Category: Italy Serie A

Thiago Motta’s side beat Milan in a feast of football on Saturday that ended with Napoli pulling clear of their rivals

It took almost an hour for the first goal to arrive but once they started they just wouldn’t stop, Samuel Mbangula serving up the first dish of a Saturday night Serie A feast. A 6pm kick-off made Juventus-Milan the aperitivo before a dinner of Atalanta-Napoli.

How peculiar it sounds to frame a match between Italy’s most successful domestic side and its most prolific continental champion as the evening’s lighter course. Yet that is the reality: Juventus and Milan startied this weekend outside of Serie A’s top four, while Atalanta and Napoli are contenders for the Scudetto.

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• France attacker scores twice in 4-1 win over Las Palmas
• Former Tottenham midfielder joins Serie A side

Kylian Mbappé was in inspired form, scoring twice to guide Real Madrid to a comeback 4-1 win over visitors Las Palmas that lifted the champions to the top of La Liga.

Real leapfrogged Atlético Madrid, who lost 1-0 at lowly Leganés on Saturday, to sit top on 46 points, two ahead of their local rivals, with third-placed Barcelona trailing by seven points after they were held to a 1-1 draw by Getafe.

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• Five different scorers for Barça; PSG survive scare
• Fifth-tier Bourgoin-Jallieu stun Lyon in shootout

Barcelona had five different goalscorers as they thumped Real Betis 5-1 to progress to the quarter-finals of the Copa del Rey.

The visitors from Seville were dumped out of the cup as Barça turned in a comprehensive display, goals in the first half from Gavi and Jules Koundé giving them a 2-0 cushion at the beak.

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• Bundesliga strugglers win 4-2 and add to Dortmund woes
• Milan recover to win at Como and Juventus draw again

Struggling Holstein Kiel scored three times in a dominant first half but had to survive a late comeback from Borussia Dortmund before beating the visitors 4-2, capped by a breakaway fourth goal into an empty net, in a second straight Bundesliga loss for the Ruhr valley club.

The result saw Dortmund, who had also lost 3-2 to Bayer Leverkusen on Friday, drop to eighth in the standings while piling more pressure on already-embattled coach Nuri Sahin.

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The most shocking element might be how undaunted Napoli, and Naples, appear over the future of ‘Kvaradona’

Antonio Conte is not angry, just disappointed, but before you accuse him of the oldest trick in the parenting book give the man time to finish his thought. On Saturday he confirmed Khvicha Kvaratskhelia wants to leave Napoli, expressing frustration that six months of working together had not persuaded the Georgia international that they could achieve great things together.

A day later, though, he provided a subtle reframing. “I want to underline something,” said Conte at his press conference following a 2-0 win over Verona. “When I spoke about disappointment, I was not speaking about disappointment felt toward a player or toward the club but in myself. I thought I could cut through and influence this situation … maybe I was a little bit presumptuous.”

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• Xavi Simons scores twice against Werder Bremen
• Álvarez provides winner for La Liga leaders Atlético

RB Leipzig’s Xavi Simons scored twice on his comeback from injury to help his team to a 4-2 Bundesliga victory over visiting Werder Bremen on Sunday as the new Red Bull head of global soccer Jürgen Klopp watched from the stands.

Klopp, who ended a successful nine-year stint at Liverpool last summer and has coached Mainz and Borussia Dortmund in the Bundesliga, started his new role this month and will act as an adviser for the Red Bull-owned clubs in Germany, the United States, Brazil and Austria.

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• His 15th league goal of season keeps Bayern clear at top
• In Serie A, Atalanta miss chance to go level with Napoli

Harry Kane netted a penalty to give Bayern Munich a 1-0 victory at Borussia Mönchengladbach in their first Bundesliga match after the winter break, keeping them four points clear of second-placed Bayer Leverkusen.

The England captain sent Gladbach keeper Moritz Nicolas the wrong way in the 68th minute to break the deadlock and bag his 15th league goal this season to maintain his status as the Bundesliga’s top scorer.

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• Milan want United to foot much of Rashford’s salary
• Juventus interested in loan deal for Netherlands forward

Marcus Rashford is being targeted by Milan regarding a potential loan, with any deal dependent on Manchester United paying a sizeable portion of the forward’s salary of about £365,000 a week.

