Category: Italy Serie A

Defeat to Carlos Cuesta’s Parma leaves Rossoneri 10 points off top spot as England midfielder suffers broken jaw

These were supposed to be the weeks when Milan held the upper hand over their Serie A rivals, granted six days to prepare for a home game against bottom-half opposition while the likes of Inter, Juventus and Atalanta dragged themselves back exhausted from European away trips. Demoralised, too, after losing to Bodø/Glimt, Galatasaray and Borussia Dortmund by a combined 10 goals to three.

It was a grim week for Italian football, the sort that provokes another round of sad think-pieces about whether the nation’s teams will ever again be competitive in the continent’s biggest tournament. A discourse which often seems to skim over the fact one of them has gone to the final twice in the past three seasons.

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• Fermín López goal caps 3-0 win over Levante

• Milan’s Loftus-Cheek hospitalised as Parma win 1-0

Barcelona returned to the top of La Liga with a 3-0 victory over relegation-threatened Levante as Marc Bernal, Frenkie de Jong and substitute Fermín López struck at Camp Nou.

Last season’s champions moved to 61 points from 25 games, one ahead of Real Madrid after their rivals’ defeat by Osasuna on Saturday. Barça had slipped to second after last week’s 2-1 loss to Girona but rarely looked troubled by a Levante side second from bottom on 18 points.

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• Raúl García’s 90th-minute winner sinks Real Madrid

• Bayern go eight points clear at top; PSG return to Ligue 1 summit

Raúl García’s superb 90th-minute strike consigned La Liga leaders Real Madrid to a 2-1 defeat at Osasuna in La Liga on Saturday.

Champions Barcelona trail Madrid by two points but can overtake them on Sunday if they beat Levante at Camp Nou.

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Juve directors condemned Pierre Kalulu’s dismissal but beyond the outrage there were reasons to take heart

At the end of a spectacular, ferocious Derby d’Italia, none of Juventus’s players nor their manager would answer questions from the media. Instead, their chief executive, Damien Comolli, and director of football strategy, Giorgio Chiellini, spoke on the club’s behalf. They were not there to discuss tactical nuance.

“You can’t talk about football today,” said Chiellini. “Something unacceptable happened.” Comolli offered an even more grave verdict: “Juventus lost three points, but Italian football lost much more.” A strong claim. If true, might Comolli have done better to acknowledge his part in it?

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• Juventus lost 3-2 in dramatic fashion away at Inter

• Santos scores on debut to earn Napoli draw with Roma

Serie A’s referee designator Gianluca Rocchi said the match official Federico La Penna was “clearly wrong” in showing the Juventus defender Pierre Kalulu a second yellow card during Saturday’s loss at Inter, and apologised over the incident.

Kalulu was sent off after Inter’s Alessandro Bastoni tumbled to the ground and immediately gestured towards the referee demanding a card, indicating that Kalulu had grabbed his shirt to bring him down. Television footage suggested there was no contact between the players. Juventus, down to 10 men after the sending off, lost 3-2, meaning Inter are now eight points clear at the top.

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• Inter’s late win over Juventus extends Serie A lead

• Real Madrid 4-1 Real Sociedad; Lens top of Ligue 1

Harry Kane scored twice in the first half as Bayern Munich cruised to a 3-0 win at Werder Bremen, restoring their six-point lead in the Bundesliga. Borussia Dortmund’s 4-0 win over Mainz on Friday put them within three points of the league leaders but Bayern responded.

Bayern were in control from start to finish in Bremen, with Leon Goretzka joining the England captain on the scoresheet in the 70th minute. Kane now has 26 goals in 22 Bundesliga games this season and 41 in all competitions, 13 of those from the penalty spot.

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VAR’s application has been a divisive topic everywhere it has been introduced. It was more of the same in Serie A

You might not be shocked to learn that Daniele De Rossi thinks football has gone soft. Since retiring and moving into management, the man with the “beware the sliding tackle” tattoo has acknowledged he sometimes misses getting to stick the boot in. But would the stick figure seen flying into an opponent on the back of his right calf even stand a chance in this era of VAR?

“I don’t know what to say any more,” lamented De Rossi after his Genoa team lost 3-2 to Napoli on Saturday. “The football we played no longer exists. We were naïve, but it seems I don’t know anything. I don’t know what sport I am coaching.”

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• Dembélé doubles up in 5-0 mauling

• Kane and Díaz on target in Bayern win

Ousmane Dembélé struck twice as Paris Saint-Germain blew away bitter rivals Marseille on Sunday, reclaiming top spot in Ligue 1 with a crushing 5-0 victory at the Parc des Princes.

Dembélé opened the scoring after just 12 minutes and added a second before half-time as PSG delivered a real statement of intent going into the crucial months of the season.

