Stefano Pioli’s AC Milan leapfrogged Inter to go top of the Serie A table after a thumping 3-0 win against Venezia at the Stadio Pier Luigi Penzo on Sunday.
The Serie A 2022 betting odds back Inter to retain their Scudetto and they can go top again if they beat Lazio in the late Sunday clash, but the Romans are dangerous opponents and I Rossoneri’s win has just added that bit more pressure. The visitors to Venezio started at a frightening pace and were ahead on just two minutes when Zlatan Ibrahimovic slotted home a low cross from Rafael Leao.
Here at SBOTOP we love Zlat the Great and the 40 year old phenomenon reached yet another staggering milestone with that goal. He matched a record set by fellow golden oldie Cristiano Ronaldo as he scored a goal against an 80th different opponent. In 2014 he was ranked by a Swedish newspaper as the second greatest Sporting Swede of all time, after the tennis legend Bjorn Borg. That’s one great player to follow, but I bet Zlatan thinks he’s worth a shout to be the best!
While Zlat will hog the headlines it was flying wingback Theo Hernandez who took Venezia apart, scoring a screamer just after the break and then converting a penalty on the hour.
Venezia are in a relegation battle among five or six teams in peril, but with 17 points from 20 games they have given themselves a decent chance of survival.
But takeaway number one is ‘Zlatan is still the King!’ Now let’s take a look at some of this weekend’s Serie A 2022 highlights from the lesser mortals.
Atalanta are always worth watching
I Rossoneri gave us some great action this weekend, but there’s one team which has consistently provided box office stuff over the past two or three years and that’s Gian Piero Gasperini’s Atalanta who have had the most free-scoring attack in Italian football.
And they were at it again on Sunday as they battered Udinese 6-2 to stay in fourth place. Top scorer Duvan Zapata wasn’t even in the team as La Dea ran riot, but his Colombian strike partner Luis Muriel made his mark scoring a well-taken brace. Mario Pasalic, who has made five assists this season, the highest return in his team, opened the scoring when he nodded in a corner before Muriel doubled the lead with a quarter of the game gone. Ukrainian midfielder Ruslan Malinovsky made it three before the break but then defender Berat Djimsiti gave the hosts hope when he put through his own net.
Muriel finished clinically to restore the three goal advantage before Udinese’s Beto made it 4-2 with the goal of the game, smashing his shot into the top right corner; but late goals from Joakim Maehle and Matteo Pessina made it 6-2.
21 shots and seven on target, away from home, is par for the course for this goal crazy bunch who have hit the net 44 times in their opening 20 games.
Napoli toiling but digging in
After starting the season in incredible form, matching co-leaders AC Milan, pace for pace over the first 12 games, Napoli have fallen a little off the pace with four defeats in the last nine games, and they struggled to a 1-0 win at home to Sampdoria on Sunday afternoon. It didn’t help that captain and star striker Lorenzo Insigne went off injured on the half hour, just after he came close to scoring, and Andreas Petagna’s 43rd-minute strike into the top right corner was the only time the Azzurri could breach a stubborn Sampdoria defence.
The win takes third-placed Napoli to within five points of Milan, but Sampdoria are looking over their shoulders in 15th place on 20 points.
Berardi is pure gold for Sassuolo
While Napoli toiled it was a totally enjoyable afternoon for Sassuolo and their fans as they dismantled Empoli at the Stadio Carlo Castellani. They began the day three points behind their hosts but leapfrogged them into ninth place thanks to a 5-1 rout, started when the excellent Domenico Berardi converted an early penalty. The Italy star, who was superb at Euro 2020, also made two assists to make it ten goals and six assists for the season.
Teammates Gianluca Scammaca and Giacomo Raspadori were the chief beneficiaries of Berardi’s support as they both scored twice in the thumping victory. Liam Henderson had given Empoli hope when he fired home to make it 1-1 early on, but the game fell quickly away from the hosts as Berardi pulled the strings. It was an afternoon to forget for Empoli’s Mattia Viti who copped two yellow cards in two minutes and left his ten team-mates with a mammoth task. Jose Mourinho and Max Allegri clashed in the Sunday tea-time match between Roma and Juventus, and Inter Milan were set to take centre stage later on but, as at 7pm Italy time, Milan were on top and Zlatan was, once again, the man.
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