Whether United are willing to do so is yet to be decided. It is not their preference to provide a considerable percentage of Rashford’s wage, which makes him United’s highest-paid player. But Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who controls football policy, may decide Rashford departing for the rest of the season is in the best interests of all parties, particularly the head coach, Ruben Amorim.

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The midfielder has been linked with a move away from boyhood club Roma but answered his critics against Lazio

Claudio Ranieri does not have all the answers. It can seem as if he does: the man who steered Leicester to a Premier League title and who long before that built a reputation in Italy as the first person to call when a top team was failing. In case of emergency, do not break the glass, just dial Claudio instead.

He had retired after leading Cagliari to an improbable escape from relegation last season, but Roma lured him back. The club – his club, the one he grew up supporting – was in shambles: 12th in the table despite an almost €100m summer transfer splurge and now seeking a third manager of this season. How could he say no, even at 73 years old, to his first footballing love?

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• Under-fire captain helps extend Ranieri’s perfect record
• Dembélé’s last-gasp strike wins French Super Cup for PSG

Claudio Ranieri extended his perfect record in the Italian capital derby as Roma beat Lazio 2-0 in Serie A to give the Giallorossi a much-needed boost in what has been a difficult season.

Roma’s captain and lifelong club fan, Lorenzo Pellegrini, scored a superb opener with a curling shot from the edge of the area to end his long wait for a goal. Then Alexis Saelemaekers finished off a counterattack to give Roma a two-goal advantage after 18 minutes.

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Paulo Fonseca failed to meet his own expectations but was treated poorly by Milan, who have appointed Sérgio Conceição

It was Paulo Fonseca who announced his own sacking shortly after midnight. Driving out of the parking lot at San Siro, he stopped briefly to answer questions from a reporter. “Yes, it’s true, I’ve exited Milan,” he said. “That’s life. Life goes like this. My conscience is calm, because I did everything I could.”

Such phrasing might make it sound like Fonseca took the decision himself. He did not. Milan eventually confirmed they had relieved the head coach of his duties in an official statement published on Monday morning.

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• Raspadori scores after Romelu Lukuku has penalty saved
• Fiorentina’s Sottil pegs back Juventus in 2-2 draw

Giacomo Raspadori came off the bench to score the only goal in Napoli’s 1-0 home win over relegation-battling Venezia, a result which moves them to second in the Serie A standings and level on points with leaders Atalanta.

Antonio Conte’s hosts were on the attack from the off, with Filip Stankovic twice denying the home side with close-range saves from Amir Rrahmani and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia. Venezia began to find a footing in the game, almost taking the lead but Alex Meret pulled off a reflex save with his leg to keep out John Yeboah’s effort.

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• Marco Brescianini scores in 88th minute to earn 1-1 draw
• Martínez ends drought in Inter’s 3-0 win at Cagliari

Atalanta’s 11-match winning streak in Serie A ended with a 1-1 draw at Lazio, but Marco Brescianini’s 88th-minute equaliser kept them top of the table.

Fourth-placed Lazio dominated the first half in Rome and were rewarded in the 27th minute when Nicolò Rovella played a high through ball to Fisayo Dele-Bashiru, who cut inside the box and sent a bouncing volley into the net to break.

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Gian Piero Gasperini’s project embodies a mentality that echoes an NFL legend after 11-game winning run

The game had not even kicked off and it was starting to feel like a prize ceremony. Ademola Lookman held up the trophy he won as the African men’s footballer of the year. Atalanta’s president, Antonio Percassi, beamed as he handed over Serie A’s coach of the month award to Gian Piero Gasperini.

Percassi’s son, Luca, the club’s CEO, spoke for the TV cameras about the recent quality of life survey conducted by the newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore. It had ranked Bergamo, where Atalanta are based, as the best place to reside in all of Italy. “As a Bergamasco, I can confirm those statistics,” he replied with a laugh.

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• French striker scores and assists in 4-2 win over Sevilla
• Atalanta beat Empoli to top Serie A; Roma rout Parma

Kylian Mbappé scored the opener and set up another goal as Real Madrid beat mid-table Sevilla 4-2 to move up to second place in La Liga and close the gap on Atlético Madrid to one point going into the winter break.

Mbappé scored with a thunderbolt from outside the box in the 10th minute before Federico Valverde put the reigning champions two goals ahead from long range 10 minutes later. Rodrygo fired in the third in the 34th minute from a cross by Lucas Vázquez.

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