Serie A title favourites Inter Milan sent a message to their Scudetto rivals on Saturday with a thumping 5-0 win away to Hellas Verona, all five goals coming in the first half. And, in a spectacular set of matches this weekend, two more of the chasing pack, Atalanta and Fiorentina, continued their long winning runs in a congested title race.
I Nerrazurri ripped their hosts apart in a blistering 45 minutes to fully justify their status as the favourites, according to the bang up to date Serie A 2024 betting odds. And Simone Inzaghi’s team dismantled lowly Verona without their captain and senior striker Lautaro Martinez who was being rested after international duty. Marcus Thuram stepped up again as he bagged a quick-fire brace to move up to nine goals from 13 games.
The hosts started brightly as Flavius Daniliuc forced Yann Sommer into a smart save before Casper Tengstedt hit the Milan crossbar. But any Inter nerves were quickly settled when Joaquim Correa cleverly chipped Verona keeper Lorenzo Montipo to finish off a flowing move. France striker Thuram then scored twice in three minutes before Stefan de Vrij and Yan Bisseck both breached the Verona defence. I Nerazzurri played out a 1-1 draw with leaders Napoli before the international break but this result took them temporarily to the top of the league.
In other Serie A 2024 news, Italian football royalty AC Milan and Juventus put on a master-class for lovers of defensive football; but there was little to cheer for the fans of net-busting goal action as they played out a 0-0 draw at a packed San Siro Stadium. Both teams had passing accuracy of over 87 per cent but neither did much with the ball, Juventus registering just two shots on target…one more than Milan.
It’s a magnificent seven for Atalanta
As the breath-taking action continued to unfold on Saturday, Atalanta nudged ahead of Inter on goal difference as they won the late kick-off, a 3-1 victory away to Parma. It was a seventh consecutive league win for La Dea as Serie A top scorer Mateo Retegui scored his 12th goal of the campaign and there were strikes too for Ederson and Ademola Lookman.
Retegui broke the deadlock with just four minutes on the clock, nodding in a pin-point cross from Raoul Bellanova. And the lively right winger almost created a second when he fired in a cross for Lookman but this time the header flew narrowly wide. Atalanta went two up before the break when Ederson tapped in a cross from Matteo Ruggeri. But Parma weren’t finished and they halved the deficit minutes after the break when Matteo Cancellieri smashed his shot into the roof of the net. Atalanta boss Gian Piero Gasperini was anything but calm about the situation and he was soon sent off for two yellow cards. But his nerves were settled when Lookman, who had been narrowly denied a goal by the offside flag, finally got his goal with a deft finish from a Juan Cuadrado cross.
Under Gasperini Atalanta have been one of the most free-scoring sides in European football for years, with stars like Duvan Zapata and Luis Muriel banging in the goals. And now, in Retegui and Lookman, La Dea have two players in the race for the 2024/25 Capocannoniere.
And seven too for high flying Viola
Another hot shot was on the mark on Sunday afternoon as Fiorentina’s Moise Kean scored in a 2-0 win away to Como. And that made it seven consecutive Serie A wins for La Viola too as they moved up into third place.
Fiorentina went ahead on 19 minutes when Beltran shielded the ball cleverly before passing to Yacine Adli who fired low through a congested penalty area and into the net. Viola keeper David De Gea pulled off an extraordinary triple save to deny Como, and the hosts paid dearly when Adli turned provider and Keane converted with an instinctive flick to direct the ball high into the net at the near post. So by mid-afternoon on Sunday three of the teams which began the weekend a point off the top had picked up three points, with Lazio still to play.
Now it’s over to Napoli, who started this round of matches on top of the pile, and their test is at home to Roma in the SBOTOP Sunday evening match, a win would return I Partenopei to the summit but, for now it Atalanta, Inter Milan and Fiorentina at one, two and three.
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