genoa. Victor Osimhen resurfaced with a seminal goal. Lautaro Martinez had snapped out of his little slump in Champions League midweek and replicated the achievement in Serie A play as well, but Aleksey Miranchuk stung Inter later on, finding his first Serie A goal. M’Bala Nzola profited off his good run of form with a great brace against Benevento, showing off his whole arsenal. Nahitan Nandez was rewarded for all his hard work and hustle with an easy score versus Sampdoria.
Flops of the round: the usually awesome Tommaso Augello had a key mistake against Cagliari, which earned him a red card. Sebastiano Luperto was sent off as well for Crotone. Sassuolo and Torino did not have much juice in winnable games, Fiorentina tried to rally around their coach but were not very effective up front. Unlucky own goals for Davide Calabria and Giangiacomo Magnani.
Clutch goal: Felipe Caicedo is challenging Renato Cesarini for the ownership of the metonymy to indicate the final minutes of the game, as he came through very late once again in the Juventus clash.
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