Hello and welcome back to Serie A Spotlight, this is Season 2 Episode 13 and we are hosts Matt and Jake here to tell you guys all you need to know about matchday 13 in Serie A. What an amazing round of football bro, upsets all around, big games, you know, derbies, epic moments, historical moments, we saw a goal from f**king Daniel Maldini, we had the against Milan, we had the Olimpico derby, the Roman derby, we had the derby to Italia, it's crazy like.
Crazy week man, crazy week and we were here, sat on our asses, watching everything. Well I was in Amsterdam but I still watch the game. Yes sir, our goal of the week goes to the prolific Olivier Giroud for his 89th minute winner against Spezia, what a goal bro.
I think everything taken into account about that goal must make it the goal of the season thus far, the drama, it being so late on in the game for Milan to get the full 3 points, the way he hung in the air to execute a perfect bicycle kick against an unformed Drogowski, what a goal, I was screaming personally.
It was amazing bro honestly, I'm happy my girlfriend wasn't watching because honestly I don't think she'd look at me the same way man, never have I seen someone look so good doing what he does at work. Oh man, 100% and also I had a very similar reaction to Tonali's cancelled goal just moments before that as well, I was screaming my ass off.
But that's enough about that game, let's jump onto serious spotlight slips, what the fuck happened here bro, I mean on paper it couldn't have been a safer bet this season. It was always going to be risky because form doesn't matter in derbies, it's an age-old cliché and we walked straight into it.
It was a tight affair from the get-go, at first watching the first half I thought Inter would get the job done eventually but what a performance by Juventus and we'll get into that later on but yes, another loss for Serie A spotlight slips at this rate. Yeah, bankruptcy is on the cards. We're at 15 euro currently. 15 euro, yeah so we're pretty much down 25 at the moment. And we still need to place a midweek bet now you see.
Yeah so football is going on right now, obviously it's quite a tight schedule so we'll pair the next two match days together. We'll just do a pre-World Cup round-up or something. Yeah exactly. Remember to follow us guys, we have no idea what we're talking about, about this Serie A spotlight slip thing and you can follow us on Instagram, TikTok or Twitter where we post all our content.
You can stay up to date with us there, you can even send us your feedback and even a voice note to be featured on the podcast with a hot take or an opinion. If you follow one of these obscure teams we're very happy to take your opinions, these Bolognese, for example, these Salernitanas, you know, just let us know.
100% and even your hot takes guys, I mean we literally on the last episode we literally had one of our great followers, one of our day one supporters educating us on how to pronounce certain footballer names. This is all great content for us, we love connecting with people so send over whatever it is you have to say, be it to educate us, learn with us or even crack a joke, maybe a few jokes here and there and we'll be sure to feature you man.
So, let's jump into the full matchday, exactly what happened. So first we'll be covering Atalanta 1-Napoli 2 in a first versus second encounter. The derby della capitale, Roma nil Lazio 1, a shock over there. Derby d'Italia, Juventus 2-Inter nil, Milan left it late to beat Spezia, 2-1, Udinese 1, Lecce 1, Udinese maybe falling off a little bit right now. Salernitana 2, Cremona 2 in what was a fantastic display by both sides and what a match that was.
Bologna 2, Torino 1, Motta starting to work his magic here. Sampdoria nil, Fiorentina 2, Fiorentina finding a little bit of consistency here. Empoli 1, Sassuolo 2, sorry, Empoli 1, Sassuolo nil, perhaps another shock, and Monza 2, Verona nil. Super sexy fun time my brother, let's jump straight into it with Atalanta 1-Napoli 2. In the last 7 matches bro between Atalanta and Napoli and say before this game, Atalanta earned double the number of wins than Napoli, 4-2.
So Atalanta have actually been better than Napoli in direct encounters in recent history. However though, Napoli had won the previous encounter 3-1, so that was the most recent score. That makes sense because Atalanta were dog shit last year. Yeah. For the first time in their history Atalanta have found the back of the net in 9 games in a row against Napoli. So they get kind of something out of this game at least.
Now here is a stat for Napoli as well, 9 league wins in a row for Spalletti's Napoli. Their record is Sarri's 10 wins in a row. Oh my god here we go. They play Empoli next followed by Udinese. We will know if they have beaten the record by the end of the week brother. Yeah by the end of this episode. By the end of this episode we will know if they equal it. Exactly. By the end of the week we will know if they equal it. This was also Lozano's 100th Serie A appearance. Well done Chucky.
Atalanta lined up in a 3-5-2 formation with Musso and Goal, a back three of Scalvini, Demiral and Toloi with Mele out on the left, Hattabur on the right and a double pivot of Ederson and Kukminers with Pasalic in front of them and a striking duo of Lukman and Hoyland while Napoli played their usual 4-3-3 formation with Maretten, Goal, Lozano on the right and Olivera on the left. Lorenzo, Lorenzo, De Lorenzo. Oh De Lorenzo, whoops that's my bad.
That's my dyslexia kicking in hard and aggressively. Minja Eikim and Juan Jesus at the back with Anguissa, Lobotka and Zielinski as the midfield trio with Chucky Lozano on the right, this time that's him, Elmas on the left replacing Varatzkelia and Ozymen up front. The ever dangerous Ozymen. Many reactions to the lineups bro.
I mean I was looking at Atalanta's and the lack of Muriel, well the lack of Muriel really not really Duvan because he's been out for so long at this point I didn't even realize but starting having to start Hoyland against Napoli when he hasn't really hit the ground running so much was a bit of an L for Atalanta but we know how strong they are everywhere else so not really much to add over there.
Whilst Napoli in full flow just minus Guevara we know that although he's one of their star players they're much more than just Guevara so two strong teams facing each other. Yes bro you're absolutely right. In fact what you said rings true as in the third minute Lukman put it on a plate for Hoyland who managed to somehow miss a fantastic opportunity right in front of Maret. Maret managed to save it with his feet. There you go.
Yes that was a big miss for him to kind of set the tone for the rest of his game. I mean Hoyland, we'll discuss him later on but he's a decent player. He's just very young right now but he looks really promising. This big miss shouldn't like judge his capabilities as a player. In a year or so we'll probably be calling him a coupe, a Gasparini coupe so he just needs some time. Perfect.
In the 19th minute that is when the first goal came there was chaos in Napoli's box from a corner that almost saw Atalanta's score. VAR spotted a handball by Victor Ozyman even though the Nigerian blatantly denied it. It was the type of penalty by Adam Ola-Lukman that two keepers would not have saved off the crossbar and into the top corner bro. What a fucking penalty. I was going to say what a corner. Imagine a corner of the crossbar and into the top corner.
A new rigorista it seems for Atalanta. Yeah definitely. At least someone dependable when Muriel isn't there. In the 23rd minute there was a clever corner routine by Napoli. Zelinski floated it into the far post and Ozyman headed it in. He spent a while trying to pick the ball up after his goal, ended up chasing it around for a while. It came to Maret who even pushed it behind him. Ozyman is just squirming around trying to grab the ball. It was also the mosque derby bro this game.
It was Maret against Ozyman. It's true, it's true, it's true. Like a mosque off. A mosque off, literally. That would have been the appropriate episode. We wasted it on the last one. We'll have a good one for this one though. Indeed, yes we do. And the third thing, I don't know why we're not telling them. It's not a surprise, they know. They're listening. We'll find out at the end. Stupid we are. Il ruolo dell'ex is an Italian expression, the rule of the ex or the law of the ex rather.
Basically, ex players always score against their ex teams. And it rings true, particularly when Milan are involved. Exactly. But anyway, in the 35th minute, Ozyman charged like a bull down the right hand side to get a ball played by Anguissa. He had to out muscle Demiral, who is one of the most aggressive defenders in the league. He managed to force the ball around him, dropping Demiral to his ass quite frankly.
He squared the ball to Elmas, who took a touch to position himself even better than the position he had received the ball in. And he spanked it into the back of the net. He celebrated as bottles were being thrown at him by the Atalanta faithful. What a scene, what a sight. Bro, Ozyman is unplayable, but we'll get to that. He's also now the top scorer this season after he scored and Arnautovic didn't. He's the lone top scorer.
Exactly. In the 54th minute, Meyly intercepted the long ball well and drove into the box. He cut inside, rounded, mean-jaked him really well, bro. He absolutely removed him. He shot towards Maret. Of course, though, the shot was wayward. Similarly, it had to be Mareyla's shooting isn't the most efficient. Yes. So he shot it towards Maret, who saved it into the part of Luckmann, who smashed it instinctively into the crossbar, hitting Di Lorenzo's face on the way.
And this is a type of chaos that Atalanta were creating against Napoli, bro. Honestly, like a shot into the keeper, then a rebound off the face of Di Lorenzo into the crossbars. Jesus Christ. I'm pretty sure right now most followers of Italian football are rooting for Napoli to lose a few points, to drop a few points because they're really running away with Atalanta. Unless you're a Napoli fan, I mean. You're going to want them to drop some points at some point.
The chances for Atalanta beyond this point became even more scarce. And in the 77th minute, the last good chance of the game came through Simeone, but he failed to hit the target after having just come on. Tensions were rising in the 91st minute, Duvan Zapata and Joachim Mehli got a yellow card each for chatting shit. And in the 92nd minute, Spalletti brought on the youngsters, Gaetano and Zerbjian, just to have a little bit of a run around at the end of the game.
Run down the clock a little bit as well. Another very strategic one. So bro, Atalanta came out hungry this game. They were quick with the counter, they played long balls, they caused many problems for Napoli. But Napoli's reaction post-penalty was incredible. What did you make of this game? Pretty much mirroring what you said, bro. I think Atalanta, when they came out and we saw them get that goal through Adam Ola-Lukman, I was like, OK, we've got a spectacle on our hands here.
Atalanta can walk away with something. Maybe even a victory. I didn't really think a victory, but I said Atalanta are capable of getting a draw over here. Atalanta, we saw glimpses of the old Atalanta. An Atalanta that is hungry for goals, an Atalanta that wants to attack, particularly since they went down basically in the 35th minute, they spent the rest of the game attacking. They posed massive threats on Napoli, but I mean that goes to show what a good side Napoli are.
