Category: Italy Serie A

• Como insist relocating Milan game ‘not a matter of greed’

• Italian side highlight gulf in revenues to Premier League

The Italian club Como have released a statement on their potential Serie A match against Milan in Australia, claiming that taking games abroad is about “ensuring survival” for the league.

Uefa has reluctantly given approval for the match – a home league fixture for Milan – to take place in Perth next February. In addition, Villarreal’s La Liga match against Barcelona in December is set to take place in Miami, Florida.

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A ‘more mature’ player after two seasons on loan, the winger is glad to be back and may be ready to live up to his potential

The Stadio Olimpico was not a happy place just after 3pm on Saturday afternoon. Lazio were losing at home to Torino, who had been outscored by their previous five league opponents by a combined 10 goals to two. Ultras from the Curva Nord were wrapping up the latest protest in their never-ending feud with the club’s owner, Claudio Lotito.

Was Lazio’s season coming unstitched, or had there never been a thread holding it together in the first place? They reappointed Maurizio Sarri as manager this summer, only for him to later acknowledge that the club had not mentioned the transfer ban they were about to receive for financial irregularities. Rumours that he might quit were unfounded, but he did say Lotito had “swindled” him.

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• Governing body says go-ahead shouldn’t set precedent

• Barcelona poised to play in US and Milan in Australia

Uefa has given its “reluctant” approval to Serie A and La Liga each playing a domestic game abroad this season. The decision clears a path for Barcelona and Villarreal to meet in Miami in December and for Milan and Como to play in Perth, Australia, in February.

Uefa said in a statement that it had “reiterated its clear opposition to domestic league matches being played outside their home country” but that because “the relevant Fifa regulatory framework – currently under review – is not clear and detailed enough, the Uefa Executive Committee has reluctantly taken the decision to approve, on an exceptional basis, the two requests referred to it”.

The move comes after the Italian and Spanish football federations applied for those matches to be played abroad. Uefa said its national associations had agreed to engage with it before submitting any future requests.

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Genoa’s England Under-21s full-back on his coach in Serie A and the card game that helped make Lee Carsley’s side European champions

If there was a secret to the togetherness among the England Under-21s players as they retained their European title this summer then Brooke Norton-Cuffy may have let it slip: a card game called Werewolf. Introduced to the senior England camp during the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, it pits a small informed group called the wolves against the uninformed majority known as the villagers as they attempt to deceive each other to win, in a format similar to the popular TV show The Traitors.

“We were playing every night,” says Norton-Cuffy. “It really helped us bond because you get to know people. In this day and age when everyone can be on their phones, you sit down, you have a laugh, you have a joke … the group was really, really tight, everyone was together, and you saw that on the pitch when we ended up going and winning it.”

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• Kane scores 11th goal in first six Bundesliga games

• Vinícius at the double as Real Madrid defeat Villarreal

Harry Kane set a Bundesliga scoring record and Luis Díaz netted twice as Bayern Munich cruised past Eintracht Frankfurt 3-0 to continue a flawless start to the season with their sixth consecutive league win.

Kane, who also hit the woodwork from point-blank range in the second half, rifled in his 11th league goal in the 27th minute and became the first Bundesliga player to reach that mark after six matches. He has 18 goals in 10 matches across all competitions this season.

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Despite going down to 10 men, Massimiliano Allegri’s side held on and went top of Serie A

The league billed Milan v Napoli as a showdown between two “Masters of Midfield”, Luka Modric and Kevin De Bruyne, defining talents of a world football generation who each chose Serie A this summer. Players who have won a combined 58 trophies in their careers, including Champions League, La Liga and Premier League triumphs.

Past their prime? Certainly. But over the hill? Hardly. Modric, at 40 years old, had started Milan’s first four league games, taking more touches (329) and creating more shooting opportunities (19, per fbref.com) than any teammate. De Bruyne, at 34, was the only Napoli player with more than one goal so far this season, having struck in wins over Sassuolo and Fiorentina.

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• Hansi Flick’s side come from behind for nervy win

• Milan go top after 2-1 victory against Napoli

Barcelona secured a 2-1 comeback win against Real Sociedad on Sunday that sent them top of the La Liga standings after they turned the match around with goals from Jules Koundé and Robert Lewandowski either side of half-time.

Barcelona’s sixth win in seven matches moved the champions on to 19 points, one point above Real Madrid, as Real Sociedad remained on five points after their fourth defeat of the campaign.

