Seven games in 21 days to understand something more. After the break for the national teams, it's time to dive back into club football, ready to finally get to the heart of it. In fact, August matches, however official, always leave the time they find: a matter of athletic preparation but also, if not above all, of a market that distracts general attention quite a bit. But now it's getting serious and not only with regard to the championships: next week the European cups will also start and the summer, alas, can be considered definitively archived.
The first to take the field will be there Juventus, awaited (like Naples and Rome) by a nice tour de force. We start at the Stadium with Sassuolo and Sevilla, then the San Siro away game with Inter, Cagliari at home, Palermo, Dinamo Zagreb and Empoli away. In short, nothing is taken for granted, especially in the first 10 days: Di Francesco, Sampaoli and De Boer are already ready with their respective traps…
The same number of commitments also for Napoli but here, at least on paper, the calendar would seem to lend a hand. Palermo and Kiev are far from impossible transfers, as are San Paolo's commitments with Bologna and Chievo.
Marassi's match against Genoa and the home one against Benfica could give them a few more problems, before closing in Bergamo with Gasperini's Atalanta, but all in all, the path to the next break appears easy and could launch Napoli higher and higher .
Lots of curiosity about it too Roma by Spalletti, called upon to defeat her greatest enemy: herself. The disaster against Porto and Cagliari's (suffered) comeback confirmed all the fragility of the Giallorossi, unable to maintain lucidity and coolness in the key moments of the matches.
A big problem, to be solved quickly: Sampdoria and Fiorentina (at Franchi) however are not exactly the ideal opponents to find each other, as are Turin (away) and Inter. In between the home match with Crotone and the two Europa League matches with Viktoria Plzen and Astra, to be won without ifs and buts.
Calculations also prohibited forInter by De Boer, forced to win after the missteps in August. We start from Pescara (Sunday evening), an insidious away match as demonstrated by Napoli a couple of weeks ago, then San Siro with Hapoel and Juventus, a real seasonal watershed. A positive result against the Italian champions would also boost Empoli, Bologna, Sparta Prague and Rome, vice versa De Boer's job could become even more difficult than it already is now.
Finally the Milan, the only one of the big names not to make the European cups and therefore, in a certain sense, with an advantage. Two games less can make the difference, especially at a time when physical condition can't yet be at the top.
Woe, however, to making flights of fancy, especially taking into consideration the calendar: after Udinese there will be Sampdoria, Lazio, Fiorentina and Sassuolo. Serial obstacles therefore for Montella, forced to score points to hang on to the train of Europe (League). Waiting for the Chinese to give him a market worthy of this name.