They were capable of absorbing that pressure, not conceding again, and managing to get away with the full three points. Yes, sir. Duvan Zapata did come on this game, bro. I do think they really need this man to reach for him again, to hit his form again. I think he might be good alongside Lukman. You know, you've got the classic big guy, small guy. Exactly. The finisher and the guy who sets it up. Exactly. Is there someone to hold that play as well?
Someone for Moussa to aim to when he's pinging balls from his own box. It just gives the team an extra dynamic. I mean, Lukman plus Zapata pretty much equals Ozyman. Yes, quite frankly, you're right. Atalanta's depth is not bad beyond the striking department right now. They've got... Sorry, excuse me. Boga and Malinowski, for example, who came off the bench this game. Oh my God. Are you okay, man? Sorry, I think I'm developing asthma. Living in Mota, man, I'm telling you.
Anyway, yeah, so they have decent options off the bench in the offensive department. Just literally that out and out strikers, what they're missing right now, they need Duvan to find his form. Yeah, I agree. I agree. When it comes to Napoli, brother, obviously the Victor Ozyman praise goes without mention. No, I mean, he's been incredible this season. I think so far he's been the most impressive striker in the league. What do you think? No, by a landslide, man.
There isn't another striker that compares to Ozyman this season. I mean, you could say Arnautovic has been good because he's racked up six or seven goals. I've lost count. But obviously those came at the very, very beginning of the season. I didn't keep it consistent. I think when you take into account the games that Ozyman was out for, he's by far the most prolific goal scorer in the league and the manner in which he does it.
He doesn't exactly always get the ball in a silver platter, but receiving the ball outside the area and charging into the box the way he does is spectacular. Absolutely no one is on his level this season. We'll see when Vlaović and the Mobyla are back, what they can do. But so far it's been the Ozyman show. Yes, bro, this guy does not enter a football pitch. This guy goes to war. Literally, man. He goes to war. He puts his fucking helmet on and he goes to war. Literally. He's an animal.
What I noticed about Napoli is in Dombelet growing into his role, bro. He had a lovely moment where he was just dribbling players to keep possession, just player after player after player. He reminded me of that spell of Bacchaioco under Gattuso. Exactly. He was actually solid. Yeah. His first spell, yeah. Exactly. He looked fucking good, man. That's what he said. Now, this is a point I want to mention about Napoli, bro. Elmas scores when playing instead of Gvaracskelje.
Amazing. Juan Jesus scores when playing instead of Rahmani. Raspado Rian Simeone score when they're playing instead of Ozyman. Fantastic point. This is the kind of squad that wins the league, no? 100%. I mean, we haven't really seen this from many teams in the past in Serie A. The capability of playing.
Like we've seen it with Atalanta would always say they have the plug and play system where everyone's capable of putting in a shift, but to the level that Napoli players do it so tangibly, getting goals. And we've seen Juan Jesus, for example, who on paper isn't a fantastic defender, having the performances of his life. We've seen Simeone, who is a bit of a meme up front, scoring goals. He scored four in the Champions League now. You know what I mean?
Raspado Rian Simeone were like, I'll need time to settle for sure at Napoli. No, he doesn't. No one for Napoli out of the new arrivals have needed any time to settle. At all. And even all the new boys, I think Bar and Dombele have scored. Exactly. And I think, bro, a large part of that obviously has to do with the culture of the team, it has a lot to do with Spalletti as well and how capable he is of getting great performances out of his players.
I think a large part of this is Lobotka as well because he literally orchestrates the entire play and he involves everyone in the game. In fact, they've done it without Ozzyman, they've done it without Gvaratskelia. The question is, can they do it without Lobotka? Because that man is the glue. He is the underrated metronome of that team. He keeps things ticking. Exactly. I'll be interested.
I obviously don't wish him harm in the slightest, but I'll be interested to see how they perform, when or if Lobotka gets injured or suspended. Yes, sir. We're always trying to find something to weaken Napoli. Before we were saying how they haven't played the top sides yet. They're playing top sides now and they're beating top sides. We said without Ozzyman, without Gvarat, without him, without him. Now we're saying Lobotka. Fact of the matter is, Napoli seem unbeatable at the moment. No?
That is the case, brother. Currently, Napoli, bro, are first with 35 points, while Atalanta are fourth with 27 points. The next game we're going to be covering is the Derby della Capitale, one of the fiercest rivalries in world football. It's up there with Real Madrid Barcelona. It's up there with Boca Juniors against River Plate. It's up there with some of the best. This was the 179th official encounter of the Derby della Capitale.
So far, Lazio have 49 wins out of those, Roma have 67 and there are 63 draws. This was not just a local showdown for pride, but also a head-to-head encounter for third place. Jose Mourinho had the bragging rights midweek as his team got through to the Europa League playoffs, whereas Maurizio Sarri's side dropped into the Conference League, which was quite a meme running through because, you know, Lotito was saying that the Conference League is horseshit. It's a league for losers.
A competition for losers, rather. There you go, loser. So Paolo de Bala, Spinazzola, Wijnaldum and Darbo were out injured for the Giallo Rossi, but Bianco Celesti then had their two best players out with Immobile injured, and Milicovic Savic obviously suspended in the last matchday.
So Roma started with their 3-4-1 formation, Patricio on goal with a backline of Ibanez, Smalling and Mancini, Zalewski on the left and Karsdorp on the right, Cristante and Kamara in the midfield, and Abraham flanked by Pellegrini and Zaniolo. For Lazio it was their 4-3-3 formation with Providel, Lingo, Lazzari, Ciasale, Romagnoli and Marseic at the back, midfield three of Vecino, Cataldi and Alberto, and the front three of Pedro, Anderson in the false nine, and Zaccani out on the left.
So Roma came out and they were doing a decent job trying to control the game in Mourinho fashion, however then in the 29th minute Ibanez hung onto the ball for way too long in his own area, and he was dispossessed by Pedro, the ball fell to Philippe Anderson and he slotted past Patricio. Chiro is not required to score a goal like that, it was as easy as it gets for him.
In the 32nd minute Zaniolo's deflected strike bounced off of the woodwork as Roma were attacking in numbers, it was very, well you could say unlucky, but then again it did take a wicked deflection and head goal word, so I wouldn't really call it unlucky over there.
Roma came out in the second half carrying the same momentum that they did in the first half, however in the 52nd minute Pellegrini did go out injured, and after that they did look significantly weaker with Volpato and the team, no disrespect to Volpato, but obviously Roma are quite reliant on their captain Pellegrini as most teams would be.
A fun fact actually about Volpato is that in the last episode I mentioned that he is Australian-Italian, and he can choose to play for either teams, so he has the opportunity to play in the World Cup for Australia, and Italy aren't in the World Cup, but he's decided to play the long card, and he's rejected Australia's offer and he's going to wait for four years time where he can hopefully start for Italy, so respect to him, not an easy decision to make playing the long game.
The game went on, Lazio did well to keep their shape, they kind of, Roma were attacking in numbers, but they never really posed a massive threat, they were never really clean through on goal, Providel wasn't required much, and towards the end of the game, and then there was a brawl that broke out on the touchline after Rui Patricio went to get the ball for a throw,
and Radu on the Lazio bench tried to slow him down, after that then there was, well, Radu and Patricio obviously got a yellow card each, and then there was eight minutes of added time, but not even that was enough for Roma to get back into the game. What are your takes on this season's first edition of the Derby de la Capitale, bro?
So, two squads who are not at their best right now when it comes to personnel, as you mentioned, both sides missing a few important players, I was extremely impressed by Lazio's maturity coming into this, because I did think they were SMS and the Mobiler reliant, and I couldn't see them getting three points over here without them. That being said, we could label this game as Roger the Reckless, because Roger Ibanez straight up gave Lazio the game over here.
100%, I mean, that changed things. Lazio probably came into this game saying, look, opting for a draw is probably a mature and realistic thing to do, but instantly off the get-go after just 30 minutes they found themselves winning and they didn't even know how. They're like, okay, that was easy, now we just need to stop Roma from scoring, and they haven't really had their shooting boots on this year. So, thanks to Ibanez, it was made much easier for Lazio than it initially should have been.
So, massive, massive detrimental mistake by the Spaniards. And it's his second one in the Derby de la Capitale. Last year was the other one, no? Ibanez basically gave up a goal in a similar manner against Roma. Against Lazio, sorry. I don't think... One thing I wanted to mention, Sir Interrupt, is Lazio, no, Roma, sorry. My God, bro, get it right. Roma are better when they're not controlling the tempo. Roma are better when they're countering, when the other team sees more possession on the ball.
The fact that Lazio got that goal quite early on meant that they could let Roma have the ball for the vast majority of the game. Exactly. And Roma don't like doing that, man. Roma don't thrive when they're on the front foot. And I think that gave Lazio a comfortable place to be, especially with Trasale and Roma Nuoli playing as well as they did, and with Tammy Abraham and, quite frankly, Bellotti as well being as well as they are.
Yeah, and that's pretty much what I was going to say now, that there's nothing really new to report on Roma. Once again, they looked lively, but it's not... They don't play... When they have the ball, they lack creativity, and that's rung through... Firstly, they missed Debala, who is one of their most creative players, and Pellegrini went out injured in the 52nd. They lacked resources as well, such as Spinazzola down the left as well.
So that dampened their creativity, which I mean, isn't really... They don't have much creativity nonetheless. They don't have a sustainable way of attempting to get goals. It's a lot of Hail Mary runs by Zaniolo. It's a lot of waste of energy in order to get half chances. They never really put the ball on a plate for their strikers. They never really get clear-cut chances.
It's a lot of, like I said, Hail Mary runs by Zaniolo, a lot of pinging the ball into Tamir Abraham hoping that he'll get the ball. But Romagnoli was a stone fucking wall for Lazio in this game, and it's just... I feel like most of their goals come through Mantrini, Smalling, Ibanez, Cristante. From set plays. It's what we were saying last year. Bro, you remember when we went to that bar in Slema to watch Roma win 1-0 against... Who was it? I remember. No, not Betis. No... I can't remember.
Sporting? No. Porto. Was it Porto? No, certainly not. No, I'm thinking Porto because it was Olivera. Ah, no, it was Olivera's debut. It was January. It was January, it was Olivera's debut, and he scored a penalty, I believe. But from then we were saying, it's ridiculous how these guys rely so much on set pieces to get goals. We thought it would be different this year, and everyone saying, Roma can even win the league.
