Serie A pacesetters Inter Milan sent another clear warning to the rest of the league with a thumping 4-0 win over Atalanta on Friday night.
And it only took I Nerazzurri three minutes to go ahead when Marcus Thuram, who scored a brace in their opening game against Genoa, fired a cross into the danger area which Atalanta defender Berat Djimisiti could only put past his own keeper. And it went downhill from there for La Dea; Azzurri star Nicolo Barella fired in a superb volley on ten minutes and the game was pretty much done.
Atalanta are a strong side, winners of the 2024 Europa League, but they had no answer to the reigning champions or Thuram, who plundered two goals in ten minutes at the start of the second half. It was an ominous performance, clinical in every aspect and I Nerazzurri will take some beating this year as the Serie A 2024 betting odds quite clearly show. But the signs are not so good for Atalanta who entered the campaign with huge optimism but have picked up just three points from their opening three games.
Slow start for Milan continues in Rome
While I Nerazzurri will be fairly pleased with their early results, AC Milan are still without a win and sit uncomfortably in the bottom half of the table after they drew 2-2 away to Lazio. I Rossoneri took an early lead through Strahinja Pavlovic but the hosts scored two quick-fire goals through Taty Castellanos and Boulaye Dia to turn the game on its head. Milan hit back through Raphael Leao on 72 minutes but the two Italian heavyweights cancelled each other out for the remainder of the match.
Three matches without a win is bad news for head coach Paulo Fonseca and the pressure will increase if he can’t make some headway after the international break. He has the players to challenge Inter Milan and Juventus, but something is just not clicking at the moment, this stalemate following a draw with Torino and a shock defeat away to Parma.
Next up for I Rossoneri is a home match against the new boys Venezia and surely they will get off the mark then.
Lukaku stars in Napoli late show
Romelu Lukaku climbed off the bench to score a dramatic equaliser as Antonio Conte’s Napoli turned around a 1-0 deficit to take all three points against in form Parma in a chaotic period of injury time. The visitors held the lead for 70 minutes and played the last 20 with just ten men and they entered stoppage time still one goal to the good.
After Parma’s Yoan Bonny has smashed a long range strike against the post he then manufactured an opener for the visitors, winning a penalty when he was felled by Alex Meret and climbing to his feet to convert the spot kick. At the other end of the pitch Parma stopper Zion Suzuki charged out of his penalty area and clattered David Neres, and that earned him a second yellow card and an early bath. Sub keeper Delprato came on and kept Napoli at bay until injury time. Belgium star Lukaku scored on his Napoli debut, with 92 minutes on the clock and the roof came off the Diego Maradona Stadium when Andre Frank Zambo Anguissa smashed home the winner on 96.
Napoli have had a mixed set of Serie A 2024 results with a win over Bologna and a loss to Hellas Verona, and Conte will hope to find some consistency pretty soon. And this SBOTOP writer never thought I’d say this after Victor Osimhen fired Napoli to the Scudetto in 2023, but it seems the Partenopei are stuck with the Nigerian striker after he failed to secure a deadline day move.
It’s a funny old game!
Super Seven for Torino
Il Toro’s impressive start continued with a hard fought 1-0 win away to Venezia on Friday night when it took until the 86th minute for Saul Coco to break the deadlock.
Head coach Paolo Vanoli has had an impressive start to his tenure in Turin and his team added this win, over his former club, to a draw with AC Milan and a victory over Atalanta to make it seven points and they are level at the top of the table with Inter Milan, before Juventus play on Sunday.
Coco scored his first goal for Il Toro but Venezia, who were promoted under Vanoli via the play-offs gave a good account of themselves with 13 shots on goal and four on target. But they lacked that cutting edge and eventually paid the price and they now sit joint bottom of the Serie A table, alongside fellow newcomers Como on a single point.
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