Another Serie A weekend is now behind us. Between Friday and Monday, several interesting, decisive matches took place, starting with Inter-Juventus, a game that may have decided this year's championship, but also Atalanta-Lazio, in which the Bergamaschi played one of the best matches of their season. Let's see what happened...
MATCH OF THE WEEK - INTER vs JUVENTUS
Perhaps with Sunday night's match the fate of the Italian league has been decided. Inter confirmed themselves as the best team in Serie A: the Nerazzurri won 1-0 and went to +4 in the standings (with one game less to play than the Bianconeri).
The decisive goal was scored by...Federico Gatti! Sadly for him, the Juventus defender was the star of the match with an own goal: in order to stop Marcus Thuram and prevent the striker from reaching an assist from Benjamin Pavard, the Italian defender struck the ball and sent it into the goal, behind Wojciech Szczęsny.
The Bianconeri tried hard to find the equaliser, but Inter right now concede nothing to anyone and even Max Allegri was forced to give up. There are still a lot of games to go until the end of the championship, 33 points left, but there does not seem to be any serious obstacles on the horizon that can hold back Inter's run to the Scudetto.
Simone Inzaghi has done and is doing a great job: his boys are playing by heart and on the field they can perform with their eyes closed, conceding very few goal-scoring chances to their opponents on the pitch. Right now, Inter have their hands on the 2023/2024 Scudetto, the path seems to be set.
TEAM OF THE WEEK - ATALANTA, WITH A SUPER DE KETELAERE
Despite the points earned in the last few matches, Maurizio Sarri's Lazio is experiencing a moment of crisis, so much so that they have shot only 6 times on goal in the last few matches, but this should by no means overshadow the amazing performance of Atalanta, led by an extraordinary Charles De Ketelaere.
The former Milan player has found his own dimension in Bergamo and at the moment he is Gian Piero Gasperini's star. Atalanta-Lazio was a one-sided match that ended 3-1 for De Ketelaere and his teammates: the Belgian scored two goals, including one on a penalty kick.
Mario Pasalic scored the first goal of the match, paving the way for his teammates to win. The 3-1 goal scored by Ciro Immobile on a penalty kick at '84, when the score was 3-0, was useless. Atalanta played the best game of their season, leaving only crumbs for their opponents.
Sarri is struggling to find solutions at the moment and will have to rediscover a way to lift his team's season, as Lazio's fans begin challenging Claudio Lotito, the club's owner. The team from Bergamo, in any case, moved up to fourth place alone.
TEAM PERFORMANCE OF THE WEEK - BOLOGNA
Slowly, Thiago Motta's Bologna is coming back. After a super start, which perhaps raised the expectations of the Rossoblù fans too high, the boys coached by the former PSG and Italian national team player experienced a moment of decline and difficulty.
Now, however, Bologna seems to have regained condition and confidence: first a draw against AC Milan, now 3 points against Sassuolo, with an excellent performance and a great Lewis Ferguson.
Motta and his boys were losing 1-2, when in the 73rd minute a goal scored by Giovanni Fabbian kicked off Bologna's comeback: Ferguson scored the 3-2 goal and Alexis Saelemaekers the 4-2 one, the final result pushing the Emilians to 36 points in the standings, currently in a higher position than big teams like Napoli and Lazio.
INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCES OF THE WEEK - DYBALA AND PELLEGRINI
Roma beat Cagliari 4-0 with a sumptuous performance, absolutely convincing, full of quality and high-level plays. The two players who led the victory were, without a doubt, Paulo Dybala and Lorenzo Pellegrini.
The captain scored the first goal of the match (his third in three games), then signed the assist that Dybala sent into the net for 2-0. The Argentine also made it 3-0, this time scoring yet another perfect penalty.
Daniele De Rossi enjoys the quality of his best players: we must credit him, since he put his best players in the most ideal conditions to bring out their qualities. Paulo and Lorenzo played a practically perfect game and the result is a direct consequence of the level of their performance. Some feared that De Rossi's ideas might somehow limit Dybala, but the field is saying otherwise: the Argentine is enjoying himself playing this way. Pellegrini is also finally back closer to the opponent's goal and it shows.