Relax, they've got a lot to work on, man. They have a long project now with Mourinho. They have a lot to work on, and the fact that they lost such a big game because of one error that they made shows that significantly, man. Yes, sir. Another clean sheet for Lazio, bro. They're on the up, of course. After an upset against Salernitana, they went back to winning, but it's good to see, especially with Milankovic, Salvic and Immobile out.
Exactly. Everyone thought they'd be useless, that they'd be crippled with these two men gone. It's good to see that Immobile is already recovering. He was there on the bench for this game supporting his teammates as well. It's great the level of leadership that man has and the experience and the fact that he has all of that and he's still in his prime makes me kind of jealous that they have a man like that. Lazio had no problem. You want the man, bro. You want the man like that?
Brother, I need a man. I need a man. Lazio had no problem coping with all of this fucking Hail Mary bullshit that came with Roma going forward. They kept their shape well. Like I said, Romanioli was fantastic. They only applied pressure where necessary. They were holding back a lot. And to be honest, they only applied pressure when necessary. They applied pressure in the 30th minute on Roger Ibanez and they got the goal. So there you go. Case in point.
Not really much to add over here. Lazio find themselves in third place now on 27 points. Of course, this was the fight for third place while Stroma have dropped down to sixth on 25 points. To be honest, just two points behind them. Very good. The next game we're going to be discussing is another derby, the Derby d'Italia. Juventus 2-0 Inter. The previous encounter was a 1-0 win last April for Inter and that was due to the Inshallah No Glu penalty. The controversial Inshallah No Glu penalty.
We watched that at Monelli. Shout out to the boys. Considering all competition since his debut as manager in April 2016, Inter's Simone Enzaghi has beaten Juventus seven times in 19 meetings with two draws. He is the coach that have defeated the Bianconeri the most times in this period. So funnily enough, Simone Enzaghi is the anti-juve. Yeah, I mean he didn't really show that in this matchday though.
So Juventus lined up with a weird spaceship man. They played like a weird 3-5-1-1. That's what it seemed to be. And 3-5-1-1, it looks kind of like one of those, you're a Star Wars fan, what do you call them? The, ah come on, the Millennium Falcon. Is it the Millennium Falcon? No, no, that's round one. Those are the ones that go WHAAAAAT? Like those jet fighter things. Exactly, it looks like a jet fighter.
They have Cezny in goal, a back three of Alexandro, Bremer and Danilo, only one center back, and the back three center back. Kostic out wide on the left, Quadrado on the right, with the midfield three of Zinedine Rabiot, Locatelli and Fagioli, with Miretti playing as a trick-artista in the hole behind Milik.
Inter lined up with their usual 3-5-2 formation, with Onana between the sticks, a cherubi dev Ryan Scrinior at the back, Dumfries on the right, DeMarco on the left with Mikitar, Yunchelon Oglou and Barela in the middle, Eden Zekko and Lautaro Martinez up front. Inter having almost a full team over here, it's one hell of a lineup that they have, and then you look at Juve's side that's so deflated, yet they still managed to get away with the full three points man.
Yes bro, absolutely right, and what a manner in which they did it. So the game started off, in the fifth minute, Lautaro skimmed his shot just wide, he had a very good opportunity there to hit the target and test the goalkeeper early on, did not manage there. 25th minute, Zekko had a bullet header but failed to hit the target, I believe it was from a corner.
In the 41st minute Barela put Dumfries on a plate, but the Dutchman managed to sky his opportunity 1v1, that was probably the best opportunity of the game. Yes, Inter came out strong man this game. In the 46th minute Kshalan Oglou was dipping Long-range Effort after a corner, forced Chesney into a great save as well. So those are four chances missed in the first half by Inter. Inter were piling the pressure on Juve early on.
But not in the typical way that they do it, you know, typically you look at Inter, they attack without fear. This game they were very wary of the goal. Needing the three points almost. They were afraid of conceding, they knew that if they conceded they would have given Juve the upper hand. Juve also knew this, so they approached the game with a defensive mindset as they typically do whatever. But seeing Inter so hesitant, you know, I think played into Juve's favor over here.
It was in the 52nd minute that the scoring was opened thanks to Adrian Rabiot. Kostij received the ball in midfield bro and let it run through his legs to beat Barela and he just was off. Charging down the left, squared the ball to Rabiot bro who placed it perfectly into the back of the net. This was all Kostij. Kostij here was the glue between the defense and the attack. He was everything. He's one of the, what, three, four starters that there was in this team for Juve.
And he led by example. He had a fantastic, fantastic performance over here, man. Managed to turn defense into attack. He was the one doing that like. In the 62nd minute, the Danilo goal from a corner was disallowed. This was a Kostij assist through a corner. Danilo shot the ball into his own hand which was being held in an arm bar by Devry. Okay. It was bizarre to cancel this goal, bro. You don't think so? Like, he had, Devry had literally Danilo's hand locked into place.
Danilo manages to kick the ball as it's heading goal words. It hits his own hand that's being held illegally by Devry and the goal gets canceled for a hands ball, an offensive foul. It's crazy to me. Clearly the referee didn't think it was a clear and obvious foul. At the end of the day, it's a tussle between both players. But yeah, at the end of the day, it is an infringement of play. If the ball hits the attacker's hand and goes in, then it shouldn't be a goal.
But then if the referee thinks it's a foul, then it should be advantage. It should either be advantage or a penalty in that case. But probably advantage because you can't stop the ball hitting the bank of the net. It was just weird overall. I guess the rule states that if the ball hits your hand. If a goal is scored with a hand, then the goal does not count. It's as simple as that. And I believe the referee just followed that rule, stuck to that.
I don't have too much of an issue with it if I'm being honest man. Okay, I would have felt hard done if I were a U of M by that. But anyway, in the 74th minute, Lautaro missed another 1v1. And in the 76th minute, Kostas shoots and Onana saves it onto the post. This was a f***ing masterclass by Kostas. I'm telling you if Maldini wasn't the cover for this f***ing podcast, it would be Kostas this week. Yeah, I agree. Superb performance by him. Superb performance. This is why they signed him.
In the 84th minute, it was this man again, Kostas, who squared the ball across the box to Fajoli, who smashed it off Gossens and into the back of the post for his second goal of the season for Juventus. 2-0 for Juve. What do you think? I mean, looking at the bet and looking at how confident we were that Inter would be able to get away with all three points against a Juve side that firstly have been struggling for the entirety of the season.
They're down in the Europa League. They were down in the table. Everyone's shouting for Allegri to be sacked, but he can't due to a technicality. And because Juve literally don't want to spend that amount of money to get rid of someone, they have so many injuries. Inter are in pretty much full flow. I know they've also had their struggles this season, but looking at 11 vs 11 and the history that these two teams in recent history, Inter have been so much better than Juve.
This was a shock result. This was a shock result. Juve did everything they can to get away with the three points and they managed. They have only conceded seven goals this season, which is crazy, considering that we were calling Juve season a flop. That's why they are now having officially a better season than Inter. They're above them in the table. What a great performance by Juve. Their young guys really pulled through. Rabiot had a good game as well. Kostić had a phenomenal game.
That fudge-wall-y-miretti combination was looking juicy as well. Quadrado wasn't selfish. He had a very mature display. Wow, I'm wowed by this Juve victory, man. Honestly, you know, the kids turned out fine, no? Isn't that the expression? Yeah, exactly. Juve have all these players on high salaries, and it's the kids who are getting them the victories over and over again. Nice to see Rabiot finally finding himself as a player, man.
Honestly, he does have shades of Zidane from Wish, you know what I mean? The most budget Zidane you can get. But you know, he does have moments of elegance where you say, wow, that was nice. He is a very graceful player. He is a graceful player. And the thing is, there's this whole thing that no one knows what Rabiot is good at. That's when he's off form.
Now, since the whole United thing has died down, his head is a bit clearer, he knows his role in the team, he's no longer being utilized on the left or on the right, and he's being utilized in his own position, he has looked significantly stronger.
And with the absence of Pogba, with the absence of Paredes, with the absence of all these players that Juve have signed and brought in to replace someone like Rabiot, Rabiot is now performing cleanly, and it looks like he's going to be a significant piece in this Juve squad moving forward. He's had good games recently, man. He's one of the leaders at the moment.
Four clean sheets in a row for Juve, this is the first time since December 2018, where they managed to get six clean sheets and six victories. Juve, as you mentioned, have the least goals conceded in the league, Lazio have the second least conceded goals in the league. So Juve have seven, Lazio have eight, and then you have Napoli and Atalanta with ten.
The one thing I wanted to highlight from this game, brother, is this Juve that was under such stress and pressure, the way they celebrated as a team on each goal, even the Danilo goal that was disallowed, at the corner flag, the subs all fucking joining in, everyone on each other, smiles all around, you know. They looked united somehow, man. Look, a 2-0 win in the derby, Ditalia is going to do that for this team. The shift in confidence is going to be through the roof.
I think we're going to look at Juve in the future thinking, okay, these guys have no injuries, you know what I mean? It's good to see Chiesa making a slow return as well, Di Maria making a slow return as well. But slowly, slowly things are starting to look a bit better for Juve, man. And the thing is, it was only two weeks ago, I believe, where I was reading out horror stats related to Juve.
Now here I am reading out these favorable stats for Juve, you know, the team with the best defense in the league at the moment. Now listen to this one. Juve are the site to have the most players born since 2000 involved in at least one goal in Serie A this season. They've got five players. There's Vlaović who's got seven contributions, Keane who's got one, Fagioli who's got two, Mretti who's got one and Iling Jr who's got one. That's mad, man.
Yes, Inter haven't had a single one so far, just in comparison. Yeah, the kids are alright, quite frankly. Let's talk a bit about Inter and why they weren't capable of doing anything in this match, why they were so neutralized, not neutralized, but beaten, properly beaten by this deflated young Juve side. I feel bad calling them deflated because they were so bright in this game that maybe deflated isn't the correct term to use.
