Italian Football Serie A News and Stories in English
Milan beat Juventus 4-2 to capture their fourth win in five games after the lock-down as the Bianconeri experienced an authentic blackout and gave away a two-goal lead. It was Milan’s first Serie A win over the black-and-whites since four years. Far from saying that Juventus’ claim on the Scudetto is at risk, but Maurizio Sarri’s band suddenly found themselves fragile.
Ralf Rangnick’s appointment to Milan is more or less a done deal with the German set to join the Rossoneri for next season. He is set to sign a 3-year deal worth €15M with an option to extend for a further year. Milan will be hoping that their tenth managerial appointment since Massimiliano Allegri in 2014 will be the one to finally help them regain their European powerhouse status.
Two Italian representatives engaged in an inspiring discussion about the role of women in football today at the World Football Summit. Ornella Desiree Bellia, Head of Professional Football at FIFA, and Magda Pozzo, Strategic Marketing Coordinator of Serie A club Udinese, joined a panel that discussed how women can lead the change in the football world.
Serie A Round 30 was split between two days only, with eight games played on Sunday after a Saturday appetizer featuring the Derby of Turin and an interesting Lazio-Milan battle. Stefano Pioli’s Rossoneri savagely dented Lazio’s title ambitions by finding the back of the net three times while Juventus easily saw off their city rivals to place a strong claim on the Scudetto.
In what literally came out of nowhere, Daniele De Rossi is set to be appointed as Fiorentina manager next season. In terms of unexpected piece of news from Serie A, this one is the most interesting of the week. What would De Rossi exactly bring to the Viola? For a man who literally has no coaching experience whatsoever, it looks like a bold move.
Our destination today is Udine, in the Northeastern Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia. Udine features a stadium that, despite not being too old, has undergone a massive refurbishment in recent years, which changed its appearance almost completely. The stadium has two names, an original one – Stadio Friuli – and a more recent one due to sponsorship reasons: Dacia Arena.
Round 29 of the 2019-20 Serie A season saw plenty of goals and plenty of action at either end of the table. Juventus managed to open up a four-point lead at the top of the table with their win at Genoa. Elsewhere, Sampdoria claimed an important win against fellow strugglers Lecce, with wins also for Lazio, Sassuolo, Verona, and Udinese.
Atalanta extended their winning streak to seven games and maintained their perfect record after the post-pandemic restart as they defeated Napoli 2-0 at the Gewiss Stadium. Goals by Mario Pasalic and Robins Gosens consolidated Gian Piero Gasperini’s fourth place in the table with a comfortable view on the Champions League.
The name of Enzo Maresca probably won’t ring any bell to most Juventus fans, especially the younger ones. After all, this journeyman midfielder collected only 37 caps for the Bianconeri across 4 seasons. Still, Maresca is mostly remembered at Juventus for his famous celebration after scoring in a Derby della Mole against cross-town rivals Torino.
SPAL and Milan ended on a 2-2 score their Wednesday night battle at the Paolo Mazza Stadium in Ferrara in Serie A Round 29, courtesy of a shocking own goal by Biancazzurri defender Francesco Vicari which helped the Rossoneri grab at least one point after going down 0-2. A major disappointment for SPAL which honestly deserved to take home the three points.
Jeff Hendrick is officially a free agent after running to the end of his Burnley contract this week. As speculation mounts surrounding his move to Milan, we look at how he might fit into the Rossoneri side. Hendrick showed that he can play as both an attacking and defensive midfielder, and could be a good back-up option in Milan’s 4-2-3-1 lineup.
Gennaro Gattuso has so far proved a success with Napoli, and with the Azzurri taking a slightly different approach to appointing managers, could it mean that the ex-Milan hero could be one of the next-in-line for Italy’s top management job? His career has seen him climb the Serie A, and if that trajectory continued he could yet find himself as Italy’s boss one day.