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The American has earned the trust of Luciano Spalletti in Italy, but his role with the USMNT remains an open question

Juventus have tried to get rid of Weston McKennie. They even succeeded once, sending him on loan to Leeds United only for the American to return six months later. When he got back to Turin, as US coach Gregg Berhalter told the story at the time, Juve had emptied his locker and given away his parking spot. Despite this, McKennie stuck around.

It’s just as well for the Old Lady that he did – McKennie is now in the form of his life. The 27-year-old has scored four times in just eight games since the start of 2026. He has become one of Juve’s most important players and arguably the biggest driving force behind their recent upturn in form. Luciano Spalletti – among the most big-name coaches currently working in Italian football – has used McKennie to mould the team in his own image.

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There were tears after a nonsensical draw with Atalanta but young possession-based team is heading places

For the second time in less than three weeks, Cesc Fàbregas found himself in front of the TV cameras, trying to explain a scoreline that made no sense. “It’s not normal,” he said last month, after Como lost 3-1 to Milan despite “making 700 passes to their 200” (659 to 320, actually, but who’s counting?).

There was more than a hint of deja vu on Sunday as his team drew 0-0 at home to Atalanta while holding 79% of possession and attempting 28 shots. Opta put Como on 5.24 expected goals – the second-highest by any Serie A team in a shut-out since the analytics company started tracking such data 15 years ago. An astonishing number, against opponents who finished third last season and had taken 13 points from their previous five games.

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• Kane scores 36th goal of season in leaders’ 2-2 draw

• Rashford caps Barcelona’s 3-1 victory to extend lead

Harry Kane scored his 36th goal of the season but Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich let a second-half lead slip to draw 2-2 at Hamburg.

Fábio Vieira put Hamburg in front from the penalty spot then Kane levelled before half-time. The substitute Luis Díaz put the visitors ahead within a minute of the restart, but Luka Vuskovic kept up his good scoring form to earn what could be a precious point for the struggling hosts.

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Inter and Juventus exchanged remarkable home victories, while dominant Roma were held to a draw at home by Milan

Lady Gaga’s electropop banger Born This Way is 15 years old, but by the standards of some Serie A stadium DJs that makes it positively modern. Thumping out at the Olimpico on Sunday night it somehow felt timely. Roma were on the right track, baby, after a first half in which they thoroughly dominated Milan.

The expected goals counter had them up by 1.8 to 0.02. Sure, the actual scoreboard still showed 0-0, but the way Donyell Malen kept making space for himself inside the box was enough to convince fans his swaggering debut against Torino seven days before could be no flash in the pan.

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• Three second-half goals put Barça back on top

• Juventus beat Napoli to leave title challenge in tatters

Barcelona capitalised on two defensive mistakes by bottom-of-the-table Real Oviedo to seal a 3-0 victory at a rain-drenched Camp Nou, regaining top spot in La Liga. Goals from Dani Olmo, Raphinha and, acrobatically, Lamine Yamal powered the Catalan club to 52 points, one ahead of Real Madrid, while Atlético Madrid trail in third on 44.

Barça struggled to break the deadlock against a spirited Oviedo until they finally found the breakthrough in the 52nd minute, with Olmo striking home following a defensive lapse. Five minutes later, Oviedo’s struggles deepened, with the defender David Costas under-hitting a back-pass, which Raphinha intercepted before calmly chipping the onrushing Aarón Escandell in Oviedo’s goal to double Barcelona’s lead. Lamine Yamal wrapped up Barça’s win by scoring in the 73rd minute with a brilliant acrobatic volley from an Olmo cross.

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• Massengo and Chaves strike late in Bavarian derby

• Mbappé sends Real Madrid top; Nwaneri scores on debut

Strugglers Augsburg scored twice in six minutes late in the second half to come from a goal down and stun hosts Bayern Munich 2-1 in the Bavarian derby on Saturday, the league leaders’ first Bundesliga loss of the season.

The hosts, fresh from securing a Champions League knockout spot with Wednesday’s 2-0 win over Union Saint-Gilloise, took a 23rd-minute lead thanks to Hiroki Ito’s header but lacked any spark up front as Augsburg struck in the 75th and 81st minutes through Arthur Chaves and Han-Noah Massengo to earn their first win in Munich for 11 years.

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• Inter recover from 2-0 down to go six clear in Serie A

• In Ligue 1, PSG go above Lens, who play on Saturday

Inter were shocked to go two goals down at home to relegation-battling Pisa but fought back to earn a 6-2 win at San Siro on Friday, as they continue to set the pace at the top of Serie A.

Stefano Moreo scored twice to put Pisa 2-0 up, the first thanks to a howler from the goalkeeper Yann Sommer, but Inter were ahead by the break. Piotr Zielinski converted a penalty and Lautaro Martínez and Francesco Pio Esposito both scored with headers in six minutes just before half-time.

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