But Inter, man, Inter, with the same starting eleven we've seen for pretty much the entirety of the season, I would say, bro, after this, Simona might be in a bit of trouble. It doesn't mean that he's going to be sacked and that he's going to be instantly replaced, but let's just say the owners have that thought in their minds now. He's got five losses, you know. Crazy, man. The most goals conceded away from home in the league so far. Madone, matchday 13, tell me, our man.
Matchday 13 and they've lost five games. Against Milan, Roma, Lazio, Dinez and Juve, all big teams, you know, these are the teams that you would want to beat if you're fighting for the league. Have they beaten a top-seven team this season? I don't think so. I can't recall, to be honest, bro. I don't think so either. I can find out real quick. Yes, please. In the meantime, I'll let you know this thing.
Inter's Lautaro Martinez, my brother, has scored just one goal in his nine Serie A games against Juventus. No side he's faced as often in the competition has he scored fewer goals against, quite frankly. That will play a part in his head. Exactly. That's it. It's the same as who was it, Piontek? Was it Piontek against a certain team? There was another one we had discussed last season.
I can't quite recall, but it tends to be the case, you know, when you haven't scored against a team in a while, quite frankly, or your record against a team isn't good, you're going to be aware of that. It's going to play a part of your game, quite frankly. The only team we could consider top seven that Inter have beaten is Fiorentina, and that's because they finished seventh last season, but they've been terrible this year. And even they managed to fucking put a three-poison.
Literally, a 4-3 win for Inter, and it was a last-minute goal. Otherwise, they've lost to Roma, they've lost to Lazio, they've lost to Milan, they've lost to Juve. Let's just say they're going to lose to Napoli as well. So, I'm not looking great for Inter this season, man, and I had them winning the league. Yes, bro. Many things went wrong this game. They were wasteful from the get-go. They didn't take the most out of their chances. And then, you know, two counters like that against Juve.
You know, when Kostas is on the break like that, I think Barela needs to drop him. Barela needs to grab his shirt and pull him to the ground. That's a dangerous situation right there. You can't let him break free. And, you know, they did it again and then on the counter attack for the second goal. The one positive stat for Inter is that screen year, I had the most passes in matchday 13. Bravo! With 86. Well done. Bravo! Yes, bro. I don't know if there's anything you want to add?
No, I'm just super impressed by Juve. And to be honest, I'm a little bit confused about where Inter stand. I know that there are these one-off occasions where a loss comes out of nowhere. But in this case, that's five losses out of 13 matches so far this season. And, yeah, I'm super interested to see what's going to happen to this Inter side this year. Where they're going to end up. Same here. All this talk about the derby, D'Italia, the biggest derby in Italy.
Juventus currently sit fifth with 25 points. Inter currently sit seventh with 24 points. Yes, massive game. Yeah, yeah. But it's also interesting that Inter are doing decently in Europe. That they're in the Champions League round of 16 as well. It's good to see, to be honest. Yeah, good to see, good to see. The next game we're going to be covering is Milan 2-Spetsia 1. The champions facing a struggling Spetsia side who never fail to insert fear to the Rossoneri faithful.
They're somewhat of a bogey team that have become for Milan over the years. Milan were coming off a surprising loss to Torino, but a midweek final victory slash creaming of Salzburg, which led them to a Champions League round of 16 for the first time in nine years. On the other hand, Spetsia coming off a 2-1 home loss to Fiorentina and have only managed nine points so far this season, facing eight defeats. That's only three more than Inter, bro.
Just to have a look at Milan's past encounters against Spetsia. Spetsia won this last fixture last season as they beat Milan 2-1 away from home. Before that, Milan beat Spetsia 2-1 away from home. Before that, Spetsia beat Milan at home 2-0. And before that, Milan beat Spetsia at home 3-0. So it's like the stats of top two sides facing each other. Now, obviously, Mannyan, Zlatan, Calabria, Salamakas, Florenzi are still out of action for Milan.
And why Spetsia, Mr. Giasi, Bastoni, Kovalenko and the suspended Nikolaou. And yeah, I mean, Spetsia have had a torrid time in the past six away games this season. They have zero points and zero goals. But they famously won here against Milan in the San Siro last season after a stoppage time refereeing error. You remember that, brother. You remember very clearly. Two errors. There was the Messias goal that was disallowed and then there was the Udodji scoring with his hand at the end of the game.
Crazy, man. Crazy. So for Milan, it was a 4-2-3-1 formation with Tata and Goal, a backline of Theo, Tomoriga, Bianca, Lulú, double pivot of Kronich and Ben Nasser, Leão on one side, Messias on the other and Diaz sitting behind Origi. For Spetsia, it was a 3-5-2 formation, Drogowski and Goal, Ampadou, Kiwior and Caldara at the back, Ammian and Holm on the wings with Borabia, Egdal and Agudelo in midfield with Inzola and Daniel Maldini up front.
Now Milan started the game off very offensive with Tomori fumbling a decent opportunity after a marauding Leão run and Kronich smacking the bar from Voli. You remember that? I remember that, brother. And then Drogowski producing a great save on Brahim shortly after. However, then in the 21st minute Ben Nasser served Theo a lovely lofted long ball and the Frenchman chested down and toe poked it well into Drogowski's near post.
VAR took 5 minutes to confirm that Theo wasn't offside. To me it was clear and fucking obvious that he wasn't offside. Apparently the communication between the VAR room and the referee was interrupted. Shocking. That was the problem. Shocking. Just before half time and then Leão's deflected strike hit the post and Kroon's follow up was cleared off the line while Inzola had an empty goal at a point but he failed to make contact with the ball. This was a good game, man. It was end to end stuff.
It was chaos. Chaotic game, man. Absolute chaos. It's what you can expect from a Milan Spezia game. In the 59th minute just after the break, Daniel Maldini collected the ball just inside his parent club's area and he curled it into the bottom corner so cleanly. It wasn't even the bottom corner. It was like the side netting. It was the perfect, perfect finish. This is the Rua Lodelex that we always talk about. It is real, particularly when Milan are involved.
He has now scored two Serie A goals in his career. One for Milan against Spezia and the other one for Spezia against Milan. It's funny how things play out, man. Football is too predictable, brother. And you said last time Maldini scored against Milan was in the 1960s. Yeah, I believe chess was out on loan. This is those few moments where Mercury is in serious retrograde and Maldini scores against Milan. Yes, Freddie Mercury is in Gatorade indeed. Get your crystals out, boys.
In the 64th minute, Tonali counted the ball into the top corner from distance after Origi squared the ball to him. Celebrations all around. Fantastic goal by Tonali. Mr. Reliable again. But turns out that there was a foul in the build up from Tomori. It was a little trip that he had in the build up. You get to see Zlatan's reaction to that Tonali goal. He was looking around like this guy is serious, you know, like with his eyebrows. He was like this kid is serious. And it's true.
Tonali is one of the brightest young stars in Europe at the moment. He is something else Tonali. And it's not only from a quality perspective, but just a professionalism and work ethic perspective. The man is top. No complaints, takes a pay cut, you know, just continues, you know, earns his salary back. He's living his dream. He's living his dream. He's happy.
In the 89th minute, Tonali tripped the ball into the area to find Giroud who acrobatically hung in the air and bicycle kicked the ball into the back of the net to score what must have been the goal of the season thus far. Everyone lost their mind. Suma lost his mind. Giroud lost his mind. Totally forgot that he had been booked earlier. Took his shirt off, started flexing his muscles to the crowd, spent a good two minutes flexing his muscles only to receive another yellow card.
And you could see in his eyes, he's like, ah, shit, I fucking forgot. And you see Kalulu breaking it to lay out afterwards as well. But I wouldn't call that a bicycle kick. I'd call that a scissor kick. You're right. You're right. You're right. That's a that's a scissor kick. A bicycle kick is when you do it backwards. A scissor kick is when you do it sideways. It's like that classic Holland finish where he hangs into the air and just sticks a leg out. But it's as different when Giroud does it.
He does it with such class and such grace. And wow, the way he hung in the air for that goal was spectacular. One million euro man. Yeah. So Milan had 23 goal attempts, 11 on target. Dragovski was very, very busy. He managed to get eight saves, which is the most in this in this matchday. What a performance by him. Amazing, man. He's like a handball keeper. He saves shots with his legs, you know, with his feet more than anything else. Very unconventional, but it's super effective. Yeah.
Would you say that Giroud's red card, because I saw he was getting slandered a little bit on Twitter for his professionalism, for living in the moment a bit too much and not think he should be leading by example, so on and so forth. I think genuine mistakes like this happened. He addressed it in the post-match press conference as well, saying, I fucking totally forgot. Like I'm human. I should be leading by example. I need to take a couple of days to calm down because I can't forgive myself.
Would you say it's something about professionalism or is it that human element? No, it's it's look, the guy is a walking example of the true and perfect professional. You know, he's selfless. He plays for the team. Yeah, he's the he's a utility striker. You know, he won the World Cup without scoring a single goal as a number nine. He's the the guy without an ego on the team.
He's the perfect example. He's a leader. He scores in big games like I don't think Giroud's professionalism kind of a big question. Now, whether he forgot or not, this was a goal in the 89th minute, a super goal by him. He's 36 years old. He probably thought a couple of like two years ago when he was joining Milan, he was probably thinking to himself like I hope I've still got it. And now he's out here.
At the beginning of the season, Origi came in, probably like am I going to start? Am I going to be benched by this new guy? How's Origi going to do? And he in fact, Origi started this game. So it's probably on his mind already he came on late, you know. But yes, he fucking scored an important goal, man. And I think at that moment, whether he forgot or whether it was just the adrenaline was too much, you just it's part of the sport. It's part of the emotions like everyone felt that.
Brother, I score a goal like that. I'm whooping my cock out. I think Giroud did a good job of keeping his pants on after that. Much to the dismay of many female and male as well supporters in the stadium as well. I don't know how a man could look that good sweating his ass off. Bro, I'm going to find it difficult one day. In the future when I have kids and I'm showing them clips like these vintage football clips from 2022.
And I'm showing them, you know, Prime Olivier Giroud and I'm just showing them, you know, Giroud's goals, Giroud's highlight reels. How am I going to explain to them that this guy wasn't the best footballer to ever graze the pitch? Literally, literally. It's going to be incredibly tough. Every goal he scores is a masterpiece, man. He's had some incredible goals, man. Bro, the one for Arsenal, that fucking scorpion kick. He's had some brilliant ones. The one against Inter, man. The Olivier twist.
