Round 14 of Serie A action was an extended weekend of calcio as some fixtures spilled over to Monday evening as an additional treat.
The top three teams in Italy all played on the final day of the round, as Napoli hosted Inter at the Stadio San Paolo and Fiorentina made the trip to face Sassuolo at the Mapei Stadium.
Torino opened the weekend’s action as they condemned Roberto Donadoni to his first defeat as Bologna coach, with Andrea Belotti and Giuseppe Vives earning themselves a place on the scoresheet in a 2-0 win.
In Saturday’s late kick-off, Sinisa Mihajlovic welcomed former club Sampdoria to the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, where his AC Milan side ran out as rampant 4-1 winners. A first Rossoneri brace for M’Baye Niang came between a Giacomo Bonaventura opener and a late Luiz Adriano clincher and meant that Eder’s solitary 87th-minute strike for Samp was nothing more than a consolation.
Sunday’s biggest talking point came at the Stadio Olimpico where Roma fell to a 2-0 defeat at the hands of Atalanta. Alejandro ‘Papu’ Gomez put La Dea ahead with a sublime finish after capitalising on a Lucas Digne mistake before a late German Denis penalty sealed the Bergamo side’s first win at Roma in 12 years. The goals do not tell the full story, however, as the game saw three late red cards with Maicon receiving his walking orders having brought down Gomez for the penalty. Guglielmo Stendardo and Alberto Grassi saw red in the dying minutes for the visitors.
Roma’s Eternal City rivals Lazio also fell to defeat. An early Lorenzo Tonelli goal was enough to earn all three points for Empoli as the Biancocelesti continue to stutter this season.
Scudetto holders Juventus continued their recent resurgence with a somewhat flattering 3-0 away win as Paulo Dybala returned to Palermo. Mario Mandzukic opened the scoring for the Bianconeri before Stefano Sturaro and Simone Zaza both scored late to seal the points for Massimiliano Allegri’s men.
Both Veronese sides fell to 3-2 defeats in their respective goal-filled encounters. Alberto Paloschi initially gave Chievo the lead over Udinese, but a double from Cyril Thereau as well as a Nicholas Frey own-goal was enough to guarantee the Zebrette left with the points, despite Roberto Inglese adding to Paloschi’s earlier strike.
Meanwhile, Hellas Verona were beaten by Frosinone in what proved to be Andrea Mandorlini’s final game in charge of the Mastini, as he was relieved of his duties on Monday afternoon. Rafael was dismissed for Verona within 20-minutes before Daniel Ciofani scored twice for the Canarini to give the Serie A minnows a comfortable half-time lead. Federico Dionisi made it 3-0 shortly after the break meaning nothing came of Federico Viviani and Vangelis Moras’ respective second-half strikes for the Gialloblu.
Gian Piero Gasperini’s Genoa side are the epitome of inconsistent this season and there most recent result is evidence of this. Falling to a 2-1 defeat at home to Carpi despite taking the lead is a way of defining their season in microcosm. Leonardo Pavoletti was sent off after just five minutes and the Grifone took the lead just three minutes later through Diogo Figueiras. Marco Borriello returned to haunt his old club as he netted the equaliser, which allowed Cristian Zaccardo to steal the points for the Biancorossi with less than ten minutes to play.
Sassuolo’s impressive home form against the country’s bigger sides continued as they deservedly held Fiorentina to a point. La Viola took the lead early on with a scrappy Borja Valero effort only to have his strike cancelled out by a towering Sergio Floccari header just before the break.
The round’s biggest game came at the San Paolo and saw Napoli run out 2-1 winners against Inter. The Partenopei started as they intended to go on with Gonzalo Higuain emphatically opening the scoring with just 65 seconds played. With this goal Higuain made it eight consecutive home matches in which he has scored.
The Argentine then doubled his tally after the hour mark and Adem Ljajic pulled one back for Roberto Mancini’s men but it was not enough to change the outcome.
Inter came agonisingly close to levelling proceedings twice in stoppage time as they hit the woodwork on two occasions. Stevan Jovetic first headed off the post, which left Pepe Reina rooted to the spot. Seconds later, the Spaniard pulled off a superb fingertip save to deny Miranda, as he deflected the defender’s header onto the opposite post to which Jovetic has previously rattled.
