Category: Italy Serie A

• 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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• La Liga newcomers beaten 3-0 at home

• David and Vlahovic give Juventus victory

Real Madrid claimed a 3-0 La Liga win at promoted Real Oviedo on Sunday, with Kylian Mbappé scoring in each half before Vinícius Júnior added a late third to seal the match.

Mbappé put Real ahead in the 37th minute after Aurélien Tchouaméni won the ball off Leander Dendoncker in midfield and quickly fed Arda Guler. He slipped a pass to the Frenchman who turned sharply on the edge of the box and drilled a low shot into the net.

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• Milan slip up in home defeat against Cremonese

• Aubameyang scores double in Marseille romp; Atlético held

Napoli launched their Serie A season in style with a 2-0 win at Sassuolo, as Scott McTominay powered in a first-half header before Kevin De Bruyne curled home a free-kick after the break.

The former Manchester United midfielder McTominay bulleted a header into the net from Matteo Politano’s curling cross after just 17 minutes to put Napoli ahead. De Bruyne, who moved to Italy after his Manchester City contract expired, doubled the advantage after 57 minutes, bending a free-kick from a tight angle over the crowded box and into the far bottom corner. McTominay told Dazn: “It’s an honour to have De Bruyne in the team. I’m the one who has to learn from him, not the other way around.”

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Twelve clubs have changed manager, including six of the top eight, in a season with more questions than certainties

It did not take long after Napoli had won Serie A in May for some journalists to ask whether their manager would desert them. Antonio Conte had grumbled for months about transfer decisions. Even in this moment of triumph, his body language around the owner, Aurelio De Laurentiis, remained frosty.

Recent history hung over Napoli. Luciano Spalletti stepped down after leading the Partenopei to a Scudetto in 2023, riding off into the sunset in his newly pimped out Fiat Panda and citing a “personality clash” with De Laurentiis. But Conte is his own man with his own imperatives. Three months later, he stands as a rare point of continuity in a league determined to eschew it. Twelve of 20 clubs have changed manager – a drop, admittedly, from 14 last summer – including six of the top eight finishers.

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• Club refusing to sell to Serie A rivals Inter

• Centre-forward complains of ‘poor treatment’

Ademola Lookman has gone on strike as he attempts to force through a move to Inter, but Atalanta have insisted he will not be sold to another Italian club.

The Nigeria forward did not attend pre-season training for the second day in a row after handing in a transfer request last weekend, when Lookman also published a statement in which he accused Atalanta of “broken promises”. An improved Inter bid worth up to €45m (£32.1m) including add-ons was rejected last week after a €40m offer for the 27-year-old was turned down.

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Ballon d’Or winner becomes the latest veteran, after Kevin De Bruyne, to be pulled in by Italian game’s leisurely pace of life

Luka Modric will turn 40 in September. He has played 930 games over the course of a career and has won seven league titles and six Champions Leagues. He even broke the Messi-Ronaldo duopoly to claim the Ballon d’Or after inspiring Croatia to the World Cup final in 2018.

He rarely lasts a full 90 minutes these days, didn’t start a game during the Club World Cup and was spared the indignity of coming on for his Madrid farewell with the semi-final against Paris Saint-Germain long since lost. He could have retired five years ago and still been one of the most respected players in the history of the game but, his eyes on next summer’s World Cup, when his contract at Real Madrid expired Modric chose to join Milan.

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• Italian FA gives approval for February fixture to be moved

• Game would be first in major European league held abroad

Milan’s home game against Como in the 2025-26 Serie A campaign could become the first major European domestic league fixture played outside its home country, as plans to move the fixture to Australia took a step forward.

Italy’s football federation (FIGC) has given the green light for the match to be played in Perth – some 8,500 miles away from Milan – next February. The proposal moves European football into uncharted territory after previous requests to stage domestic league matches abroad were knocked back by authorities.

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The Scottish influence inspired title winners in Naples, Inter blew up and Claudio Ranieri enjoyed his Roman return

The season has barely ended and already it is clear Serie A will look very different next term. Five of the league’s top 10 sides have parted ways with their managers and a sixth, Claudio Ranieri, is moving upstairs at Roma. More changes may soon follow, with Igor Tudor’s future at Juventus uncertain and Como’s Cesc Fàbregas drawing attention from richer clubs – including the runners-up, Inter, who need a replacement for Simone Inzaghi.

Could we equal the turnover of last summer, when 14 out of 20 teams got a new coach? It’s not impossible, especially with several lower-half teams and their tacticians still exploring the options available.

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• Inzaghi departs after heavy Champions League final loss

• Led Inter to Serie A title during four-year spell at club

Simone Inzaghi has left his position as manager of Inter, the Serie A club confirmed on Tuesday.

The 49-year-old is departing three days after a humiliating 5-0 loss to Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League final and with Inter having missed out on the domestic title, to Napoli, by one point. The Nerazzurri also lost 4-1 to city rivals Milan in the semi-finals of the Coppa Italia.

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