He's had some mad ones in the Prem, man. He's had some fucking mad ones. The one where he dribbled, you know, he kept the ball and players were just falling around him. That goal is a pain thing. Literally, literally. You see everyone falling around him and just fucking dribbling through everyone. Giroud like, wow, man. And it's crazy that he's 35 years old. He's playing all these fixtures. He's playing Champions League because he scored fucking in the Champions League.
He scored two in the Champions League. And two assists. And two assists. Then he goes against Spezia and he scores in the last minute as well. I'm head over heels for this guy, man. Head over heels. You've got to love the team spirit by Milan as well. The fact that nothing is going their way and they just keep fighting to the end. Like they concede a goal to their own player, to Daniel Maldini. They get that Tonali goal disallowed.
They have frustration all around and they still manage to get the victory in the 89th against their bogey teams, be it Spezia or fucking Inter. Like they managed to get the three points. Now, we've seen Milan struggle to get full three points this season. Is a victory like this sustainable? Have they been getting sustainable victories, you think? Have they been convincing? A victory like this is what was necessary. This was the bounce back after the tornado again.
The most important thing was the three points and Milan got the three points. The manner does not matter. Milan are full of confidence now. They're back to winning ways in the league. They've advanced in the Champions League. They've got Spurs, an opponent that's difficult but not impossible. Familiar opponent, Antonio Conte. Oh, the electricity is back. Thank God. We had a power cut halfway through, right? Just so you know, we've been recording in the dark.
Thinking the laptop is going to die in a second. Exactly. We're on like 30%. We got home, the dog wouldn't stop whining. I'm sure we've told you about our dog before. We have this chihuahua who's like on his deathbed. He's done like. He can barely breathe. He's got liquid in his lungs. He's constantly whining. Constantly whining like that. So, you know, we had to calm him down before we started recording. We have another chihuahua on this Prime that won't stop fucking him. It keeps whining.
It's living here is hell. It's fucking hell. And then you get to see, for example, we're pressed for time because Milan started 8.45. And of course, we'd like to watch that game. We had the Napoli game on. We're trying to watch it now while we record. God knows what the score is. Power cut. Like, fuck me, man. We both had long days. I'm going abroad really early tomorrow. So, I need to get this done. Obviously, we enjoyed this very much, guys. It just hasn't been. Get the fuck off me.
It just hasn't been the most convenient. Let's put it that way. But yeah, now Milan need to beat Cremonaese without Giroud and Theo. Can they do it? You know what I mean? Yeah, we'll see. We'll see. Yeah, well, those are a tough draw. They are a tough draw. They make it hard for everyone, but they also lose. We'll see. Benevento vibes, maybe. First three points of the season. We'll see. First three points in their history. The goalkeeper is going to score as well.
That would be Radu. Radu's revenge. Probably. They're playing Carnesecchi. Carnesecchi. For some reason, before saying Carnesecchi, the first thing that comes to mind is always Marchetti. Wow. The Etti. High praise for the young talent. So, Spezia fought their hearts out, but it wasn't enough. It was a decent performance by them, as was their performance against Fiorentina.
Normally, we'd say Spezia are the team out of the bottom sides that are most capable of getting results that hasn't remained consistent for this season. They have, however, gotten their first away goal of the season. So, well done, Spezia. Milan find themselves in second place on 29 points, six points behind league leaders. Napoli, while Spezia just three points out of the relegation zone in 17th on nine points. The next game we're going to be covering is Udinese one-lecce one.
This is the second time Udinese and Lecce have drawn in their 29 meetings in Serie A. 17 wins for Udinese and 10 wins for Lecce during this period. Ah, the historian. Yes, coming into this game, this was the lowest percentage of draws between two teams that have met more than 12 times in the history of the competition. I love these stats. I love them. They're so random, but they're so good. I love where, like, where did they get the number 12? To fit some kind of agenda.
Yes, the power is back and Napoli are winning. And then, probably have a red card. Yes, we can guess what happened over here. But then, anyway, Udinese have won 11 of their 15 Serie A home games against Lecce. They've lost three. Oh, sorry, Herving Lozano and his hundred and first appearance. One of their three defeats, however, came precisely in the most recent meeting between these two teams. It was a 2-1 loss on the 29th of July 2020.
The goals, again, were scored by Samir for Udinese, Moncozu and Lapadula for Lecce. Remember that team? Yes, very clearly. So, the lineup for Udinese, they lined up with a 3-5-2 formation. Well, I counted the midfielders there. Silvestri was in goal as usual with Abose, Bijol and Perez at the back. Pereira on the left and Ezebui on the right. Pretty sure I nailed it. Pablo! Help! Arslan, Wallace and Samardzic in the middle with Deleveaux and Beato up front. Yes, we can call Ezebui Kingsley.
Let's call him Kingsley. The king on the left. The king on the right. The king on the right. Never mind. I don't know what I'm going to say. Falcone in goal for Lecce with Jean Drey and Gallo out wide as the fullbacks with this centre-back duo of Umtiti and Basquirotto. A fantastic centre-back duo that with Gonzales, Hulmend and Blinn in the midfield. This has been a train wreck. Streffetza on the right, Banda on the left and Milan Loni, Colombo, up front.
Now, one minute and 30 seconds into this game, the small, small man Streffetza shot low and hard from outside the box and hit the post. Very close there to an early goal by the underdogs this game. And then it was in the 33rd minute that Gallo, who had a really good game, whipped a ball into Colombo who attempted to strike it with some power like he attempted to smash it. Some venom.
And somehow, with some wizardry, he missed the shot but ended up taking it down beyond the defender, ending up one on one with the goalkeeper essentially and just rifling it in true Colombo manner into the roof of the net. His second goal for Electria in Serie A. His second goal in Serie A. His first one was a fucking mama. Still one of the goals of the season so far. Exactly. And then his second goal bro, no sorry, the second goal by Milan Loni, he smashed it. True, true.
Yeah. So, at the end of the first half, bro, Gallo smacked the post with an outstretched shot from a distance as well. So, so Electria were actually playing really fucking well over here. And I like Gallo a lot man. I really like Gallo. He's really good. He's really good Gallo. The rooster. He could make the funny name 11. He can. He can make the funny name 11. Honestly, I think that's almost done by the way. The post. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We can post it soon.
So, in the 68th minute, played a forward ball to Isaac's success who let it pass by him and squared it to Beto, finished it well first time. Good goal by Udinese over there. They grabbed the ball. They ran back. You know, they were pumped up to get the victory. And in fact, they did turn up the tempo after having their first shot in the 30th minute. Now was the time for Udinese to attack.
De Olefeo had a nice solo run in the 75th minute but went for the shot instead of the pass when they had a numerical advantage. He failed to hit the target. That was very disappointing and his teammates were quite disappointed over there. Two good saves by Falcone at the end of the game kept Udinese at bay. One on Pereira and another one on a cross that was heading towards Beto. Of course, Falcone jumped out and intercepted it. What a fucking performance by him, brother.
Great goalkeeper, Falcone, really, really underrated. This was the type of game, bro, that you would think Udinese would win comfortably. But Lecce did so well, man. Lecce can look so organized at times. And I do think that Udinese have lost a little bit of their momentum over here. One hundred percent. I mean, they dropped points in their two matches before this as well, if I'm not mistaken. They lost two. So the game before this, they drew to Cremonaise away from home.
So that's two newly promoted sides in a row and they only managed two points before that. They lost to Torino at home. And then before that, in the Coppa, they lost 3-2 at home to Monza. So they're really struggling against the newly promoted teams, man, Udinese. It seems like they're taking all the big dogs down. Beto Vassasuolo, maybe. Robin Hood. Robyn Hood. Stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. That's quite the observation, brother, maybe.
But Udinese seem to be in a bit of a slower phase. This was always going to happen. There's no way they would have remained that consistent until the end of the season because they would have fucking potentially even won the league or got in the top four. There's no way they were going to keep that up. Now it's about remaining sustainable, about implementing some squad rotation and still being able to take away three points. But right now, now is the time to face Udinese, probably.
Yeah, when they're on the downfall. Yeah, I mean, obviously, Europe will still be an objective for them, but it's looking more complicated. Wallace had 16 recoveries, this game the most of matchday 13. He failed to hit the target on the end of a corner, but overall he had an excellent game. Great display by the big man in the middle over there. Wallacein. Wallacein.
Yes, as we mentioned, the 20 year old Milan Lonilorenzo Colombo scored his second goal in Serie A. He had a decent start at Spa last season in Serie B, scoring six goals. Many of them came at the beginning of the season, but unfortunately he couldn't keep that form up in the second half of the season. Fun fact about Colombo, bro, is that he averaged the goal every 30 minutes with Milan's Primavera. The guy was built like a 30 fucking two year old guy when he was 16 years old.
Jesus. Thunder Thighs, I believe is what they call it. I'm guessing that wasn't actually his nickname, but it should have been. So you just made that up yourself. Yes, I made it up. Thunder Thighs. Thunder Thighs. I love it. It sounds like a superhero. I was impressed by Udinese's success with his flick-ons up front. Quite a self-striker as well, played quite well upon entry. A good assist as well by him, managed to spot the run off Beato coming into the middle.
He's been a very improved player from last season. We all, you know, we all asked to work criticizing him maybe for making poor decisions in the final third last season, and it seems like he's really brushed off on that and he knows his strengths and he knows his weaknesses now. Definitely bro. Udinese currently sit eighth with 23 points, while Lecce currently sit in 17th with 9 points. Now we can talk about the best match that happened in matchday 13. Salernitana 2 vs Crémont-Helzé 2.
This if it were up to me would have been the first game that we covered. It was so fucking entertaining to watch man. So they faced each other for the first time in Serie A. Their last league meetings came in 2020 slash 2021 in Serie A, but both won by Salernitana. One of them two goals to one and the other one one goal to nil. Salernitana were coming off an impressive win against Lazio at the Olympico. Crazy shit considering Lazio just beat Roma without Sergue and without Ciro.
Whilst Crémont-Helzé were coming off a nil-nil draw against Udinese. So both these sides riding a bit high at the moment. So Gjomber was out, Dier returned to the starting 11 while the visitors missed Dessers, Kirikes and Radu and also Bianchetti.
