Standings implications: Milan had to dig extra deep but bested Fiorentina to stay close to the top as Inter did not play this week. Juventus likely kissed their feeble title hopes goodbye as they got torpedoed by Benevento at home. Napoli looked great versus Roma and seized a key victory in the Champions League. Atalanta continue to sprint and handled Verona, while Lazio picked up their second W in a row at Udinese’ expenses.
Bologna staged a glorious comeback against Crotone. There were two monumental wins in the relegation struggle as Spezia topped Cagliari and Genoa upended Parma, adding to their cushion from the red area and preventing the opponents from gaining steam. Torino got beat by Sampdoria and thus failed to take advantage of the other results.
Confirmations: Simy made the stat-sheet for the fourth round in a row, while Adolfo Gaich and Roberto Piccoli in two consecutive matches. Franck Ribery found paydirt against Milan. Dries Mertens bagged a brace to make it three goals over the last five tilts.
Guess who is back: Zlatan Ibrahimovic delivered upon making his first start since he picked up a thigh injury and also Hakan Calhanoglu put his physical problems in the past with a surgical shot. Brahim Diaz stepped up and took advantage of the Milan absences to register his third goal of the year. Duvan Zapata and Ruslan Malinovskyi both found the target after five scoreless appearances. Antonio Candreva resurfaced following nine quiet appearances where he was held to just a pair of assists.
Junior Messias returned to the stat-sheet after some time with a cheeky goal. Graziano Pellè bagged his first Serie A goal in ten years in his third cap with Parma, but Gianluca Scamacca vigorously answered with a brace, snapping out of a slump that had started back in November. Andreas Skov Olsen had not hit the net since the second matchday.
Surprise scorers: Bologna benefitted from new contributors as Adama Soumaoro and Jerdy Schouten found their first goal of the campaign. Giulio Maggiore put it past the goalie with a very lucky bounce, nullifying the late tap-in by Gaston Pereiro, who also opened his seasonal tally. Erick Pulgar hits bullseye with a gorgeous free kick, his first successful one in the year.
Flops of the round: Juventus could break a back-line that had given up a ton of goals in recent games and Alvaro Morata in particular was quite wasteful. Roma again got outplayed in a big game.
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