Category: Italy Serie A

Striker’s double rescued a 2-2 draw and extend his unbeaten record against sides coached by Gian Piero Gasperini

Gian Piero Gasperini could not keep himself from smiling. His Roma team had just squandered a two-goal lead at home to Inter but as he crossed the Stadio Olimpico pitch to greet the man who had led the visitors’ comeback, his lips formed into a grin.

“He always scores against me”, explained a laughing Gasperini when he was asked what he had said to Lautaro Martínez a short while after. “I told him to stop it! He does it to everyone, though. He’s a great champion, everyone thinks very highly of him, even if he makes all of us suffer.”

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• Inter and Roma lead Serie A, Como move up to third

• Real Betis beat struggling Villarreal in La Liga

Inter fought back ⁠from two goals down ​to beat Udinese 5-3 on Monday, maintaining their perfect Serie A start alongside Roma, who won 2-0 at Torino before Saturday’s match between ⁠the joint leaders. Both sides have 12 points from four matches and share top spot before their encounter at the Stadio Olimpico, while Como are third on 10 points ⁠after beating Parma 2-1.

Udinese stunned Inter with two goals in the opening 16 minutes, as James Abankwah headed home ​unmarked after nine minutes before Jurgen Ekkelenkamp doubled ‌the visitors’ lead with a ‌close-range finish seven minutes later. Inter hit back through Carlos Augusto, whose long-range effort flew into the bottom corner, ‌before Nicolò Barella levelled 10 minutes before half-time.

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Despite an impressive start under Gennaro Gattuso, supporters are boycotting the Stadio Olimpico to wage war against Claudio Lotito

Gennaro Gattuso has given some memorable post-game interviews down the years. Who could forget his “sometimes maybe good, sometimes maybe shit” rant at OFI Crete, or the face of the beleaguered interpreter tasked with translating it? Last year, not long before taking charge of the Italian national team, Gattuso got into a finger-jabbing, language-swapping, almost-nose-to-nose shouting match with Josko Jelicic on Croatian television.

And yet there was something more affecting about the soft way he spoke this Saturday, in Calabrian-accented Italian. Without anger, but with an air of melancholy. “For me, football without fans is shit,” he said. “What do you think? I’d say it’s better to stay home. Better to go for a walk with the dogs.”

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• Elversberg 1-2 Bayern; Sassuolo 3-2 Juventus

• Barcelona see off Levante, PSG end winless run

Harry Kane scored his first Bundesliga goal of the season to help Bayern Munich edge to a 2-1 win at promoted Elversberg on Sunday. Handed the captain’s armband with skipper Manuel Neuer rested, Kane scored with 18 minutes remaining to break a 1-1 deadlock and put the defending champions on track for victory.

Bayern had taken the lead through teenage Germany winger Lennart Karl, but Elversberg – who had won their opening two matches in their maiden top-flight campaign – levelled things up just after the hour mark thanks to a stunning curling effort from Maurice Krattenmacher.

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Inter’s victory over Napoli had the feel of a title race classic, while Juventus and Milan exposed familiar shortcomings despite their summer spending

Already as the words were being spoken, Cristian Chivu started to bristle. “Scontri diretti” translates to “head-to-head clashes”. The term is commonly deployed in a football context as a shorthand for those high-stakes games between teams who are expected to finish close together in the table – much like “six-pointers” in the English game.

Chivu’s Inter finished 11 points clear atop Serie A last season, his first as their head coach, but caught criticism along the way for an early Champions League exit and underperformance in some scontri diretti. Inter lost four out of six games against Napoli, Milan and Juventus. Their only win, at home to the Bianconeri, came after Alessandro Bastoni deceived a referee to get Pierre Kalulu sent off.

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• Gatti’s stoppage-time header rescues Juve against Milan

• Goalkeeper Koeman Jr scores two penalties in Eredivisie

Lamine Yamal struck twice for Barcelona as they demolished Valencia 5-0 on Sunday to maintain their 100% start in La Liga.

The reigning champions moved three points clear at the top of La Liga after Jose Mourinho’s Real Madrid lost 1-0 at Real Betis on Friday. Fermín López, Raphinha and Pedri were also on target for Hansi Flick’s swaggering visitors on a hot afternoon on Spain’s east coast.

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• Champions Inter and Roma pull off stunning comebacks

• Schalke 0-0 Bayern Munich; Hoffenheim 2-3 Dortmund

Lautaro Martínez scored in the 91st minute as Inter rallied from two goals down ⁠to secure a stunning 3-2 home victory over Napoli, continuing their 100% start to their ⁠Serie A title defence.

Napoli looked ⁠to be ​on course for victory when Matteo Politano and Rasmus Højlund put them 2-0 up after 53 minutes, but Martínez’s ⁠first goal halved the deficit and Marcus Thuram equalised eight minutes from the end. Both sides had excellent chances to win ⁠it after that but it was Inter who took theirs when the Argentinian stabbed ​home the ball at the back ‌post from a corner.

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• Mbappé sees late penalty saved by Valles

• PSG are beaten by league leaders Monaco

Real Madrid’s perfect start in La Liga ⁠ended on Friday when Real Betis beat them 1-0, with the ⁠substitute Troy Parrott ⁠scoring ​nine minutes from time and goalkeeper Álvaro Valles saving a stoppage-time ⁠penalty from Kylian Mbappé.