So Karnešeky started in goal for Crémont-Helzé in a 3-4-1-2 formation, Aigu, Hendry and Lašovskvili at the back, Cernikola and Kualjata out wide with Mete and Piquel in the middle, Bonajuto in the attacking midfield role with Sajou and Okereke up front, whereas for the home side it was a 3-5-2 formation, Serpe in goal, Fazio Lovato and Bron at the back with Bradaric and Mazocchi on the wings, Kulibaly, Radovanovic and Candreva forming the midfield entry with Piontek and Dier up front.
So in the third minute Karnešeky palmed across the way but it hit his own defender Aigu who was caught flat-footed and Piontek came in and slotted home into an empty net, so an early lead there for Salernitana.
However only 9 minutes later it's Sajou's header set up Okereke for a super volley from outside the area leaving Serpe rooted to the spot, what a fucking goal, this is an honorable mention and a half that he did his fucking crazy, fucking chin finger roost, I don't know what the fuck it is, but it's cool man. It's like the Prince of Persia or the guitarist from System of a Down's beard or something, I don't know what he's doing.
He reminds me of a kid that got off their scores ago, it was just like a kindergarten kid taking the pure piss. If there had to be a spectrum of goal celebrations Okereke would be on the far left and Betos would be on the far right. Badass and I'm just piss taking. In the 38th minute Kanjeva's ball put Koulibaly through but the Malayan still had so much work to do finishing through Karnisekhi's legs from a tight angle making it 2-1 in the 38th minute.
For the remainder of the game, lot of back and forwards between these two teams, Salernitana looking to obviously maintain that result while Cremonaez are looking to equalize and then in the 89th minute chaos ensued. Fazio was late on a challenge on Zanemakia inside the area and after a far review the referee awarded a penalty to Cremonaez in the 89th minute to get the equalizer against Salernitana.
Shofani stepped up, struck the penalty, it was saved by Serpe and Castagnetti turned in the rebound making it 2-2, but it had to be retaken because the goalkeeper was off his line and players were inside the area, that goes to show the level of chaos that was going on in this match. So a retake, Shofani had the balls to step up and take the penalty again, Serpe saved it again but Shofani managed to turn in the rebound himself this time making it 2-2.
Crazy scenes, this went on for a while obviously, Serpe ended up getting a yellow card for complaining as well. Crazy, crazy scenes, you see him kicking the ads on the side, he was so pissed off saving two penalties in a row and they scored the rebound for it. Of course man, of course, he would have hated his life at that point, he would have been a hero, saved two penalties in a row denying Shofani, by the way has to be off penalties eh? He has to be off penalties. How dare he celebrate?
How dare he? At the end of the day it's an equalizer against Salernitana, Cremonaez, bro Cremonaez have 6 points and it's because of 6 draws, these are adding up for them, they really are adding up. We saw the draws for Genoa last season weren't enough. Yeah I know, in the blessing era. He's still there, he's still there, we'll see what they can do, hopefully we'll see them back in Serie A next time. The Klopp region. Literally the second coming of Klopp.
So that was my first point, Shofani off penalties for sure but this had to be the best match of the weekend eh? For sure bro, action packed from start to finish. Like literally got a goal in the third, a goal in the 89th, like the full stretch of the game.
Salernitana, when they play bigger teams they can look like a big team themselves, obviously in ninth place they're not exactly a small team in today's day and age but then when they play these smaller teams they really get that hustler side out of them eh? They really like, okay if you want to turn this into a scrap we are fucking Salernitana, we probably have one of the most impressive curvas hoods in the world like, so we're willing to take that route as well.
It's true they're like one of those working class background politicians. You know what I mean? The one that goes to the casino, like to the support. Like he goes to the lobster events, he sits in parliament with a suit but then he'll wear a tank top and like snap a rabbit's neck and put it on the barbecue like with the boys.
That's Maltese as fuck, probably Salernitana as well, we try to meet Salernitana, they're from Campania so we're very much like them I guess, they'll probably beat us and any guy from Salerno would beat the shit out of us. Probably yes, I feel like that would be the case. So Salernitana continuing to look super dangerous but ultimately they'll be disappointed with a result like this not managing to get the full three points against Cremonese, what do you think?
For sure bro, they did dominate the game even though they did give up a few opportunities. I think that penalty drama at the end will really haunt them, especially Seppe, he'd be upset with that. But you know at the end of the day they didn't lose I guess and that's a good thing. Yeah for Salernitana they wouldn't have expected to be 9th at this point, you know what I mean? They'll take one point, they'll move on, they're not going to feel hard done by it, you know what I mean?
Even though they were, but fuck it. You know Karnisekki himself did have a bit of a mirror in this game in my opinion, he wasn't great on the goal, on the first goal especially. Look it was unlucky, he could have gotten a more convincing parry to the ball but as the defender was placed in an awkward situation, he was flat footed so he couldn't get the ball away, it's harsh to pin it on him, it is harsh to pin it on Karnisekki. I'm not pinning it directly on him.
Stop pinning it on him, he's a young guy. Fuck you! But yeah I mean it's no Radu area, you know what I mean? No Radu by far, in fact Cremonaise probably don't even mind that kind of mistake after what they've seen and been through.
I wouldn't even say that Salernitana dominated the game, certainly they didn't look as though they were in too much danger in the second half until the penalty was awarded, but when you look at the stats, 52% possession to Salernitana, 11 goal attempts a pop, Cremonaise had 5 on target, Salernitana had 2 on target, so Cremonaise can bring it man, Cremonaise can bring it, they just can't win.
They'll take the points Andran brother, that's their 6th draw of the season putting them on 6 points in 18th place 3 behind Salvation, while Salernitana in 9th place on 17.6 behind Odineze. The next game we're going to be talking about is Bologna 2 Torino 1, coming into this game, you ready for it bro? Yes!
Torino had lost just one of their previous 10 SEA matches against Bologna with 3 wins and 6 draws, with that defeat coming in March 2019 at the Olimpico Grande Torino Stadium 3-2, so this was a good win for Bologna against an opponent that tends to destroy them quite frankly. Fair enough. And Torino drew each of their previous 5 SEA matches at Dallara. The last away win for Torino against Bologna dates to April 16th, this was a 1-0 win, and guess who scored in the 93rd minute?
For Torino, scored in the 93rd minute, what year was this? 2016. For Torino, 2016, I'm actually gonna guess, I'm actually gonna guess, I don't know. You don't know? No. You're not gonna guess? No. Yes, he, okay, Torino goal, who comes to mind? Bellotti obviously. Yes, it was Bellotti. Okay, no way is it that easy like, fucking hell.
It's that easy bro, it's that easy, we said the same thing last year, last week, it was the stat, it was like the last time these guys would have been a goal by Bellotti, and god knows how many goals he's fucking scored, he's the most prolific striker in history perhaps, Bellotti probably one of them. They also had that team that died in that plane crash, that's like all represented. Bellotti never died in a fucking plane crash.
Alright, so it's true, that Torino team had 10 of their players in Italy starting 11. Yes man, that was literally il grande Torino, they had that nickname for a reason. They all died in a fucking plane crash, as the supporters were waiting for them to arrive back at the Turin airport after winning a cup winner's cup match against I think Benfica, it was, they were waiting for them to come back to congratulate them, they never arrived, they all fucking died.
What an absolute nightmare, it was I believe it was a very, like the visibility was really bad that day and the plane was flying too low and it hit some kind of, not a monument, a structure, some kind of structure. Fuck man, fuck. Yeah and everyone just died on the spot, I believe one person survived. And he was like some journalist that started like tutta sport or something like that.
We have an article about it on our website guys, we have a website, seriaspotlite.com, it's a very well written article, go check it out, it's a great read. Thank you, shout out to Mitul. Thank you Mitul. So we've been speaking about Bellotti, they have missed a striker of his calibre since his departure, don't worry they've got Pietro Pellegrini, two seconds into the game, Pietro Pellegrini goes off injured. How is it even possible man, what the fuck happened man?
The fastest injury in Serie A history. No shit man, two seconds. And honestly don't ask me how this is possible, in the 18th second of the game, Arnautovic was one on one. So second, second, second Pellegrini injured, 18th second Moussa Barrow, curving looping ball over the top, to Arnautovic, who is one on one with the keeper, strikes it, Vania pulls off a massive save. Now something we've got used to saying this season, Vania pulls off a massive save.
The massive man with the massive beard, pulling off massive saves. With the massive dick. We gave our top 10 goalkeepers earlier on in the season, to be honest I feel like an idiot, so many guys like fucking Vania should be somewhere close to the top 10 at least. Perhaps Skorupski should be there. Di Gregorio. Di Gregorio man, wow. Wow man, wow. I think, I think because you mentioned, Madonna, Skorupski, I think talent wise he's there, he just hasn't had the form at the moment, but aha, go on.
In the 26th minute. Defending it in my life. Let it go bro. There was a long ball by Vania Milyankovic, savage goalkeeper, playmaker, everything he is. There was a long ball, long ball over the top bro, honestly the full length of the pitch. Seeing this guy again looping, kicking balls is hilarious, like I don't know why, because he's so big, it's even kickoff football, it's so funny to me. Every time he goes to kick a ball it's.
Anyway yes it was a long ball by him to Miranchuk who was dropped in the box by Lukumi, boom, penalty for Torino. Skorupski gets straight but couldn't stop Lukic, shot 1-0 Torino. He gets straight man. And that is how the first half ended. Now in the second half there was a reaction by Thiago Motta who brought on Orsolini and Soriano for Arbishev and Ferguson, not a bad duo to bring on over here. Orsolini in form of course having scored in the last game and Soriano a veteran player.
In fact it was in the 64th minute that Riccardo Orsolini actually found the back of the net. There was an amazing curling lofted ball by Vignato under the pot of Orsolini who converted it super sub. Yeah we could call him a super sub, he is a sub now, two goals in two games. Definitely satisfying the role that Motta has given him. In the 73rd minute it was Stefan Posh who got the winner for Bologna. Liko Giannis crossed the ball into the box.
