Serie A Round 5 Preview: Milan and Roma to Clash on Monday Night

Italian Football, Serie A, Serie A 2020-2021

The Italian Serie A is back again with Round 5 after what seemed like an eternity. But hey, at CoC we are in a habit of being over-dramatic at times so you should or perhaps should not forgive us for acting like divas when it comes to waiting for a game to kick off. 

The upcoming match day promises to be yet another exciting one for sure. Sassuolo are set to take on Torino while Genoa would be looking to buy themselves a new goal net as they face Romelu Lukaku who deals in braces these days.

Juventus take on Hellas Verona while Milan and Rome would be the game that we will be looking to deconstruct once we find out what transpired at the San Siro.

Sassuolo – Torino

Sassuolo are flying high, unbeaten in the league so far, second place with ten points from four games. The Neroverdi are becoming quite the entertainers this season and are pretty solid as well. Torino on the other hand, just don’t seem to catch a break. They are yet to get off the mark this season and as a wise man once said, “relegation beckons!”.

Atalanta – Sampdoria 

La Dea would definitely be absolutely livid at how they simply rolled over and looked the other way while Napoli spanked them red. A 4-1 defeat harks back to those days when they played boring football and were more of a background noise for most of us. But hey, they could get back to winning ways after thumping Midtjylland 4-0 in the Champions League. 

Sapmdoria aren’t pushovers though. Doria shocked everyone by beating Lazio 3-0 who then decided to beat up Borussia Dortmund.

Football can be weird!

Genoa – Inter

Inter have been stuttering quite a bit ever since the new Serie A campaign began. Antonio Conte would not be happy to be the manager of such an inconsistent side but then again, he did get almost every player he demanded.

Genoa on the other hand, have started realizing that the new campaign has begun so would be looking to make amends after making such a poor start to the campaign.

But with Romelu Lukaku not playing like most of his teammates and scoring goals consistently, are we in for a massacre of monumental proportions?

Lazio – Bologna 

One minute down the next minute up is a term that is reserved for the Pakistan cricket team. But it appears that Lazio want to own this statement in the footballing world. Simone Inzaghi’s men were really poor in their 3-0 defeat at the hands of Sampdoria. The team was all over the place and looked more like 11 men trying to run for cover.

A few days later, they brought Borussia Dortmund and their world beaters to their knees. They put three goals past the German giants with Ciro Immobile reminding them that he was always a good striker.

Bologna on the other hand, have three points on the board and are looking more and more like a side that is flirting with the very concept of a relegation dogfight. These things do tend to get messy so let’s hope that Bologna at least stand up for themselves against a Lazio side that is far closer to their opponents in the league standings than they would like.

Cagliari – Crotone

On Saturday, the Sardegna Arena will play host to two leaky defenses. But both teams had a great previous match day so they would be looking to go at each other’s throats this time around.

Cagliari defeated Torino which is becoming a rather customary thing these days while Crotone. Giovanni Simeone continues scoring goals and reminding his father why he should bring him to the Stadio Metropolitano so that they can travel Europe together every midweek.

Crotone on the other hand, held a Ronaldo-less Juventus to a 1-1 draw and must be feeling very good about themselves. Not every newcomer gets to do that so we can forgive Crotone if they start acting too pompous on the pitch.

Parma – Spezia 

Okay lads so Parma and Spezia are set to face one another which promises to be one of the most exciting games of the season. Both teams boast a goal difference that would make any team blush. The hosts boast a goal difference of -5 while their visitors might be a little higher than them on the table but a goal difference of -4 doesn’t actually inspire a lot of confidence.

If you are not a fan of either of these sides, we can suggest you something really good to read.

Benvento – Napoli

After dismantling Atalanta and reminding them of the good old days I just spoke about, Napoli thought that it would be great to start their Europa League campaign with a 1-0 loss at home to AZ Alkmaar, a team that is struggling in the Eredivisie this season.

But you can bet all of Maradona’s many antics that Gennaro Gattuso would be on his players case if they slip up against a Benvento side that has the ability to gift you goals.

Fiorentina – Udinese 

Artemio Franchi is a very sad place these days. Beppe Iachini has not been able to reverse the club’s fortunes and despite his bosses assuring him that he still has a few paychecks left to collect, you never know with Italian owners.

One thing that should give Iachini some comfort is that La Viola seem to do well against Udinese who picked their first points of the season last time out.

Juventus – Verona 

With no Cristiano Ronaldo in sight, Federico Chiesa has proven himself to be quite a decent replacement in the long run. The young Italian took the game to Dynamo Kiev while Alvaro Morata scored a brace. Giorgio Chiellini is out of the encounter but the reigning champions have enough firepower to tame a Hellas Verona outfit that seems to have done well for itself so far this campaign.

Milan – Roma 

This is the big one!

Milan and Roma are two sides that seem fairly rejuvenated with the Lombardians looking more and more like the team that captivated our imaginations when we were still fixated on the ones that kept getting away.

Under Stefano Pioli, the Rossoneri have become a very dangerous outfit and with Zlatan Ibrahimovic leading the lines and still scoring consistently, they have a chance to play a big role in this season’s Scudetto hunt. Can you bet against them not going all the way?

Roma on the other hand, have not done badly but they do need to be more consistent. Paulo Fonseca is happy with the players he has at his disposal and if they’re able to hold their own against a very strong and confident Milan attack, they might make a game of it.

Make sure to watch out for our Milan – Roma match analysis where we’re going to take apart the encounter and see what happened, why it happened and how it happened.

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