I said a few weeks ago that I expect Serie A to be the most open major league in Europe this season but even I wasn’t expecting this amount of Serie A 2022 highlights in one weekend.
Of course, there is only one place to start and a result which shocked me so much I can’t imagine what the pre-match SBOTOP Serie A 2022 betting odds offered.
What duly followed was history in the making and, for those of a home persuasion, a day which will never be forgotten.
For this wasn’t just Monza’s first-ever victory in the division in their 110-year history, but it came against a name synonymous with the magic and mystique of Italian football, the ‘Old Lady of Turin’.
Christian Gytkjaer was the hero but there were many heroes all in red, while Juventus were let down by someone who should know better.
I have always thought that, for all his talent, Angel Di Maria goes missing when the going gets tough.
He did so during his solitary season at Manchester United, he was often ineffectual on the big stage for Paris St-Germain and now, with Juventus, he let his new team-mates down as he was sent off for violent conduct just before the break.
The frustration at his ponderous team was clear shortly before half-time when he elbowed the chest of Armando Izzo. It was too clear a gesture to be ignored, a reaction foul after he was held, and the outcome was obvious.
The hosts’ moment of glory came 16 minutes from time when the lively Patrick Ciurria got down the right and his cross was slid home by Gytkjaer from six yards.
It sealed a memorable and historic victory for Monza and their new boss, Raffaele Palladino, promoted from the youth team after the harsh sacking of Giovanni Stroppa.
In any other week, events at Udinese would have provided the story of the weekend as they scored twice in the final six minutes to seal their own memorable victory against the 2021 champions Inter Milan.
Nicolò Barella opened the scoring early with a superb free kick but a Milan Skriniar own goal, followed by Gerard Deulofeu creating late headers for Jaka Bijol and Tolgay Arslan, had the home fans in raptures.
So much for being the surprise early season upstarts of Serie A, manager Andrea Sottil has now matched the best-ever Udinese start to the season (2000-01), with 16 points from the first seven matches.
By contrast, Inter have lost three of their opening seven Serie A matches. On the last three occasions this happened, they failed to finish in the top four, something manager Simone Inzaghi probably considers a minimum requirement for the class of 2022.
Events at Monza and Udinese ultimately mean that Sunday evening’s big two matches played second billing this weekend with both Atalanta and Napoli, who shared the lead at the top of the summit.
They did it the hard way with impressive away wins at Roma and champions AC Milan respectively – the latter’s coming from the head of Giovanni Simeone as he directed Mario Rui’s cross into the bottom corner.
It may be early days in Serie A, but Sampdoria, the side which gave us some of the league’s finest moments through the likes of Ruud Gullit, Gianluca Vialli and David Platt, are in a bit of bother.
Sure, there is plenty of time to improve and climb into a much healthier position but the 2-1 loss to Spezia in the Liguria derby was an undoubted blow and leaves them firmly in the drop zone.
They did actually lead through an early long-range stunner from Abdelhamid Sabiri, but there was barely time to finish celebrating when Sampdoria scored a bizarre own goal, as an Emil Holm cross from the right took a double deflection off Alex Ferrari and Jeison Murillo to ricochet into the net from close range.
Spezia turned the game around with another Holm cross from the right and the unmarked M’Bala Nzola converting from close range.
Home goalkeeper Bartlomiej Dragowski made a double save to keep out Manolo Gabbiadini and Sabiri at the near post, then deep into stoppage time rushed off his line to stick out a boot and deny Fabio Quagliarella the equaliser.
Two points from their opening seven matches represents a very poor start to the campaign for Sampdoria.
It was a case of ‘After the Lord Mayor’s show and all that’ for Salernitana over the weekend.
After their fine, chaotic draw at Juventus last Sunday night – the first time they have ever taken points off the Italian giants – they went down at home to new boys Lecce, themselves earning their first win of the season in the process.
A Strefezza Rebelato goal seven minutes from time settled the contest.
Lecce had taken the lead through Assan Ceesay just ahead of the break before an own goal from Joan Gonzalez early in the second half drew the home side level, although they were unable to turn the tide in their favour.
●●●
CHECK OUT OUR BLOG FOR MORE FOOTBALL STORIES & ODDS
Stay updated with everything sports and betting.
Follow us on social Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.