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• Nayef Aguerd’s early header settles delayed Ligue 1 tie

• Antonio Conte’s side stay perfect in Serie A with 3-2 win

Paris Saint-Germain suffered a 1-0 defeat at Marseille in Monday’s rearranged “Le Classique”, with Nayef Aguerd’s early header proving decisive in his side’s first home league win over their bitter rivals since 2011.

After Sunday’s weather-enforced postponement of the match amid heavy rain and storms, PSG fell to their first league defeat of the season on a night where Ousmane Dembélé was presented with the 2025 Ballon d’Or men’s award in Paris.

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Ultras have disowned the homegrown hero but a precious winner against Lazio can help to rebuild their relationship

Lorenzo Pellegrini was supposed to be anywhere but the Stadio Olimpico on Sunday. Roma tried to get rid of him in January, offering him to Inter as a makeweight in their unsuccessful bid to sign Davide Frattesi. They pushed even harder in August, contracting intermediaries to find him a new home. Talks were held with teams including West Ham and Besiktas, but none were able to strike a deal.

How had it come to this? Pellegrini was once a beloved club captain. A Rome-born Roma supporter, who joined the club’s academy before his 10th birthday, he was the heir to Francesco Totti and Daniele De Rossi – latest in a line of homegrown skippers.

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• Dani Olmo also on target in 3-0 victory in La Liga

• Inter defeat Sassuolo; Marseille v PSG postponed

Ferran Torres scored twice as Barcelona cruised to a comfortable 3-0 victory against Getafe on Sunday, with Dani Olmo adding the third goal and an assist in another impressive display by Hansi Flick’s side.

The win keeps the unbeaten Catalan side second in La Liga on 13 points, trailing the leaders Real Madrid by two points after Los Blancos maintained their flawless record with five wins from five matches after defeating Espanyol on Saturday.

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• England captain hits ninth treble for Bundesliga leaders

• Real Madrid sink Espanyol to keep up perfect start

Bayern Munich maintained their flawless start in the Bundesliga by beating Hoffenheim 4-1 away on Saturday after Harry Kane netted two penalties and bagged his ninth hat-trick for the German league leaders.

It was Kane’s second hat-trick of the campaign, after a second-half treble in their season opener against RB Leipzig, and he moved five clear at the top of the scoring charts with eight league goals in four matches.

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• Italian club last played in the top flight in 2020-21

• ’Ndrangheta clans had infiltrated ticketing operations

The Italian third-tier club Crotone have been placed under judicial administration for a year because police found “sufficient evidence” of pervasive mafia infiltration, prosecutors said on Tuesday.

Crotone, based in the southern Calabria region that is home to the powerful ’Ndrangheta mafia, are seventh in Group C of the Serie C league, on five points from four games. They played in Serie A for two consecutive seasons almost 10 years ago, and in 2020-21.

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A sensational game had siblings as frenemies, an English defender’s first Serie A goal and a teenage match-winner

Igor Tudor sat down, straightened his tie and acknowledged we had all just witnessed a “particular game”. Seven goals (including some absolute screamers), back-and-forth lead changes, brothers as frenemies, a star turn from one of Serie A’s emerging talents and a deciding goal from a teenager. “Particular” was one word for this season’s first Derby d’Italia. “Completely bonkers”, might be two more.

Let us go back to the beginning. Juventus were hosting Inter on Saturday evening in a game that felt like it might have arrived a little too soon for everyone involved.

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• Napoli stay stop after Højlund scores in win at Fiorentina

• Mbappé helps 10-man Madrid win; Kane double for Bayern

Juventus snatched a dramatic 4-3 win at home to Inter, with Vasilije Adzic netting a stunning added-time winner in a game in which a Thuram brother scored for each side, but Napoli stayed top with a 3-1 win at Fiorentina.

In Turin, Juventus took the lead in the 14th minute through Lloyd Kelly. Inter equalised on the half-hour mark with Hakan Calhanoglu’s strike but Juventus were back in front thanks to Kenan Yildiz eight minutes later.

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It was fitting that Jamie Vardy was given an audience at the Violin Museum in Cremona, because at least they had access to a very small one to play for the striker about having to finish his career in picturesque Lombardy rather than the East Midlands. He is also a classical showman but, aged 38, some suspect that the former England international is a spent force. Vardy has been doubted from Stocksbridge Park Steels to the Champions League, though, and has always delivered. “It is up to me to disprove the predictions,” he chirped. “Age is just a number. I always listen to my legs. At the moment I still feel great. During my whole career I have been underestimated and I worked to prove everyone wrong, and I have succeeded in doing that.”

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