This weekend’s journey has been full of great matches and results which are important for the future of the competition. Besides, Serie A teams have scored lots of goals in their matches, so this was a great round. Napoli continues being at the top, but they are not so far from the second and third position. What happened in Europa League positions? How is now the bottom of the table? It’s time to see what did Italian teams do during the weekend, during the eleventh round.
Great starting fixture
This round started with the outstanding match of the week. Milan was receiving the visit of Juventus in San Siro. They knew that they haven’t had a good start, so they had a great opportunity to recover and reach Europa League positions. But Juventus also needed the points, because they couldn’t allow Napoli to get further. The match started good for Montella's squad, having the possession of the ball and controlling the game, but Higuain scored two goals, one in each half, and Milan couldn’t get any point.
Just after this fixture, Roma and Bologna were facing each other in Stadio Olimpico di Roma. Di Francesco's squad had a lot of pressure because, if they wanted to stay in European positions, they had to get the three points. On the other hand, Bologna was in the middle of the table and only wanted to get at least a point from its match. Donadoni's squad made a great strategy and a rough match, but El Shaarawy scored in the 23rd minute and the victory was for Roma, who continues to be fifth.
Lots of goals
Talking about the middle of the table, Torino and Cagliari played at Stadio Olimpico di Torino on Sunday morning. Both teams wanted to win because Torino, on their side, were looking to Europa League positions (they’d like to reach Sampdoria); and Cagliari, on their side, was trying to get far from relegation positions. Nicoló Barella scored the opening goal for Cagliari in the first half, but Iago Falqué and Obi made a comeback for Mihajlovic's squad and, finally, Torino could get the three very important points for them.
Besides, Benevento was receiving Lazio in order to get at least a point (it’s important to know that De Zerbi's squad have lost all their Serie A matches). But they were facing Inzaghi's squad, who were in a great victory row and wanted to continue with it. Bastos, Immobile, Marusic, Parolo and Nani were the players who destroyed Benevento, scoring five goals and sending De Zerbi to the worst situation possible. Benevento fans are seeing their team going through Serie B if their situation doesn’t change.
Some comebacks in this round
As usual, there were lots of changes in the middle and in the bottom of the classification. A great comeback took place in Dacia Arena, where Udinese started losing against Atalanta and finally won 2-1. Napoli, the leader, faced Sassuolo and won 3-1 with goals of Allan, Callejón and Mertens. Falcinelli scored for Sassuolo in the first half, but they had no chance against Sarri. Sampdoria, in Europa League positions as Roma, also won 4-1 against Chievo thanks to two goals from Torreira and goals from Linetty and Zapata.
There are good news also for SPAL, because they got a win against Genoa thanks to a goal of Antenucci and they could get out of relegation positions. An unexpected result, in another part, was the game played at Ezio Scida, where Crotone got the three points against Fiorentina. Pioli didn’t plan a good strategy and Budimir and Trotta scored first for Crotone. Then, Benassi scored for Fiorentina, but it wasn’t important. Finally, on Monday, Inter had a difficult match against Hellas Verona, but they won 1-2 with goals of Borja Valero and Perisic.