The secret blitw: Serie A 2013/14

Dzeko makes it two!

today was a good day

Juve losing again - behind against Chievo inside five minutes.

All four early kick-offs ended 2-2. You could have got odds of about 70,000 to 1 on that. It being Italy, I wouldn't be shocked if someone did.

MATCH-FIXING!

Napoli 2-0. If it stays like this Juve will be 10 points behind Inter, having played one game more.

2-1 immediately though.

Having conceded one goal in the previous five matches, Inter are 3-0 down to Fiorentina at home in the first half.

Two goals from Nikola Kalinic, ex of Blackburn Rovers.

Inter - Sassuolo has been great fun. Sass just nicked it with a 95th minute penalty.

serie a is confusing nowadays.
wee teams like frosinone and sassuolo kicking about that james richardson never talked about while eating a pastry in naples.
milan are terrible
inter were terrible for a couple of seasons but are back this season
napoli top of the league
high scoring games

fu Maurizio Sarri

Genius from nainggolan

i do feel v comforted by inter being inter. eder, soriano, banega, no reasons just keep that numb shopaholic ache ticking

Wonderful goal from El Shaarawy. Pjanic's was pretty sweet too.

Seems absurd that Juve should be back in this at all after the start they had but it's difficult to see anyone stopping them from this point on.

Juve's first ten games of the season - 10 points
Juve's last twelve games of the season - 36 points

Dybala / Morata / Pogba is beautiful to watch.

Should have been 12 from first ten^

maybe overreacting but pjanic to juve seems somehow a worse omen for the competitive health of italian footie than juventus being champs yet again.

Juve are becoming Italian Bayern. Ugh.

£25m is a steal.

De Boer off to a flyer - lost 2-0 at Chievo last week, losing 1-0 at home to Palermo with 25 to go now.

^^^^ sacked

Poor bastard didn't stand a chance tbh.

tbf, he inherited a squad that probably under-performed in finishing 4th last season and spent £112m on players over the summer. I'm not sure why it fell apart so horribly.

It didn't help that he was only brought in mid/late August, but yeah, it's been a spectacular downfall.

anyone gonna be watching this season? i've not paid much attention since i moved back to the UK but i wanna rectify that, seems like things could be heating up at long long last.

watching the Milan game against Cagliari now, the young lad Cutrone just gave Milan the lead converting from a nice Suso delivery - 2nd goal this season having scored one, assisted one and won a penalty in the 3-0 win over Crotone last week. had never heard of him before that. Kalinic and Andre Silva not getting a look in yet. Milan look very exciting this season, so much depth in the squad now. could this be the year?!

all the talk this summer has been about Milan but it's Inter who've put in the most eye-catching performance so far - they came back from 1-0 down to win 3-1 away at Roma last night - Icardi banging in 4 goals in the first 2 games. their transfer window obviously hasn't been eye-catching like Milan's but Borja Valero is a quality signing and Spalletti is a great managerial appointment. big advantage they have on the competition this time is there's no Europe for them again this season. i love Mauro Icardi.

loads of pundits tipping this to be Napoli's season but they haven't really done anything to speak of during the summer and they're currently makin a balls of it at home to Atalanta.

meanwhile Dybala is looking on it and keeps doing stuff like this (his hat-trick goal in a 4-2 win)

https://streamable.com/9esl7

Juve have once again been bringing in players by the bucketload (Bernadeschi, Douglas Costa, Matuidi, De Sciglio) and still have by far the best team and deepest squad in the division and will definitely win the league. unless they don't.

whatever, come one come all, can't say how long the feeling will last but it seems like Serie A might finally be getting slightly more competitive again

watched Inter's first game against Fiorentina the other day and was delighted to see Jordan Veretout and Carlos Sanchez looking something less than useful in the Fiorentina midfield. clearly wasn't just a personal thing against Villa :)

Giovanni Simeone and Federico Chiesa up front for Fiorentina tonight, reminding everyone who grew up watching their parents of our mortality.

Benevento vs Milan is pretty interesting. It’s Gattuso’s first match as Milan manager, Benevento’s record before today was Played 14, Lost 14. Benevento have just equalised. Not sure they are going to hang on for their first point of the season but it’s going to be fun seeing how Gattuso reacts if they do.

Yeeeesssssss they're gonna do it!! :D

The Benevento goalkeeper just scored a diving header to make it 2-2 in the 95th minute!

This is amazing

I’m so pleased for them.

Lololololol what a start for Gattuso. His managerial record is really something, I don't even know how he's ended up here

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2gWeq5abvlM

This warms the heart

Fifteen minutes in to Inter - Juve, Inter were down to 10 men and a goal behind.

20 minutes to go and Inter are 2-1 up. Napoli might actually do this.

Damn them, 3-2 Juve. Two goals in two minutes,

Krzysztof Piatek’s now scored nine goals in seven games in the league (having scored four in one match in the cup), since signing for Genoa. It’s the best start any striker has ever made in Serie A.

Piatek has scored six in four games since joining Milan.

Piatek, the renew of AC Milan⚫️🔴#football #acmilan #acm #MilanAtalanta #MILATA #SerieATIM #SerieA #Italia

pic.twitter.com/5xisLDMUAt

— The Playmakers Culture (@pmkrsculture) February 16, 2019

About as good a bargain as you are going to get for €35m.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhQVoTZEmpQ

In other news: Serie C club Pro Piazenca can only field 8 players (including 6 teens and the masseur) lose 20-0. With 16-0 at half-time, Cuneo should be ashamed of themselves for only scoring four in the second half.

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/soccer/third-tier-italian-club-fields-six-teens-and-a-masseur-thrashed-20-0-20190218-p50yfp.html

fuuck this shitty league

otm. this takes the fucking cake.

We need to talk about Italy nuke Italy.

A short thread on Italy and racism in 2019.

Italian footballer Mario Balotelli was racially abused during a match in Verona this weekend. The abuse is clearly audible in this video: pic.twitter.com/NO0KXjeIw5

— Alberto Nardelli (@AlbertoNardelli) November 4, 2019

^^ thread. Nardelli doesn't even get around to mentioning the racist abuse Kalidou Koulibaly (Napoli) got this weekend from AS Roma fans. Big surprise coming from them, I know, but he's got it several times before this season. Rampant.

ugh, penalty due to a handball is a rule that can easily be exploited