Too many mistakes were made in the final moments. With this result, Spalletti's team, deprived of any midfield flashes, are no longer on full points, but still find themselves in the lead with Milan, Lazio, Atalanta, Torino and Roma.
In turn, Italiano’s men, fresh from Conference League qualification, perhaps relatively fatigued, showed their usual flaws in the attack phase despite Barak's excellent debut. The outcome is fair, but both line-ups appear capable of increasing their performance.
On the eve of the fourth midweek round (starting again tomorrow with Sassuolo Milan and Inter-Cremonese) the championship is subject to question, following Inter's flop at the hands of Lazio and Juventus’ waning in the second half against Roma.
These are the first results of the championship, that which this past weekend presented the first clashes between the big wigs. The Nerazzurri team emerged with broken bones, defeated at the Olimpico with the same score (1-3) as a year ago at the hands of Sarri's men. And it was precisely the former Napoli and Juventus coach who was the star of the evening, making a mockery of his predecessor on the Biancoceleste bench.
At the start they left the field to Inter, who only once posed a threat to Gagliardini, then came close to scoring on the counter-attack with Immobile and Zaccagni, and finally reached the lead with Felipe Anderson.
On their return from half-time the Nerazzurri arrived at a tie and came close to overtaking. But in the 57th minute it was Sarri who settled the contest by inserting Luis Alberto and Pedro who, coincidentally, bagged the winning goals. From that moment there was no contest, because the technical advantage shifted entirely to Lazio, where Milinkovic-Savic was the key advantage.
But one has to wonder what went wrong within the Nerazzurri machine. First of all, Lukaku who will probably miss the derby due to a muscle complaint, performed terribly.
Then, there’s Perisic's departure that neither Gosens nor Dimarco are able to make up for. And there are the defensive problems, with the rearguard left to a thankless fate. Imagine the criticism if the club had sold Skriniar. But it is towards Inzaghi that the greatest criticism has been levied.
The choice of Gagliardini in place of Calhanoglu to mark Milinkovic-Savic is curios, the substitution of Dumfries, the best, is absurd. It would be nice to understand why the coach has only one form (3-5-2) in his head, which without Perisic is no longer competitive.
Inzaghi’s amnesia competes with Allegri's problems. His Juventus, after Vlahovic's initial goal, dominated Roma without reaching the double. Or rather, Locatelli succeeded, but the goal was cancelled out due to an earlier hand by Vlahovic.
In the second half, Mourinho changed things up by inserting El Shaarawi and Zalewski in place of Mancini and Karsdorp. Abraham's equaliser arrived, and it took the debutant Milik in a Juventus shirt to push an Ibanez deflection out of the goal. It’s safe to say that Juve, though convincing in the first half, was the ugly duck among swans in the second.
Physical or mental issues? Surely La Signora will only look its best when Allegri can field Chiesa, Pogba and Di Maria.
In the meantime, Milan beat Bologna authoritatively thanks to goals from Leao and Giroud and De Ketelaere’s innovations. Pioli is right when he highlights the group: it takes the talent of the best players to make your way in Serie A, and especially in the Champions League. And this is an axiom. It is precisely Milan who has their toughest match ahead in the midweek round with the away game in Reggio.
For the other big teams, the commitments are more manageable.
