A brilliant header by Napoli striker Giovanni Simeone helped his side to seal a 2-1 win at Milan and return to the top of the Serie A table on Sunday. Simeone headed home in the 78th minute following a superb Mário Rui cross.
Winger Matteo Politano had scored a penalty after 55 minutes following a foul by Sergiño Dest on Khvicha Kvaratskhelia. Olivier Giroud fired in an equaliser in the 69th minute when Theo Hernández found him with a cross in the middle of the box.
Atalanta are level on points at the top after a 1-0 win at Roma, the teenage defender Giorgio Scalvini scoring the only goal before José Mourinho was sent to the stands. The Roma head coach was shown a red card in the second half after going on to the field to remonstrate with the referee, Daniele Chiffi.
Jose Mourinho has been SENT OFF at the Stadio Olimpico 🟥
— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) September 18, 2022
The Roma boss is given his marching orders after protesting against the referee's decision not to award his side a penalty. pic.twitter.com/lliYiR62t4
Earlier, promoted Monza took a surprising but deserved 1-0 home win over Juventus, their first ever Serie A victory, as the visitors struggled after being reduced to 10 men. Ángel Di María’s return from injury for Juve was cut short when he was sent off five minutes before the break for elbowing Armando Izzo in the chest.
“I wish to apologise to everyone for that inappropriate reaction I had on the pitch,” Di María later wrote on Instagram. “Having left the team a man down in such a difficult moment of the season made us lose the game. It is purely my fault that we lost. I am so very sorry. I am a professional, but also a human being who makes mistakes and can recognise them.”
With Juventus’s manager, Massimiliano Allegri, watching from the stands after being sent off last week, his assistant Marco Landucci took charge. After an even first half, the hosts smelled blood in the second and pressured the opposition defence. The Danish substitute Christian Gytkjær became the home side’s hero when he slid in the winner from Patrick Ciurria’s cross after 74 minutes.
Udinese earned their fifth successive league victory with a 3-1 win over Internazionale. The hosts, who last won five consecutive games in December 2017, sit third with 16 points from seven games, equalling their best start to a season last achieved in the 2000-01 campaign.
The Italy midfielder Nicolò Barella curled a superb free-kick into the top corner after five minutes to give Inter an early lead. Udinese levelled midway through the first half thanks to an own goal from Milan Skriniar after Beto’s header from a Roberto Pereyra free-kick bounced off the Inter defender.
The visitors struggled to keep Udinese at bay and their resolve was eventually broken six minutes from time when the Slovenian defender Jaka Bijol scored from a Gerard Deulofeu corner. The Spaniard provided another assist in the third minute of stoppage time, crossing to find the substitute Tolgay Arslan.
Lazio cantered to a 4-0 win at Cremonese thanks to a Ciro Immobile double, his second a 21st-minute penalty. Sergej Milinkovic-Savic made it 3-0 in first-half stoppage time, before Pedro rounded the scoring off 11 minutes from the end. Fiorentina won 2-0 at home to Hellas Verona, with Jonathan Ikoné getting them off the mark in the 13th minute before Nicholás González made the points safe.
In the Bundesliga, Union Berlin continued their dream run thanks to the forward Sheraldo Becker, who scored one and made one in a 2-0 home victory over Wolfsburg. The win stretched their unbeaten run to 14 straight matches and ensured they end the weekend at the top of the league. Becker, an Amsterdam-born Suriname international, now has six league goals and three assists in seven matches as Berlin moved to 17 points.
Jordan Pefok headed Union in front with a glancing header at the near post in the 54th minute after Becker had raced down the wing before striking a perfect cross for his teammate. Becker then turned scorer after 77 minutes, chesting down a cross and volleying past keeper Koen Casteels to make sure of the three points.
In Ligue 1, Paris Saint Germain opened a two-point lead at the top after Lionel Messi’s early goal earned the French champions a 1-0 win at Lyon in the late game. Messi found the back of the net with his fourth league goal of the season in the fifth minute to put Christophe Galtier’s side on 22 points from eight games.
Earlier in the day there were some strange goings-on. Mattéo Guendouzi scored at both ends as Marseille were held to a 1-1 home draw by Rennes. The midfielder first deflected Hamari Traoré’s cross into his own net to give the visitors a 25th-minute lead. He atoned seven minutes into the second half, however, heading home Jordan Veretout’s corner.
But the oddities did not end there, with a flock of pigeons causing an unexpected stoppage after they descended on to the pitch of the Vélodrome five minutes from time.
Nice’s Jean-Clair Todibo had observers reaching for the record books, after he was sent off after just nine seconds as his side slumped to a 1-0 defeat by Angers. The centre-back brought down Abdallah Sima in the game’s first attack and after only five touches of the ball. The visitors eventually made use of the numerical advantage, with Nabil Bentaleb scoring the only goal of the game two minutes before half-time.
Monaco got back to winning ways after Thursday’s Europa League defeat by Ferencvaros – their 3-0 victory at Reims came about thanks to second-half goals from Aleksandr Golovin, Takumi Minamino and Wissam Ben Yedder.
