Napoli draws, Monza shock Inter Milan as Sassuolo does Juventus - but Roma and Lazio win. Serie A fans are never bored. Here's what happened over the last league weekend:
PLAYER OF THE WEEK - LORENZO PELLEGRINI
It has not been an easy time for the Roma captain: there have been several physical problems over the season that have penalised his performances, and on Thursday he probably hit his lowest point, missing the penalty that could have put the Giallorossi ahead at home to Feyenoord in the Europa League quarterfinal first leg, resulting in a substitution at halftime.
Sunday night's match against Udinese, however. gave the Roma players back the best version of Pellegrini, the one from last season and previous ones.
He scored the 2-0 goal, at the end of a beautiful action started by Andrea Belotti, but above all the most beautiful thing of the evening was the embrace of the Roma fans. Before the opening whistle, the Curva Sud dedicated a banner to the captain that read something like, "For better or for worse, the captain remains a captain". It was an old-fashioned declaration of love, a classic of the Roma fans, but almost unheard of in today's soccer.
The number 7 dedicated the goal to his fans (and his daughter) and then apologised for the missed penalty, in a gesture of great respect and love for his people. The performance was excellent and fundamental for Roma, the human side was even better. The captain is back.
TEAM OF THE WEEK - LAZIO
Maurizio Sarri's boys are the fittest team in the league and have no intention of stopping against anyone. After the latest positive results, helped also by the absence of European commitments (Napoli, Milan, Juventus and Inter all dropped points in their respective league matches), Mattia Zaccagni and his teammates found yet another victory, this time on the field of Spezia.
An uphill start for the Biancocelesti, with a crossbar hit by the opponents and a near goal by Mbola Nzola within a few minutes, then the talent at Sarri's disposal came out as the minutes passed. In the end, the result said 0-3 for Lazio, which is increasingly confident of second place, five points ahead of third-place Roma and even 10 ahead of fifth in the standings.
Sarri in Serie A is doing a great job and at the end of the year he hopes to reap the benefits. The team is playing well and winning, better than this would not be possible.
SURPRISE OF THE WEEK - MONZA WIN AT INTER
Simone Inzaghi's Inter seems to be lost. At least in Serie A, his boys are incapable of winning. The former Lazio coach's future is at risk, rumours say that if they do not win against Benfica in the Champions League second leg he could be sacked.
It would be incredible, but on Saturday his guys lost the 11th match of the season in the League and now they are only 5th in the standings. Unacceptable - and there are no doubts about that. Now the standings present difficult obstacles to overcome, there is less and less time and Inter fans now have no patience. The team is creating scoring chances, but in the last few games the strikers have failed to score, especially Romelu Lukaku against Salernitana, just to give an example.
The defence is anything but solid and against Monza it was Luca Caldirola who found the goal that cut Inzaghi and his men off at the knees, a header off a corner kick. If the paths in the Coppa Italia and Champions League are almost perfect so far, the performance in the league is largely inadequate.
Raffaele Palladino's boys certainly played a great game, solid at the back and brave up front, with Patrick Ciurria and Dany Mota leading the way, but it was Jose Machin, who surprisingly proved to be the key man to tip every balance on the pitch and made the difference.
INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCES OF THE WEEK - GREGOIRE DEFREL, TOMMASO POBEGA
Milan didn't win, while Sassuolo did, but Defrel and Pobega's performances were the best of their teams.
Surprisingly Sassuolo managed to beat Max Allegri's Juventus and the only goal of the match was scored by Gregoire Defrel, the former AS Roma player. The French striker managed to bring three points to Alessio Dionisi and his team with a quick shot, proving himself the fastest against all the Juventus players inside of the box. Allegri obviously wasn't happy for the final score and probably because he couldn't imagine losing such a match: Sassuolo was even missing Domenico Berardi. But neither Arek Milik nor Dusan Vlahovic could score and Juventus had to surrender to Sassuolo.
Pobega was Milan's best player in the draw against Thiago Motta's Bologna. Nicola Sansone scored the first goal of the match, after just a few seconds after the start, but Pobega managed to find the equaliser with a stunning shot, even with his weak foot: his drive kissed the post, then went in behind Lukasz Skorupski's back and thanks to that Milan managed to leave Bologna at least with one point. Not good enough, but it's better than nothing.
