Standings implications: Napoli topped Milan in the most anticipated clash of the matchday, stoking their Champions League hopes as they surpassed Roma. The relegation strugglers tried to play spoiler with the top teams and one managed, as Parma returned to winning ways after ages by stunning the Giallorossi. Inter and Lazio downed Torino and Crotone with late goals with some extra effort, while Atalanta pulled away in the second half against Spezia. Juventus instead easily throttled Cagliari. Sassuolo emerged victorious over Verona in the battle for the eight spot. A little lower in the table, Bologna got the better of Sampdoria in a pretty opportunistic win. Fiorentina grabbed an important W as they trounced Benevento, which continue to languish. Genoa and Udinese shared the spoils in a typical result that satisfied both sides.
Confirmations: Cristiano Ronaldo and Dusan Vlahovic detonated with a hat-trick against Benevento, while Simy kept it going with another brace despite the challenging match-up. Both Inter stars Romelu Lukaku and Lautaro Martinez cracked the box score in this round. Luis Muriel clocked in as per usual and Roberto Soriano has rediscovered his scoring touch, making it three goals in the past five matches. Luis Alberto bagged his second goal over the past four games. Rodrigo De Paul extended his streak of productive performances with a successful penalty kick. Matteo Politano came through in a big spot for Napoli. Two paydirts in a row for the peppy Valentin Mihaila and Antonio Sanabria, while Hernani nailed a PK.
Guess who is back: Musa Barrow and Fabio Quagliarella snapped out of five-game droughts while going toe-to-toe. After some assists over the previous tilts, Sergej Milinkovic-Savic hit the net against Crotone, then Felipe Caicedo reprised his late-game heroics to end a dry spell. Darko Lazovic had been similarly busy setting up teammates before breaking through on his own in this round, while Federico Dimarco had not found paydirt in five contests. Filip Djuricic and Hamed Traore scored in that same game and they had not done it in a minute. Mario Pasalic showed up big time as he put together a brace versus Spezia, making the stat-sheet for the first time since October. Giovanni Simeone resumed scoring after five months. Goran Pandev hit bullseye after four quiet rounds. Roberto Piccoli has technically scored twice in his last three appearances, but he had last featured in January.
Surprise scorers: Manuel Locatelli and Mattias Svanberg notched the third goal of their campaigns, Valentin Eysseric instead his second. Artur Ionita finally managed to open his tally this season.
Flops of the round: Benevento and Cagliari had terrible first halves against Fiorentina and Juventus. Ante Rebic picked up a silly red card.
Clutch goal: Lautaro Martinez solved a match than had become very tricky for Inter with a crafty header five minutes before the final whistle.
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