Beautiful, vibrant and, above all, fought. The Scudetto fight between Juventus and Roma continues to be close, indeed very close. The beauty is that the two contenders will soon meet for the first direct match (October 5) paired at the top of the standings, provided that Atalanta and Verona (their respective opponents for the next day) do not give away some sensational twist. While waiting for the postponement between Lazio-Udinese (20.45 pm) the midweek round also gives us the leap of Inter, who thanks to the victory over Atalanta overtakes Milan and reaches third place (in cohabitation with Sampdoria and Verona) and the umpteenth missteps of Naples (3-3 at home with Palermo) and Fiorentina (stopped by Sassuolo on 0-0), real disappointments of the championship.
On the other hand, with those two up front running smoothly, mistakes aren't allowed. Allegri and Garcia then can afford a nice advantage over their opponents: the turnover. In spite of the declarations made on the eve, the Juventus coach decides to rotate the starting eleven in an important way. Out two sacred monsters like Tevez and Pogba, in addition to the titular Asamoah, by virtue of Pereyra, Evra and Giovinco. Surprise starter instead Vidal, pointed out on the eve by Allegri himself as "not ready to play from the start".
Risky moves? Not a chance! Juve forced Cesena on the ropes from the very first minutes but only scored from a penalty (hand ball by Calcione rather dubious) converted by Vidal, who was also lucky in the conversion (18'). The Chilean is doing well, and how he is doing well and in the second half he doubles his lead with a great right foot from outside the box, absolutely unstoppable for Leali (64'). The 3-0 is the work of Lichtsteiner, a habitué of early season goals, who makes the most of a nice assist from Padoin.
The Roma match was decidedly more complicated, forced to suffer until the end from a very good Parma. Here too the difference is made by the breadth of the squad, Rudi Garcia's true strength. In addition to the numerous injured players (De Rossi and Iturbe above all) he allows himself the luxury of leaving out Maicon and Florenzi, deploying Torosidis and Ljajic in their place. And the Serbian unlocks the match in the 27th minute thanks to Totti's cue, always wonderful despite the 38 springs to come.
But Parma was alive and kicking and at the start of the second half (55') they equalized with De Ceglie, good at heading off and scoring the first league goal into De Sanctis' goal. However, the best goal is yet to come and, as in all worthy thrillers, it comes at the end: Pjanic's free-kick is a jewel that Mirante can only admire (43').
Speaking of author's goals, it's impossible not to mention Inter-Atalanta. Match attacked from the beginning by the nerazzurri of Milan, but in the balance until the end of the first half. Bad luck (Vidic's post and Icardi's very occasional) and inaccuracy (missed penalty by Palacio), which for a good 40 minutes cause the specter of Atalanta, historically the black beast of Corso Vittorio Emanuele, to hover over the San Siro. And when Icardi leaves the field after just 25 minutes due to injury, many think it will be another bad night. Nothing could be more wrong, because Osvaldo, who took over from the Argentine a few minutes earlier, solved the game. The ex Juve scored with a splendid half bicycle kick, the house's trademark, then went to celebrate with Batistuta's machine gun.
The 1-0 put the match down even if Inter, after wasting the opportunity to double (Palacio's post), risked a bit against the always enterprising Atalanta. But in this midweek round it is quality that makes the difference and so, in the 87th minute, Hernanes takes the chair: a splendid free-kick and everyone goes home.
There is no peace instead for Benitez's Napoli, now officially in a black crisis. The Azzurri, in front of just 17 spectators (a negative record for San Paolo), were unable to beat Palermo, moreover letting them catch up after being ahead by two goals. In fact, Napoli starts strong, indeed very strong, reaching 2-0 (Koulibaly and Zapata) after just 11 minutes. Then, as always in recent times, the blackout. A Palermo hitherto sacrificial victim finds the 1-2 with Belotti (18'), then takes courage and even reaches a draw with Vazquez, one of the best surprises of the new Serie A (24').
Once the 2-2 was collected, Napoli got back to playing and found the new advantage with Callejon, very good at taking advantage of Gargano's assist 10 seconds from the end of the first half. But Benitez's team has the consistency of an ice cream in the sun and in the 61st minute they are joined again by Belotti, undisturbed in the tap-in in the center of the area despite the presence of the Neapolitan centre-backs. The soundtrack of the 3-3 final is a forest of boos to which De Laurentiis (absent) and Benitez cannot remain indifferent. On the fourth day, Napoli are already 8 behind Juventus and Roma: any further comment is purely superfluous…
