Cristiano Ronaldo and Zlatan Ibrahimovic just keep winning. After beating COVID-19, the two ageless superstars are now back to beating opposing defenders and banging in goals for their respective clubs, who are right in the thick of the Serie A title chase.
However, one of their main rivals — Inter Milan — have not done a lot of winning of late as they dropped more points after another disappointing performance.
Meanwhile, Lazio and Torino were involved in a contender for game of the season, and Sassuolo delivered a major upset against a title contender.
Read on below as SBOTOP breaks down the big winners and losers in Serie A this weekend.
Winners: Ageless wonders Ronaldo and Zlatan
Age is clearly just a number for Cristiano Ronaldo and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Despite being 35 and 39 years of age, respectively, they continue to bang in the goals in Serie A. And as if that wasn’t impressive enough, they also haven’t missed a beat after contracting COVID-19.
After several weeks out due to the virus, Ronaldo marked his return to the Juventus side with a fabulous brace in the champions’ 1-4 victory over newly promoted Spezia. He now has five goals in just three appearances this season.
Juve clearly missed their talisman — they won just one of the four matches he missed — and having him back bodes well for their Serie A 2020 odds moving forward.
As for Zlatan, he too has shown no ill-effects from COVID. He has now scored five goals in his last three league matches, the latest of which was an acrobatic bicycle kick to give Milan a hard-fought 1-2 win over Udinese.
It was a sublime piece of athleticism from the 39-year-old, who continues to show he is still among the best strikers in the division.
If Milan can keep up their impressive form, Ronaldo and Zlatan could very well be slugging it out for the Scudetto later in the season.
Loser: Inter Milan
Another veteran striker who made Serie A 2020 highlights was Parma’s Gervinho. The 33-year-old former Arsenal striker scored twice to give Inter a scare at the San Siro.
While they eventually came back from that two-goal deficit to draw 2-2, it was still another disappointing performance for the Nerazzurri, who have won just one of their last four league matches — and one in six in all competitions. That poor form sees Inter down in sixth, five points adrift of leaders Milan.
It doesn’t get much easier for Inter as they face tough away tests at Real Madrid in the Champions League and Atalanta next weekend. Failure to win those matches would heap even more pressure on under-fire coach Antonio Conte.
Winner: Lazio
Like Inter, Lazio also had a rough stretch of Serie A 2020 results early on, but they’ve seemingly steadied the ship in recent weeks. They’ve made it back-to-back wins after a dramatic 3-4 win at Torino.
The Biancocelesti found themselves 3-2 down deep into stoppage time, but late goals from Ciro Immobile and Felipe Caicedo gave the Eagles the improbable win.
That’s exactly the type of confidence-boosting result they needed ahead of their huge match against Turin’s other club — reigning champions Juventus — next weekend.
Loser: Torino
On the other side, Torino must be cursing their luck. The penalty awarded against them for handball looked particularly harsh.
That’s the second time in as many games where they’ve had victory cruelly snatched away from them with two late goals. They were 1-3 up on Sassuolo in their last outing, but they somehow squandered it to draw 3-3.
Those disappointing results leave Torino stuck at second-from-bottom with just one point from six games as another long relegation scrap looks in store for them this season.
Winner: Sassuolo
Speaking of Sassuolo, they now find themselves up into second place in the league after upsetting Napoli 0-2 at the San Paolo despite missing a host of key players.
The Neroverdi were one of the most exciting teams to watch in Serie A last season, and they’ve kept that up this year. They’re the league’s top scorers with 18 goals, while four of their first six games have seen five or more goals.
But instead of getting into a high-scoring shootout against Napoli’s talented attack, Sassuolo showed that they can also play some defence if needed. The way they weathered the storm late in the game away from home was impressive stuff.
With so many contenders at the top of Serie A this season, it will be a quite challenge for Sassuolo to stay at the top of the table for the rest of the season. But at the very least, they will continue to provide some entertaining matches and deliver an upset or two against those contenders throughout the year.
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