Serie A is used to bring surprises to every calcio fan. But this round has been very rough for most of the squads, including the leaders. On Wednesday, eight matches were played at the same time and goals were scored every few minutes. Some Italian fans were watching more than one game because it was a great round and the classification was changing all the time. Let’s see what Serie A teams did in the fifth journey of the league competition.
Inter lost the leading position
The first fixture of this round was played on Tuesday. Inter was visiting Stadio Renato Dall’Ara to play against Bologna. For some football experts, Inter had to win because there was not so much difficulty in the game. But, as always, calcio surprises with rough scores and Donadoni squad got a draw after starting winning with a goal by Verdi. Inter had so many problems to score and Icardi was the man who put the draw again with a penalty kick goal in the 77th minute, so one leader lost points in this round.
On Wednesday, Benevento vs. Roma was the only game which was not played at 20:45 pm (it was played at 18:00 pm). Roma was facing Benevento with the purpose of continuing getting points to reach the top teams of the classification. For Di Francesco squad, it was not a difficult job: Dzeko scored two goals and Lucioni and Venuti scored an own goal each, so the final result was 0-4. With this result, Roma is in the 7th position, next to Lazio. Remember that Roma has one match remaining.
Only two leaders remaining
As it was said before, eight battles were played at the same time. One of the outstanding matches of the week was Lazio vs. Napoli. They are two of the top teams of Serie A and points were very important. In fact, Lazio started scoring thanks to De Vrij and Napoli knew that Juventus could win and become the only leader, so, in the second half, Koulibaly, Callejón and Mertens scored three goals in five minutes and gave Napoli the lead of the match. At the end, Jorginho scored a penalty kick and the final result was 1-4. What a match at Stadio Olimpico.
The other outstanding match of the round was played in Juventus Stadium. Allegri squad had the opportunity to get three very important points knowing that Fiorentina is a dangerous team. During the battle, both teams had chances to take the lead, but it was in the second half when Mandzukic, with an assist made by Cuadrado, scored the only goal of the match in the 52nd minute. Fiorentina had not a good match and, in fact, Badelj was sent out after a second yellow card, so 1-0 was a fair result.
Lots of changes in the classification
Another fixture was the game between Milan and SPAL. It was the first time Semplici squad was visiting San Siro, so it would have been a surprise to get one point. But Montella didn’t agree with that and his team won 2-0. Both goals were scored from the penalty kick: in the 26th minute, Ricardo Rodríguez scored and Franck Kessié did the same in the 61st minute. With that result, Milan is placed in fourth position, next to Inter, and three points behind the leaders: Napoli and Juventus.
Hellas Verona got a draw against Sampdoria, but Giampaolo squad may deserved the victory because they were better than Hellas Verona. In another hand, Cagliari lost at home against Sassuolo Calcio. Bucchi squad had less chances to score, but Matri, who was the one who scored from the penalty kick, missed a penalty kick in the 31st minute of the match (the second penalty kick was in the 59th minute). Besides, Genoa and Chievo got a point each from their battle at Stadio Comunale Luigi Ferraris (the score was 1-1).
Atalanta and Crotone played their league match in Stadio Atleti Azzurri d’Italia and Gasperini squad was the team that scored more goals of all the journey thanks to Petagna, Caldara, Ilcic and Gomez, who scored two goals. 5-1 was the final result and Atalanta reaches the ninth position. Finally, Udinese vs. Torino was another rough match: Udinese had opportunities to get a draw, but Torino was stronger and finished in the fifth position of the classification.