It was flicked on by Soriano, another substitute by Motta making an instant impact. It was flicked on to Posh at the far post to manage to score his first ever Serie A goal. At the end of the game Arnoutovic managed to cross the ball in low and hard through a Rabona after almost losing it and running out of the pitch. Orsolini had an empty post, it would have been I think the assist of the year so far but honestly the Rabona was lovely. And Orsolini just fucking airs in the brook. And super sub.
Arnoutovic was like come on dude, I hear you joking right now, I'm exhausted. I've been running like I had the Rabona to get into it like you fuck, I put it on a plate for you and you fucking miss it. You know that fucking video of that guy, that Spanish guy saying your shorts don't brush your balls. Exactly, your shorts don't fucking brush your balls. You fuck the best women, you sleep in the best hotels. Yeah man, your clothes don't stick to you, the sweat doesn't stick to them.
That's it man Orsolini, you've got the score. Maybe I'll make a meme of it. That's a guy that's riding off of great confidence, he's just like let me fucking cunt this is going to be the goal of the season and alas it was not. Did I go through the lineups? You didn't bro, I was thinking about it. Go through them now. I go through them now.
Okay so Bologna played with Skorupski in goal, there was Lukumi, Sauma and Poš at the back with Cambiasso on the left, Abisuer on the right, Dominguez in the middle, Arnautovic played up front with Barrow and Ferguson behind him. Of course they had super subs on the bench, super subs for their caliber, in Vignato, Soriano or Solini, these guys all contributing to a goal. Shout out to Thiago Mottoff for changing the game.
Literally. Torino played with Savic in goal, Gigi, Schuers and Bonjorno at the back, Singo on the right, Lazaro on the left with Ricci and Lukic in the middle, Pelegri starting as the striker with Mirancuk and Vlasic playing off his shoulder. Of course there had to be an early substitution over there with Karamoh coming on in the place of Pietro Pelegri and that did fuck Torino up a little bit for lack of a better term because they don't have an out striker.
I think they need to get one as early as January, we said this last week and it continues to ring through. For sure. Torino were coming off a fantastic victory against Milan, they face Bologna and they're obviously hard done, like you said, a very situational loss. They lost their striker in Pelegri that kind of messed up their structure of the game and their preparation just went to shit instantly. But yeah, Bologna did a fantastic job and kudos to Motta.
It's good to have Motta and I feel like he reads games very well, he's able to adapt his teams very well in every game. So shout out to him and shout out to Bologna. Third win in a row for them, they're on the up. They're on the up for sure. Definitely not relegation candidates anymore, that talk has died. Absolutely not. It is sometimes, although changing a manager so early on in the season can seem premature and it can seem irrational, sometimes it's just what you have to do.
And they did that, they got Motta on board and they're looking fucking better, they're looking way better. Yes they are. Back to Torino, assuming that they don't have a striker, you'd think that many of their goals would come through their midfielders from outside the box, maybe Long Range, they have Radonjic, Vlasic, Miranchuk, they're all capable of hitting them. Wrong. Torino are one of the 10 teams of the big 5 European leagues this season to have not yet scored from outside the box.
Despite them having attempted 49 shots from outside the box, 13 of which were on target. Indeed they are the only side in Serie A to not score from outside of the box this season. Miranchuk will be the first one. I would say Radonjic. That's not a bad shout. He's got a rocket in his pocket. Miranchuk just outside the area, angled on his favourite foot, he can curl one into the bottom corner. Put a bet on this, you and I like personal bet. We'll discuss it.
So currently Torino sit in 10th with 17 points while Bologna are in 12th with 16 points. The next game we're going to be covering is Sampdoria nil Fiorentina 2. Coming into this game Samp had won their last 2 Serie A home fixtures against Fiorentina. Which is crazy considering Samp had a shit season last season and Fiorentina had a good season last season. Samp still managed to get away with all 3 points in the same encounter.
Samp are coming off a 3 nil loss against Inter, whilst Fiorentina were coming off a 2-1 away win against Spezia. Now the Viola were celebrating passing to the conference league play-offs and last week's 2-1 win at Spezia but they still missed Nico Gonzalez, Ricardo Sotil and Gaetano Castrovilli. Vere was suspended for Sampdoria while Pusetto, Harry Winks and De Luca still injured for Sampdoria.
Samp therefore lined up with Audero on goal, a back 5 of Augello, Amione, Colle, Ferrari and Berezinski, a midfield 3 of Juricic, Villar and Leris, an attacking 2 of Caputo and Montevago. On the other hand for Fiorentina they lined up on a 4-3-3 formation with Terracciano on goal and rightly so, a back 4 of Dodo, Milenkovic, Martinez and Biragi, Bonaventura, Duncan and Mandragora forming the midfield 3, Ruiz Sicon and Kwame flanked Jovic.
Now it took under 4 minutes for the breakthrough as Bonaventura was ready to tap in at the near post after Dodo pulled back from the byline, finalising a brilliant Christian Kwame counter-attack who just keeps on impressing me. He turned into fucking Liao to bring the ball forward man. He does that often. He played it to Dodo, Bonaventura and Bonaventura slotted in coming in clutch.
In the 11th minute Iconi rounded the keeper and squared it to Kwame maturely but the Ivorians saw his attempt blocked off the line by Ferrari, they could have made it 2-0 over there. Now Marinelli awarded a penalty for a foul on Jovic by Audero on the 28th but checked VAR and cancelled it when realising that Jovic went down like a pussy. But yeah, no penalty for Fiorentina and no problem.
In the 58th minute Milinkovic headed in after a biragi corner and that killed the game at 2-0 Fiorentina get past Sampdoria. Now a win against Sampdoria doesn't mean much this season but after advancing in the conference league and winning 2 on the trot in the league, can we finally start seeing some form by Fiorentina?
I think right now Stankovic is trying to figure things out, you look at his formation and his personnel that he's choosing every week, it's different, it's kind of like when Motta took over at Bologna and you just kept playing different guys, we saw Montevago up front, the 19 year old striker, we didn't see Gabbiadini on the wing this time.
But I asked can we start seeing some form by Fiorentina, not by Sampdoria, they advanced in the conference league, they have 2 wins on the trot, now what do you think?
Yes, everyone on this Fiorentina side is improving, including Jovovich, Icona, as we mentioned, Kwame has proven to be extremely dangerous, Biragi can be a weapon on the far side, they have options in midfield, you know, their centre backs, if they play a 4 at the back it's not too bad, their centre back depth, Milinkovic, Pomerantina, Skorota and Igor, if they all stay healthy.
But I think even like out wide, Sampdoria is finding his form as well, it's not looking bad at all for Fiorentina and I do think they can go on a little bit of a push now. Yes, I think so, I think so obviously depending on their run ups coming through, I don't think they have many players that will be featuring in the World Cup that will do them quite good, I mean probably Jovovich, Icona and not too many more after that. Milinkovic?
Milinkovic, but hopefully we can start seeing Fiorentina turning things around, because I'm fed up of watching them wearing the full Fiorentina tracksuit and they do absolutely nothing. But you mentioned Sampdoria, now they've had quite a tough run in since getting their first and only win of the season against Cremona, they faced Inter and Fiorentina, but have you noticed any differences in their play style and everything since employing Stankovic?
It's a mess bro, it's a mess quite frankly, they don't look good at all, they don't look organised, again the personnel aren't consistent, it seems very clumsy at times, they conceded a goal this game four minutes into the game and then Fiorentina just kind of put their foot off the gas, you can see Sampdoria attempted to take a few shots but not really threatening at any point.
I mean they did employ an absolute meathead to try to turn their season around, I mean Stankovic is good at, I'm sure he's a great motivator, but I mean you look at Sampdoria, their shape and everything throughout the match is absolutely abysmal, there's no fucking sense of build up play, nothing of the sort, they're really shit man. They are really shit, they're really fucking shit. And they've been on the down for a while and I feel like they might be in trouble now.
Sampdoria is a coach who has some experience under his belt, he was the assistant manager after Dinesh, he was the coach of Red Star Belgrade from 2019 to 2022 and now he's just taken the job at Sampdoria but he did bits with Red Star Belgrade, safe to say that this is his greatest challenge so far and we'll see what he can do, especially with the January market approaching, maybe he pushes to get a few signings that fit his system well.
Remember that there's also Sabiri missing right now, their most creative outlet, so maybe they will improve when everyone's back.
Now this was one of those shots in the dark, sometimes you need to take a bit of a risk with management, like they could have gone for Ranieri, they could have gone for all these kind of experienced area managers but they wanted, like you know Zidane won three Champions Leagues in a row with being assistant manager of Carlo Ancelotti at Real, they called him up and he did what he did.
Pep Guardiola the same, you know we do see this a lot but when it comes to experience, because you mentioned experience, having been the assistant coach at Odinese and being the coach of Red Star Belgrade in Serbia might be enough experience for playing in Serbia, for being in Serbia with a struggling Sampdoria side, it's a massive, massive risk and so far sure he's trying out everyone, he's trying different formations, he's started up five
at the back trying to neutralise some of the pressure that they've been absorbing but it's not looking good, it's not looking good under him and they look like a mess man, like an absolute mess. We'll see if they manage to turn that around bro as the season progresses. Yeah, well they're in 19th just on 6 points in 13 matches, while Fiorentina in 11th on 16 points, just one point behind Salernitana and Torino. The next game we're going to be covering is Empoli 1-Sasuolo-0.
Empoli and Sasuolo have actually never drawn a Serie A match bro, they've played 11 games, the Nero Verde have won 6 times and the Tuscans 5 times. Empoli have won 4 of their 6 Serie A home games against Sasuolo in the stadium and they've lost twice, the previous one however was won by Sasuolo, 5-1 in January 2022. 5 goals.
Dionisi was the manager of Empoli also during the 2020-2021 season, of course in Serie A when they were promoted to Serie A and another fun fact was that Destro has found the net in his last 2 games against Sasuolo in Serie A, before this game at least, but he fell injured this game 7 minutes into the game. It was a guaranteed goal almost. Exactly, so they must have been pretty relieved about it.
Empoli lined up with Vicario in goal, Le Buehi out wide with Parisi on the other side and Luperto and Ismael as the centre back duo. The midfield trident was Bandinelli, Marin and Fazzini with Baldanzi as the Czech-Wartista and a striking partnership of Destro and Satriani.
