Category: Football (Soccer)

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.

• 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.

• 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.

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.

• 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.

• 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.