Standings implications: Milan rallied back versus Parma but stopped short of winning, so the chasers gnawed at their lead. Some tribulations for Napoli and Inter but the rest of the round was pretty chalky as Roma demolished Bologna, while the Partenopei and the Nerazzurri came back versus Sampdoria and Cagliari respectively and Juventus outgunned Genoa. Atalanta put some things in order with a healthy win over Fiorentina, while Lazio were the latest victims of the giant-killing Verona. Sassuolo had a very professional W over Benevento back on Friday. Third victory in a row for the surging Udinese, which left Torino in the danger zone, also considering that Crotone finally broke the spell by blindsiding Spezia.
Confirmations: Cristiano Ronaldo remedied to a rare scoreless round with a brace from the penalty spot and is now tied with Zlatan Ibrahimovic in the capocannoniere standings. Romelu Lukaku pounced on Cagliari’s recklessness to register his eight goal in League play. Every Roma contributor hit the net against Bologna, even Lorenzo Pellegrini that had yet to do it so far in the 2020/21 campaign, while Edin Dzeko, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Jordan Veretout kept up their good form. Hirving Lozano single-handedly turned the tide off the bench in the Sampdoria contest, finding his sixth goal, while Andrea Petagna knocked home the second in a row to answer to Jakub Jankto’s early goal. Domenico Berardi showed up again and his PK single-handedly sunk Benevento. Ignacio Pussetto and Rodrigo De Paul again propelled Udinese, keeping Torino at bay despite Andrea Belotti’s eighth goal. Hernani scored his fourht goal of the campaign.
Guess who is back: Paulo Dybala snapped out of a five-month drought in Serie A with a dazzling goal. Robin Gosens is back on a Serie A box-score, while Ruslan Malinovskyi fittingly nailed a majestic free kick to notch his first goal of the season after missing time with COVID. Nicolò Barella finally put one past the goalkeeper, fully cashing in on his stellar moment. After five scoreless matches, Crotone’s Junior Messias erupted with a brace to torpedo Spezia, while Diego Farias foud the back of the the net for the first time since mid-October. Federico Bonazzoli had not gotten many opportunities so far, but made the most of it versus Udinese, opening his tally with Torino, while Ilija Nestorovski took advantage of some absences to notch his first goal since July. Felipe Caicedo found the target with a lovely strike. Riccardo Sottil had not made delivered since late October despite generally being pretty active, Jasmin Kurtic had not done it in seven rounds instead.
Surprise scorers: Adrien Tameze was deployed as false-nine and hit the net with great opportunism. When Atalanta are humming it usually translates to some bonuses for centre-backs and Rafael Toloi punched in a header against Fiorentina. The Pitagorici received help in their rout from Arkadiusz Reca and Eduardo Henrique’s first goals of the campaign. Danilo D’Ambrosio found paydirt even in limited minutes. Stefano Sturaro had not hit the net in over a year.
Flops of the round: Lazio committed seppuku as Manuel Lazzarri was saddled with an own goal and Stefan Radu set up the second Verona goal with an errant pass. Similar blunder for Samir, but Udinese did not pay the ultimate price. Jacopo Sala was out of position on a couple for Crotone goals. Andrea Poli and Bryan Cristante traded own goals in Bologna-Roma, where the Felsinei were thoroughly humbled in the first half.
Clutch goal: Theo Hernandez came to the rescue for the Rossoneri with two pretty goals and a decisive one late to prevent them from going down.
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