Category: Italy Serie A

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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Fans sang for the striker to ‘take us to Europe’ as he arrived in Italy to join an unfancied team brimming with positivity

Jamie Vardy had not reached his destination, but already he was getting a taste of what may await him, a crowd of Cremonese supporters greeting him at the exit of Milan’s Linate airport – 50 miles away from their team’s home town. Never mind the fact it was almost midnight on a Sunday. He hopped out of his car to sign autographs – one over a tattoo of his own face. They sang for him to “take us to Europe”.

Even in a summer of famous names making unexpected late-career moves to Italy – from Kevin De Bruyne and Napoli to Luka Modric at Milan – Vardy joining Cremonese feels most improbable of all. A player who once finished eighth in the Ballon d’Or vote, signing for a club with a 16,000-seater stadium who have made only fleeting appearances in the top flight since they were founded in 1903.

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• Juventus win 1-0 against Genoa after Vlahovic header

• VAR drama mars Barcelona’s draw with Rayo Vallecano

Inter were handed a shock 2-1 loss at home to Udinese in Serie A despite taking the lead through Denzel Dumfries as the visitors responded with two goals before the break on Sunday.

Cristian Chivu’s side won their opening game 5-0 at home to Torino but looked well off that form despite opening the scoring in the 17th minute when Dumfries tapped in from a Marcus Thuram pass in the box.

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• Bayern Munich beat Augsburg 3-2 after leading 3-0

• Bayer Leverkusen held 3-3 at Werder Bremen

Bayern Munich almost imploded in their 3-2 Bundesliga victory at Augsburg , conceding two goals for the second consecutive match after going 3-0 up soon after the break.

Bayern’s back line looked vulnerable, just as it had in Wednesday’s German Cup first round win over third-tier Wehen Wiesbaden in which they conceded two goals and needed a stoppage-time winner to advance.

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• Juve say remarks came from Parma fans after match

• Players have been racially abused across Europe

USA midfielder Weston McKennie was subjected to racist abuse after Juventus completed a 2-0 season-opening home win over Parma in Serie A, the Italian club said on Sunday.

Juventus posted a statement on social media saying McKennie was the target of “discriminatory racist remarks by individuals in the away section” while he was warming down with teammates.

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Serie A champions show fresh tricks in opening win but Milan suffer at hands of Schwarzenegger-inspired defender

The new Serie A season was 17 minutes old and already it had started to look like the previous one: Matteo Politano crossing and Scott McTominay scoring, just as they did in Napoli’s title-sealing victory over Cagliari three months ago. Even their positions were practically identical, the Italian cutting in from the right as the Scotsman attacked the six-yard box.

McTominay’s finish was less dramatic this time around, a header instead of a scissor-kick, but he dispatched it with equal conviction. Serie A’s Most Valuable Player in 2024-25, scoring the league’s first goal of 2025-26. “Winning the Scudetto changes nothing,” he had said in one interview earlier this month. “We need to recapture and maintain that mentality we found last year.”

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