What We Learned From Week 3 Of The Serie A

AC Milan and Juventus FC clashed in a sold out Giuseppe Meazza stadium, in what has been the first real big match of this term. With two victories in a row, both teams were at the top of the league together with AS Roma, but in this game we understood that Bianconeri are still a level above Rossoneri. After a good start by the home team, Juventus then began to take over the game, creating several chances with Fernando Llorente and Roberto Pereyra. In the second half Massimiliano Allegri’s team dominated Milan, thanks to an excellent performance by Claudio Marchisio, who is substituting greatly for the injured Andrea Pirlo. The match winner, however, was Carlos Tevez with a shot from close range after a lovely assist from Paul Pogba. A week to remember for the Argentine forward, who scored the winning brace in the Champions League match against Malmo FF too. It was a step backward for Filippo Inzaghi’s team, who were unable to play the offensive football showed in the first two games. No need to despair, though – Milan 2014/15 is a whole new team, with plenty of room for improvement.

AS Roma kept its fast start going with an easy win against Cagliari, who are trained by offensive maestro and former Giallorossi coach Zdenek Zeman. After the astonishing 5-1 versus CSKA Moscow, Rudi Garcia demanded another good performance to his players and he obtained it. Thanks to the goals by Mattia Destro and Alessandro Florenzi the Giallorossi leveled Juventus at nine points, as both wait in eager anticipation for the face-off that will take place on Sunday, October 5^th. Those two teams were predicted as favorites in the Scudetto race, and the prediction is everything but wrong. Garcia is doing a fine job, while Allegri is following in Antonio Conte’s footsteps to almost everyone’s surprise.

The crisis of AS Napoli continues to run deeper as they lost against Udinese at Friuli stadium. Rafael Benitez made questionable choices, leaving on the bench talented players such as Jose Callejon, Marek Hamsik, Dries Mertens, Jonathan de Guzman and Gokhan Inler. It has been reported since that those selections annoyed Azzurri chairman Aurelio De Laurentiis, whose relationship with the manager is already unstable. The chairman is a well known mercurial man, and with another loss on Wednesday against Palermo the job of the Spanish coach would surely be at stake.

After Roma and Juventus, in third place we find the surprising Hellas Verona. Despite the selling of Juan Manuel Iturbe and Romulo, two of the best players of last term, the tale of this little team seems unwilling to end. Last night they defeated Torino away – a side that without Alessio Cerci and Ciro Immobile has lost all its offensive power. Thanks to a goal from Artur Ionita, the Verona juggernaut rolls on and means that Andrea Mandorlini’s men don’t have to rely so heavily on proven goalscorer Luca Toni.

Inter Milan summer signing and former Manchester United defender Nemanja Vidic lost a deadly ball in his penalty area, allowing Franco Vazquez to score his first goal in Serie A for Palermo. Not the best start for the Serbian defender in the Italian league – sent off during his club debut and clearly sub-par in this match. Luckily for Nerazzurri, Mateo Kovacic saved his blushes with a precise shot from the distance that earned the away side a point.

In the other games, Fiorentina defeated Atalanta away but the goal-drought of Mario Gomez continues. And without Giuseppe Rossi, out until January, the Viola side is absolutely is in desperate need of goals and for the German forward to start hitting the back of the net. Antonio Cassano scored an amazing brace that led Parma to victory in Verona against Chievo. While a headed goal courtesy of a Mauricio Pinilla saw his side Genoa earn a 1-0 victory against Lazio.