The clash began at a high tempo but the pace ⁠dropped after the interval in the heat in ​Seville. The Republic of Ireland star Parrott, introduced ‌in the 68th ‌minute, broke the deadlock in the 81st when ‌he reacted quickly after Thibaut Courtois parried a header into his path.

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The home game against Frosinone seemed a perfect way to celebrate their landmark. It did not work out that way

Fiorentina’s 100th birthday party had been going for four days, starting with a fan procession through the historic centre of Florence on Wednesday night and extending to their home game against Frosinone on Saturday afternoon. The club was founded on 29 August 1926, but a decades-old discrepancy in the reporting of that date has led supporters to celebrate traditionally on the 26th.

This time they started a few hours earlier, gathering in their thousands beneath the marble façade of the Basilica of Santa Maria Novella on the evening of 25 August and building to a firework show beside the river Arno at midnight. The club’s president, Giuseppe Commisso, stopped by to give a speech. At least one former player, Borja Valero, was among the crowd.

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• Promoted Málaga slump to 4-0 defeat at the Bernabéu

• Como defeat Napoli; Jones makes Inter debut in win

Real Madrid maintained their perfect start to the season in La Liga with a comfortable 4-0 home ⁠win over promoted Málaga on Sunday, scoring three times inside 30 minutes before adding a late fourth.

Jude Bellingham’s brilliant solo opener, an own ⁠goal by the Málaga goalkeeper, ⁠Alfonso Herrero, and ​a sharp Kylian Mbappé volley in effect settled the contest before half-time, with the substitute Arda Guler wrapping up the victory in added time at ⁠the Bernabéu.

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• Marquinhos grabs late equaliser for Ligue 1 champions

• Bayern overwhelm Stuttgart 5-1 at Allianz Arena

Paris Saint-Germain defender Marquinhos scored deep into stoppage ⁠time to snatch a scarcely deserved 2-2 draw at Lille on Friday as the Ligue 1 champions ⁠continued to struggle ⁠after ​being held by Rennes on the opening weekend.

After the poor 2-2 draw ‌against Rennes, things went from bad to worse for PSG when Lille took the lead in the 21st minute as Icelandic playmaker Hákon Haraldsson latched on to a brilliant reverse pass from Olivier Giroud and curled an unstoppable shot past ‌Matvei Safonov.

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Rossoneri overcome fascinating first challenge at Torino as teams across Serie A give homegrown talent a chance

“I love Cissè. I love Cissè.” Ruben Amorim had not yet taken charge of his first competitive game as Milan head coach but already he was furnishing journalists with soundbites and supporters with memes, clippable moments that you just knew we were destined to revisit.

Alphadjo Cissè is a 19-year-old attacking midfielder who signed for Milan from Verona in February but only joined up with them this summer, after completing the season-long loan he had already begun at Catanzaro in Serie B. He scored six goals in 22 games there, missing the second half of the campaign with a thigh injury. Previously he had played a combined 14 minutes for Verona across three substitute appearances in the top flight.

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• Atlético’s Alvarez booed by own fans in home draw

• Salah scores first goals in Trabzonspor victory

Ferran Torres came off the bench to score a late double ⁠on his debut as Paris Saint-Germain rallied from two goals down to draw ⁠2-2 with ⁠hosts Rennes in their Ligue 1 season opener on Sunday. Sebastian Szymanski and Esteban Lepaul gave ⁠the home side a 2-0 lead at half-time but PSG piled on the pressure in ⁠the second period and were rewarded with a point.

Rennes led ​inside nine minutes as ‌Szymanski’s shot went ‌in off the post to provide the perfect start ‌to the season for the hosts. Désiré Doué thought he had levelled for PSG, but his effort was ruled out for offside, and the home side made it 2-0 seven minutes before the break. Przemyslaw Frankowski found space ‌on the right wing and his low cross into the box was turned into the ​net by Lepaul.

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Milan, Napoli and Atalanta all have new head coaches as Italian football hopes to return to the spotlight

And so, calcio’s “third apocalypse” has passed. A lot of Italians enjoyed the World Cup more than they expected. Without a team to cheer for, again, a country turned its attention to different sports. And found its athletes dominating them.

On the day Spain defeated Argentina in New Jersey, Kimi Antonelli, the first Italian to win a Formula One race in 20 years, extended his lead in the standings by triumphing again at the Belgian Grand Prix. A week before that, Jannik Sinner defended his men’s singles title at Wimbledon.

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• England defender keen on move to Italian champions

• Udogie and Porro set to be Spurs’ first-choice full-backs

Tottenham are prepared to allow Djed Spence to join Inter, with the England defender expected to cost around €30m (£25.6m).

Spence – who started four games for England at the World Cup, including the semi-final against Argentina – has fallen further down the pecking order at Spurs after the arrival of Andy Robertson from Liverpool. He signed a new four-year contract in north London at the start of last season but is believed to be keen on joining the Italian champions, with Destiny Udogie and Pedro Porro expected to be Roberto De Zerbi’s preferred full-backs this season.

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