This weekend saw the return of one of football’s best leagues, Serie A to our screens. There were many interesting games and storylines, with many players were also making their debut with their respective club. Many managers also made their debut with their team as 12 sides changed their manager including Inter, Juventus and Roma.
INTER 4-0 GENOA
The game to start off the season was champions Inter facing Genoa. This game started Inter’s title defence in their quest for their 20th Scudetto. However, Inter fans have had to endure a tough summer as coach Antonio Conte and fan favourites Hakimi and Lukaku all left the club as their owners are going through a tough time financially.
The Nerazzuri forgot about the summer as they easily beat Genoa 4 goals to 0. Star center back Milan Škriniar opened the scoresheets as he headed in a perfect corner from new signing Hakan Çalhanoğlu. Hakan continued his good debut performance as he scored a beautiful goal from outside the box to solidify Inter’s win.
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The 3rd goal took a longer time to come, but arrived in the form of super-sub Arturo Vidal who placed his goal from an exquisite assist by Nicolo Barella. New signing Edin Džeko also made his mark on his debut as he scored a header in the last few minutes of the game to kill any hopes for a comeback for Genoa.
UDINESE 2-2 JUVENTUS
Allegri’s first opponents are back as Juventus manager came in the form of Udinese. Many thought that Udinese will be easy opponents after losing star players Juan Musso and Rodrigo De Paul, but they proved the doubters wrong as Udine managed to come back and win a well-earned point against Juventus.
The match was filled with drama before a ball was even kicked as news broke out that Cristiano Ronaldo asked the Juventus coach to start on the bench. The Bianconeri started in very good fashion as captain Paulo Dybala slotted home a cool finish in the 3rd minute to gain an advantage. That advantage was doubled only 20 minutes after as right back Juan Cuadrado also scored.
Udinese entered the 2nd half with little hope, but that all changed when Juventus keeper Wojciech Szczęsny took out one of their players and were awarded a penalty. Former Juventus player Roberto Pereyra coolly scored his penalty to start off Udinese’s come back. Their second goal came after another Szczęsny mistake as the keeper lost control of the ball and left an open goal for Spanish winger Gerard Deulofeu.
After Udinese’s 2nd goal, they subbed on Cristiano Ronaldo to try and salvage a win. In the 94th minute, it seemed like Cristiano scored the winner. The goal set off massive celebrations from all Juventus players, but all those celebrations were quickly forgotten as VAR called off the goal after finding out that Ronaldo’s shoulder was offside. The game ended in a disappointing draw for Juventus.
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ROMA 3-1 FIORENTINA
Roma fans will be excited for this year as they finally got a world-class coach to lead them, Jose Mourinho. The Portuguese coach is no stranger to Serie A, having won it twice in two years with Inter Milan. Jose has been backed this summer after spending a total of €97.75m on new players like striker Tammy Abraham and left back Matías Viña.
Roma started off their season against Fiorentina. Fiorentina have also changed their coach, appointing young and energetic manager Vincenzo Italiano. The game started off with a bang when new signing Tammy Abraham forced the Fiorentina keeper into making a last-ditch tackle on him. The referee immediately sent the keeper off, meaning La Viola were down to 10 men. Roma used this to their advantage as Henrikh Mkhitaryan scored their opening goal from a Tammy Abraham assist.
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The second half started like the first did, as Roma attacking midfielder Nicolo Zaniolo received his second yellow card meaning he was also sent off. Fiorentina scored their first goal of the season when Nikola Milenković scored a rebound off a free kick. It only took 4 minutes for Roma to retake their lead as Tammy Abraham provided another assist, this time to French midfielder Jordan Veretout. The midfielder doubled his tally in the 79th minute to win the game.
The opening weekend of Serie A saw 31 goals scored and 6 red cards given, in what was an insane and dramatic opening fixture of games. Those 3 games weren’t the only crazy events as established teams Napoli and Atalanta won their opening games whilst new boys Venezia and Salernitana began their season with a loss. The Serie A will continue this evening as Milan travel away to take on Sampdoria.
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