Category: Italy Serie A

• Roma sack coach Ivan Juric after just 12 games in charge
• Scott McTominay scores as Napoli hold Inter 1-1

Barcelona suffered a shock 1-0 La Liga defeat at Real Sociedad on Sunday that ended their seven-match winning streak in all competitions as Sheraldo Becker scored for the Basque side in the first half. It was also notable as it was the first time since September 2014 that Barça had failed to get a shot on target in a league game.

The league leaders got their first taste of defeat in over a month and only their second in their domestic season after they were dominated throughout the match by the home side, who wasted several chances. Becker’s strike in the 33rd minute was enough to secure Real Sociedad the win as he beat the offside trap to race on to a Luka Sucic header before slotting a tidy finish just inside the post.

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Defeat at his former club could spell the end for coach who has faced an uphill task in following Daniele De Rossi

Halloween has been and gone, but Roma’s past keeps coming back to haunt them. Terrorised last month by Edoardo Bove, the graduate of their own academy who scored one goal and set up another in a 5-1 defeat by Fiorentina, the Giallorossi travelled on Sunday to face Verona.

This was the club where Roma’s manager, Ivan Juric, built his reputation by steering a side that yo-yoed between Italy’s top two tiers throughout the 2010s to consecutive top-half finishes. It’s also a place he feels profoundly connected to. “Whenever I say: ‘I’m going home,’ I mean I’m going to Verona,” said the Croatian. “My soul is linked to this city.”

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• ‘It doesn’t make any sense,’ says Atlético Madrid manager
• Harry Kane scores two as Bayern beat Union Berlin

The Atlético Madrid manager, Diego Simeone, said on Saturday it made no sense to play this weekend after catastrophic floods swept through parts of Spain.

The deadliest flash floods in Spain’s modern history – and the second-deadliest European floods of the century – have killed at least 211 people and dozens are unaccounted for, four days after torrential rains swept the region of Valencia, the prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, said on Saturday. The matches between Valencia and Real Madrid, along with Villarreal v Rayo Vallecano, are among several postponed after the floods.

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It is too early to talk of a title tilt by the 2023 champions but their mastery of small details and swagger bodes well

When Antonio Conte looks this happy, you know it is time for rivals to start worrying. The Napoli manager grinned broadly as he strode about his old stomping ground at San Siro, acclaiming players, clapping backs and dispensing belligerent bear hugs. “This is one of the best groups I have worked with in my career,” he told the broadcaster Dazn. “I’m breathing clean, beautiful air. I’m breathing the passion and the enthusiasm.”

His team had just beaten Milan 2-0, moving seven points clear at the top of Serie A after 10 games. A fleeting moment – the teams immediately behind them are yet to play in this midweek round – but still an astonishing turnabout for a Napoli side who finished 41 points behind the champions, Inter, last season.

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• Belgian striker and Kvaratskhelia on target in victory
• Conte’s team now lead Serie A by seven points

Napoli extended their lead at the top of Serie A to seven points as goals from Romelu Lukaku and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia sealed a 2-0 win at Milan.

Lukaku and Kvaratskhelia both struck in the first half as Napoli extended their unbeaten league run to nine matches after their opening-day defeat at Verona.

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• 34-year-old striker joins as free agent
• Genoa are third-bottom in the standings

Mario Balotelli has signed for Genoa as a free agent, the Serie A club said on Monday, marking a return to the Italian top-tier for the striker after more than four years.

Genoa, third from bottom in the standings, have scored just seven goals in nine league games. The club’s manager, Alberto Gilardino, will hope that the 34-year-old can add to the 52 goals he has netted in 141 Serie A games.

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An all-time classic clash between Inter and Juventus was rounded off by the Turkish teenager’s two-goal cameo

It had been a bonkers, record-setting, night – one of the highest-scoring matches ever in a rivalry that goes back 115 years – but not all the protagonists were enjoying themselves. “Thanks for the show!” said Zvonimir Boban in the Sky Sport studio to Simone Inzaghi at full-time. The Inter manager winced and forced a laugh. “The neutrals like you enjoyed yourselves. Me, a little bit less.”

Inzaghi had seen his team fritter away a two-goal lead in the final 20 minutes against Juventus, letting 4-2 become 4-4. To write it that way does a disservice to Kenan Yildiz, the teenager who came off the bench to score twice and turn the game on its head – writing his name into Derby d’Italia lore. Yet to tell it any other way would ignore the truth that Inter could have been out of sight before he did.

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• PSG blitz Marseille with three-goal first half
• Kane and Olise on target as Bayern Munich win 5-0

Piotr Zielinski converted two penalties for Inter as they played out a thrilling 4-4 draw with Juventus, for whom Kenan Yildiz scored a late brace, in Serie A on Sunday.

The five-goal opening half began with Marcus Thuram earning a penalty, which Zielinski converted to give Inter the lead after 15 minutes. Juve equalised five minutes later through Dusan Vlahovic and then took the lead with a strike from Timothy Weah, all within a six-minute span. After Henrikh Mkhitaryan equalised for Inter in the 35th minute, Zielinski scored his second from the penalty spot two minutes later, handing Inter a 3-2 lead going into the break.

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• Xabi Alonso blames ‘soft defending’ for last-gasp draw
• Napoli extend unbeaten run and go five points clear

Bayer Leverkusen’s sloppy performance in their 2-2 draw at Werder Bremen in the Bundesliga on Saturday that included conceding a 90th-minute equaliser was down to the German champions’ weak defending, Xabi Alonso said.

Werder twice came from a goal down to snatch a point and leave Leverkusen with a third draw in their last four league games. “The fact that Werder could come back was down to both sides,” Alonso, who led his team to an unbeaten domestic league and cup double last season, said. “We were too soft in defending and they used their chances.

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A surprise signing from Genoa, the striker has immediately integrated in Bergamo thanks to his manager’s brilliance

Mateo Retegui is not afraid to make a snap decision. When Roberto Mancini phoned to ask if he would consider representing the Italian national team last March, the striker “didn’t have to think about it. I just said yes right away”. Born and raised in Argentina, he had never lived in Italy nor did he speak the language, yet within days he marked his international debut with a goal against England in Naples.

A choice that shifted his whole life’s trajectory. Twenty-three years old and playing for Tigre on loan from Boca Juniors, Retegui was hardly at the forefront of most European scouts’ minds. He scored 23 goals across all competitions in 2022, yet domestically there were doubts as to his ceiling. His parent club had declined their option to bring him back at the end of the year, while the Argentina manager Lionel Scaloni was indifferent to Retegui declaring for Italy.

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• Fans of Klopp’s former club display banners at game
• Kane hat-trick sinks Stuttgart; Celta Vigo 1-2 Real Madrid

Jürgen Klopp has been criticised by fans of his former club Mainz for his decision to join the energy drinks company Red Bull and oversee its network of clubs. Mainz supporters held banners during their team’s Bundesliga game against Leipzig – a Red Bull-backed club – in which they addressed their former hero.

“Have you forgotten everything we gave you?” asked one huge banner behind one of the goals, referring to Klopp’s tearful farewell speech when he left the club after 18 years as a player and coach in 2008.

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