Consigli was in goal for Sasuolo, they played a back 4 of Rogério Ferrari early Cantolian with a midfield 3 of Thordes, Vett, Lopez and Frattesi, youngster Dandrea on the right, Traore on the left with Pinamonti as the striker. Now there was a slow start to this game, the first real chance came through Lammers in the 29th minute, he shot the ball wide. Of course in the 33rd minute Ismael got the ball stuck between his body and his extended arm in the box for a solid 2 seconds.
In my opinion it was bizarre that it was injected, I think it's quite clear to be honest that it should have been a penalty. He held the ball like a rugby ball. It's crazy, if that's not blatant then to be honest I'm not sure what is, because if you literally hold on to the ball then you clearly used your arms. You can count 2 seconds with the ball between his arm and his body.
So that was the 33rd minute, of course Sasuolo must have felt a little bit rubbed and then the goal eventually came for Empoli in the 64th minute when Satriani played the ball to Baldanzi who took a touch with his right and finished with his left. Amazing goal by the 19 year old Luc Gem, this is his second goal of the season, he's an Empoli youth product. You like him, you have him on fun times. Yes and he scored against me. On both of them. My first sub on both and he actually came on.
In the 89th minute Bayrami waited for Lammers to make a run in behind, he released it perfectly between Lammers and the post but Lammers was late to it, he wasn't on the same page to be honest, Lammers could have done better there and they would have killed the game. Sasuolo had an opportunity to equalise in the last minute, threw a header on a set piece but they skied it.
Disappointing by Sasuolo, they didn't really look to threaten towards the end of the game, Empoli just fucking outplayed them. The penalty granted would have changed the game. That would have changed the game pretty significantly but Empoli have shown us some very good performances man, I know they haven't tracked up too many wins and gotten too many points yet this season but they do look like a very organised side.
I love the way they build play from, not necessarily from the back but the way they build their attacks, it's very attractive to watch and they're capable of playing the ball around in their own half pretty comfortably. But interestingly enough you never really see them score more than one goal. Aha, aha, I mean probably their best forward would be Destro and he is nearing a certain stage in his career where he's slowing down slightly.
Last season was a bit of a different story, he was with Jey and Wahe, he was all hyped up. Now to be honest we're seeing H catching up with him a little bit. He still has that class and that grace about him that we all enjoy very much but physically I don't think he's the same strike he's been. So it's no wonder that Empoli are going to struggle to get goals if he's the guy they're relying on. And Sartre and Anand Lammer are on the opposite end of the spectrum when they're on the come up.
Exactly, that's something I had said about Milan before Origi was signed, I had said that it's either one end of the spectrum where you have Giroud and Zlatan or it's the other end of the spectrum where you have the Pelegris, the Lazetich, so on and so forth. I also liked Marin's performance, again man he's been playing really well. He's a solid man Marin. And they have of course I believe it was Bandinelli who played in midfield this game, he's very good.
And then apart from Vicario and maybe a couple of their defenders is probably the man that has racked up the most minutes for Empoli this season, he's the first name on their team sheet. True man that's pretty crazy. They also have Fazini in the midfield, that's another 19 year old man, they're a really young team, so good job. I feel like they beat Sassuolo by playing Sassuolo's game. That's true.
So it's tough to tell what's kind of up with them and why they're so on and off, because it's that. I can't put my finger on it because one day their issues are their strengths and another day their strengths are their issues. And I can't quite put my finger on it. Well the defense certainly isn't too sad, like Gratis it's improved this season. We thought it was Kirikis. It was Kirikis. Now it's Ferrari. That's true.
But that's the thing, the Italian game and the game in general is always evolving. And even in Serie A we're starting to see a little bit more pace up front and teams kind of coming to terms with how they should play in European competitions, so upping their pace so on and so forth. So if you're a slightly slower defender then you might struggle. Or you would see the Bonnettries having no problem. Nowadays you see that kind of a slower defender. The low block isn't as common.
For example you look at teams like Bayern Munich, they buy defenders with offensive attributes because in their league they're constantly defending on the half of the half. Even Real Madrid, you look at Midotao, Andriodega. Bonnettries thrived as well in that system. Empoli had 15 scoring chances this matchday, the same as Milan. It's the most of matchday 13. This is compared to Sassuolo's 6. 14 key passes for Empoli as well, the most of matchday 13. Milan were second with 13 as well.
So this was a fantastic display by Empoli. You normally see a scoreline like this where Empoli beat Sassuolo, like the underdog winning. And you think okay it must have been kind of like a freak thing, Sassuolo must have had loads of chances and they just couldn't score, so on and so forth. But they were outplayed by Empoli. Empoli were very good in this game, very convincing. And if they can do that more often, that would be great.
Sassuolo sit in 13th with 15 points while Empoli sit in 14th with 14 points. The next and final game we're going to be covering is Monza 2-Verona 0. Monza ending a 3-match losing streak which came after a 3-match winning streak. Verona, well this loss marked Verona's 8th loss in a row now, with their only win this season coming against Sampdoria. So struggling to say the least, but they're playing Monza and you think okay this is a challenge we're up for.
Well Hellas had Davidovic, Ceccherini and Heanole suspended plus Coppola, Piccoli, Verdi, Illich and Hrustich injured. So maybe they weren't up for it that much. I mean they had Tameze playing at the back. Yeah exactly.
For Monza it was a 3-4-2-1 with Di Gregorio on goal and a backline of Itzo, Calderola and Marlon, Augusto and Curia on the wings with Sensi and Rovella on the double pivot, Caprari and Pessina playing just behind Mota, whereas for Verona it was also a 3-4-2-1 with Monte Pongo and a backline of Tamez, Maniani and Gunther, Faroni on one wing, Glasovic on the other with Veloso and Hongla in midfield, Calon and De Pauli just behind on Rhee.
So Monza almost got a goal in the opening 20 seconds after a Tamez error, but Caprari failed to capitalise from that, good to see Tamez got a good start to his career as a central defender. Maniani got sent off in the 27th after attempting to clear the ball as the last man, missing it and taking out Mari in the process.
I have to say it was quite unlucky, the ref originally awarded a yellow but then checked VAR and reverted to a red card, he literally totally went for the ball, missed it and ended up taking Mari, Mari would've been clean through, kind of on the wing but he would've been in behind the defense. So yeah, red card to Maniani. Monza finally found the breakthrough in the 68th when Churia burst down the right and pulled back from the byline to Carlos Augusto to swing in from 12 yards out.
Amazing goal. Carlos Augusto, Roberto Carlos, genius. In the 90th minute, Colpan is slotted into the near bottom corner after some brilliant hold up play and layoff by the in-form Petania. Oh yes, another one of my fantasy against you my brother. There you go man, who did I have? What did anyone do against you? I don't think you got a single goal brother. No no, not a single goal, not a single assist, no clean sheet by Tata, thank you very much. So Monza had 75% ball possession.
Monza also had the most successful passes of this matchday with 552. They had the third most goal opportunities with 11, they had the fifth most shots with 15 and they were first in possession with 40 full minutes of possession going to Monza. Now sure Verona are deflated, sure they're on bad form. I don't think, I think this happened because of the red card.
No I mean yes, but it's a whole problem, you know they get too many reds, the discipline is a problem, the team is already very thin, the owners don't invest, they're in trouble.
And I mean yeah they're struggling, they're down in last place and to see a team like Monza who are still very new to Serie A, they've got a bunch of new guys still drilling together, they're on their second manager already and they managed to not only win 2-0 but the manner in which they won 2-0 because it might have been, I might have almost enjoyed 45% ball possession, had five shots and lost 4-0.
You know because I would have seen some spirit, I would have seen something clicking, something happening. But in this case they just got absolutely dominated and what a performance by Monza to capitalize on that, it took till the 68 but it was just convincing man. It's true man, they played really well and the stats show it you know, I mean they're ever present in every area of the stats.
The man behind that brother, well most of it at least is Ravella and he had an absolute midfield master class in this game. He created the most chances of this matchday with 5 and he had the most forward passes with 51. This guy played the ball forward 51 times against Verona, just looking to turn defense into attack consistently. He's developing nicely, I mean I liked him out in January already, now he's 20 years old, he's playing for Monza and he's playing with some authority.
I think that Juve have some serious players in the midfield. 100% under the pressure. Ravella, Miretti Fajon, the young talent and not to mention Locatelli for example as well who's also a great midfielder, especially when he has the right partner alongside him. But back to Ravella, Juve have loaned him out wisely.
I mean sure you could say that they could use him this year but it seems like now we're a bit optimistic on Juve because they just beat Inter and their young players are performing well so sure they could use him. And their midfielders are coming back from injury slowly. So rather than playing him on the off chance that he plays this season they loaned him out again and let me tell you what man, he's going to go back to Juve as a great midfielder.
He had a great season last season at Genoa, he's having a great season this season again with Monza, he was a really nice coup so they signed all these Pessinas, Capraris, Petanjas, Sensis, so on so forth. And they're like okay, someone to gel it all together now and they brought in Ravella and he's been a masterclass of assigning for them. Really good honestly. The thing is I'm not quite sure I agree that he'll go back to Juve as a great player.
I think he'll go back to Juve as a player with two years of Serie experience with a lot to prove and a lot of pressure on his shoulders and a lot of competition as well. Like I don't think he'll just walk into that Juve team by any means. No, no, no, he'll need to work his way up the ranks at Juve but he's definitely going to be better off giving it a shot now than he was this season and the season before that.
He's grown a lot and he's finally, like he has minutes, he knows how it feels to play against Milan, he knows what it feels like to play against Inter, so on and so forth. But yeah that's the game for you guys, I mean it was clear Monza domination, Verona got that early red card in the 27th and they couldn't recover from it and I mean it was some task to stop Monza in this form.
That leaves Monza in 15th place on 13 points, still a lot of work to do for them in 15th place but they'll be happy to not be battling relegation at the moment. Whereas Verona on the other hand, 13 matches, 5 points, 8 matches in a row lost so serious danger for them. Thank you very much guys. That's the episode, I need to rush, pack, I need to be up at 6.30am to travel. Damn, you're going to shower in the morning? Yes, shower before a flight otherwise I'll be minging after it man.
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We'll see you guys next week where we'll cover 2 match days in a row, love you all and take care.