Massimiliano Allegri looked like a man clutching at straws as he stared down the lens of a TV camera on Friday night and insisted that the single point his team had collected from a home game against Torino could help them qualify for the Champions League. By Sunday night, his words sounded prophetic.
Despite throwing away a lead in the derby, Juventus improved their advantage over fifth-placed Atalanta, reduced the gap to title favourites Inter and did not lose ground to any direct rival. Five out of Serie A’s top six played over the weekend, but none of them managed a win.
Most astonishing was Milan’s draw away to Salernitana. Not for six years has a team at the top of Serie A failed to beat the team in last place.
There were 42 points between the sides at kick-off and the result looked like a foregone conclusion when Junior Messias opened the scoring for the Rossoneri in the fifth minute. The player who used to deliver refrigerators for a living exploited a gap in the defence that might genuinely have been wide enough to fit a lorry through.
By the 15th minute, Salernitana had also seen Ivan Radovanovic, signed in January to shore up their midfield, exit the game with an apparent ankle injury. And yet, by the 75th, they were 2-1 ahead. Federico Bonazzoli punished Mike Maignan’s over-eager rush off his line with an overhead-kick equaliser, before Milan Juric crashed home a header to put them in front.
They could have scored more. Bonazzoli missed an opengoal at 1-1, after stealing the ball from Maignan. It was hard to tell who had been more wasteful: the keeper, who lost possession while trying to dribble out of his own penalty box, or the striker, who could have passed the ball into an empty net but instead attempted a rabona that looped up into the air and gave Alessio Romagnoli time to recover.
In the end, Milan were able to salvage a draw, rescued by an Ante Rebic strike from 25 yards. Their manager, Stefano Pioli, said that he and his players were disappointed with the result, which he blamed on “a few technical and positioning errors”, but he also railed against any discussion of the title race.
“The situation around Milan is a bit strange,” he said during a post-game interview with Dazn. “Nobody thinks we can win the Scudetto but you lot keep asking us if we believe in the Scudetto.”
It was a curious response – how could the team that sits top of the table after 26 games not be considered a contender to win the whole thing? – but perhaps reflective of this season in which no team seems comfortable with the role of frontrunner. Milan’s draw left Inter with a chance to reclaim top spot a day later. Instead, they lost 2-0 to Sassuolo.
The Neroverdi have been the ultimate giant-slayers in Serie A this season, having won previously away to Juventus and Milan, as well as drawing against Napoli at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona. Such results only become more eye-catching when you consider that they sit 11th in the table and started the month getting drubbed 4-0 by a Sampdoria side battling against relegation.
At their best, Sassuolo can be scintillating, a dynamic and attacking team with a spine of young domestic talent. The 22-year-old midfielder Davide Frattesi conducts play from the middle of the pitch, while the little-and-large combination of Giacomo Raspadori, also 22, and Gianluca Scamacca, 23, lead the way up front.
Inter have been linked with summer moves for Frattesi and Scamacca. Sassuolo’s CEO, Giovanni Carnevali, confirmed in a pre-game interview that the Nerazzurri had been “among the first” to make enquiries. Perhaps they ought to have acted quicker. It was Scamacca who grabbed Sassuolo’s second on Sunday, after Raspadori had opened the scoring.
Both goals should have been avoided. The first went straight through the keeper, Samir Handanovic, while Scamacca was unmarked for the second. His initial reluctance to celebrate was interpreted by some as a desire not to antagonise fans of a club he might soon join. He later explained he had simply presumed, with so much space, that he was about to get flagged for offside.
Inter’s attempts to find a way back were thwarted by an inspired display from Sassuolo’s goalkeeper, Andrea Consigli. Still, you could hardly accuse the visitors of stealing a result. They almost went 3-0 up before half-time when Domenico Berardi, the grizzled veteran of their attack at 27 years old, bent a shot against the upright.
Inter’s defeat meant that Milan, despite drawing with Serie A’s bottom team, finished the weekend with an improved lead at the top. The greatest beneficiaries may yet be third-placed Napoli, who play away to Cagliari on Monday night, and the Nerazzurri can reclaim first if they win their game in hand. That hardly feels like a foregone conclusion, though, for a team who have lost three of their past five across all competitions.
There are so many threads to draw out from this weekend’s results, and not enough words here to do it. Has this simply been a tough run of games for Inter or can we now call it a wobble? The midfield looked a mess on Sunday without the suspended Marcelo Brozovic. A lack of sharpness up front cost them dearly against Liverpool, and Lautaro Martínez has scored just once in his last 11 appearances.
How much should we even be focusing on them? Sassuolo’s performances against Serie A’s biggest clubs deserve greater acknowledgement. Could Scamacca, Raspadori or Frattesi yet provide a spark for Italy in next month’s World Cup qualifying play-offs? Or indeed Berardi, the first player in Europe’s top five leagues to reach double figures for goals and assists this season?
Juventus 1-1 Torino
Salernitana 2-2 Milan
Roma 2-2 Verona
Sampdoria 2-0 Empoli
Udinese 1-1 Lazio
Internazionale 0-2 Sassuolo
Venezia 1-1 Genoa
Fiorentina 1-0 Atalanta
And what of Salernitana? Saturday’s game against Milan was their first under new manager Davide Nicola. Can he rescue them from relegation just as he did Genoa and Torino over the past two years?
There is more to be said about the performance of Torino, too, especially Andrea Belotti – scoring in what is likely to be his last Derby della Mole – and their brilliant centre-back Bremer, who suffocated Dusan Vlahovic. He had done the same a month previously, when the striker was still playing for Fiorentina.
Speaking of the Viola, we ought to mention their 1-0 win over Atalanta – sealed with a goal from Vlahovic’s replacement, Krzysztof Piatek. His strike allowed Juventus to strengthen their hold on fourth, despite failing to win the derby.
Those straws that Allegri was grasping for on Friday turned out to have some grip after all. Better to have something flimsy to hold onto than nothing, on a weekend when everyone was flailing.
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | AC Milan | 26 | 24 | 56 |
| 2 | Inter Milan | 25 | 33 | 54 |
| 3 | Napoli | 25 | 29 | 53 |
| 4 | Juventus | 26 | 15 | 47 |
| 5 | Atalanta | 25 | 16 | 44 |
| 6 | Lazio | 26 | 13 | 43 |
| 7 | Fiorentina | 25 | 10 | 42 |
| 8 | Roma | 26 | 10 | 41 |
| 9 | Verona | 26 | 7 | 37 |
| 10 | Torino | 25 | 6 | 33 |
| 11 | Sassuolo | 26 | -1 | 33 |
| 12 | Empoli | 26 | -12 | 31 |
| 13 | Bologna | 24 | -11 | 28 |
| 14 | Spezia | 25 | -19 | 26 |
| 15 | Sampdoria | 26 | -7 | 26 |
| 16 | Udinese | 24 | -10 | 25 |
| 17 | Venezia | 25 | -21 | 22 |
| 18 | Cagliari | 25 | -21 | 21 |
| 19 | Genoa | 26 | -25 | 16 |
| 20 | Salernitana | 24 | -36 | 14 |
