Matchday 12 of the 2019/20 Serie A saw the top two sides score late winners, Lazio and Cagliari continue to push for the UEFA Champions League, and a bad start for Fabio Grosso in his first match in charge of Brescia.
Sassuolo 3-1 Bologna
Friday night football at the Mapei Stadium… The Neroverdi took the lead after Francesco Caputo had guided home a Duricic pass inside the box while all alone. The home team double their lead, as Jeremie Boga ran onto a pass then beat the entire Rossoblu defense and smashed the ball into the goal. Newly called up Italy international Riccardo Orsolini pulled one back for the away side with an ankle flick from a cross. Caputo got his second with a brilliant solo strike, collecting the ball and ghosting past a few Bologna defenders to score in the upper part of the goal. A deserved win for Sassuolo in this Emilia-Romagna Derby.
Brescia 0-4 Torino
Andrea Belotti scored two penalties within a span of 10 minutes in the first half to give the Granata the early command. In the second half, Alex Berenguer also helped himself to a brace, both from counter-attacks to give the Piedmonte side a commanding victory. Not the start that Grosso wanted in his first chance in top flight football.
Inter 2-1 Verona
A second-half fightback from the Nerazzurri… The away team took the lead through a Valerio Verre spot kick after Samir Handanovic committed a foul. Inter pressed, but no goal came in the first half. However just after the hour mark, Matias Vecino rose high to meet a Valentino Lazaro cross to tie the game, and then Nicolo Barella scored a stunning curling effort with his right foot with less than 10 minutes to go to give the home side the victory.
Napoli 0-0 Genoa
This match was all about the current crisis at the Partenopei… The mutiny of the players made for a tense match and it told as the home side were not at their best and with the Grifone happy enough to not push too much, it ended in a scoreless draw.
Cagliari 5-2 Fiorentina
A commanding Casteddu win… They opened the scoring was a thing of beauty with fantastic free-flowing football that was finished off by Marko Rog. Before the half it was 3-0 to the Sardinians, as Fabio Pisacane scored with a header scored with a lovely back-flick from man of the match Radja Nainggolan. Joao Pedro scored on a break-away as he ran onto a Nainggolan pass and the Belgian got on the score-sheet himself with a 25-yard bullet. Dusan Vlahovic scored twice late on as a consolation for La Viola.
Udinese 0-0 Spal
A match that had 34 shots on goal came down a last minute penalty kick… Spal were given the chance to grab an away victory, but Andrea Petagna’s kick was well saved by Juan Musso in the Friulian’s goal.
Sampdoria 0-0 Atalanta
La Dea created most of the scoring opportunities and they had a man sent off. This is basically as much that came from this encounter.
Lazio 4-2 Lecce
A hard fought win for the Biancocelesti… At the half hour mark, Luis Alberto fed Joaquin Correa and the Argentine slotted the ball into the far corner of the net. Just before the half though the Salentini tied the game up as Gianluca Lapadula scored from a corner which was flicked on to the striker. At the hour mark, Sergej Milinkovic-Savic scored with a right footed shot from a Francesco Acerbi cross. The away side thought they tied up for the second occasion as Lapadula scored after teammate’s Khouma Babacar’s spot kick had been saved, but it was determined that he had encroached the penalty area in the sequence. The home team did score their penalty through Ciro Immobile and Correa got his brace after being sent through by his strike partner. Andrea La Mantia pulled another back with a header and the away side did create a couple of other good scoring chances, but the Romans eventually held on.
Parma 2-0 Roma
A couple of second-half goals gave the Crociati all three points… Mattia Sprocati got the first after he collected a Gagliolo cross to score with what seemed like a miss-hit shot. Aleksandar Kolarov hit the post from a free-kick and on the stroke of full-time Andreas Cornelius scored on a counter-attack, powering the ball past Pau Lopez in the Giallorossi net.
Juventus 1-0 Milan
A single goal win for the defending champions over rivals Milan… The Rossoneri had a couple of good chances with headers from Piatek and Lucas Paqueta, but the Pole’s was well wide and the Brazilian’s shot was brilliantly saved by Piatek’s countryman in the Bianconeri goal. Slowly but surely the home team started making their moves and it was no surprise when they took the lead; Paulo Dybala finished off a nicely worked move which involved Gonzalo Higuain and the Argentine scored with his weaker left foot from just inside the penalty area. The away team pressed, but no equalizer was forthcoming.
There is now a two-week pause for the international break.
