La Juventus engage fourth. The big match at the Stadium certifies the return of the Lady to the top of the standings, at the expense of one Rome defeated and furious for some decisions of the referee Orsato. Above all that in the 44th minute of the first half, when the match director whistled a penalty for a foul by Szczesny on Mkhitaryan, but canceled out Abraham's goal a second later. Hasty choice, even if lucky: the touch with the hand of the Armenian, in fact, would have in any case induced the Var to cancel the goal. However, the referee explained to the players during the interval that “on penalties you never give the advantage”. In any case, Roma had a chance to draw, but Veretout, hitherto specialist from the penalty spot, has been done hypnotize by the Polish goalkeeper, protagonist again after the bad mistakes at the beginning of the season.
"I don't want to comment on the penalty, I don't have the data in my hands and I want to try to isolate myself from this episode to concentrate on what the team has done - he glossed over Mourinho – I just hope that all the words we heard from Juventus in the dressing room are said publicly. They have had great difficulties, they know it perfectly because they are professionals. I won here many years ago without deserving, while this time I lost when we deserved to win”.
However, the regret of the Special One is not enough to change things, or rather the 1-0 with which Juve took the stake. Decisive the goal by Kean (16'), author of a head deviation on a detachment of Bentancur, then managed tooth and nail by the usual iron defense, personified by the couple Bonucci-Chiellini, returned to the glories of Wembley. With yesterday's we are at three consecutive 1-0 draws between the championship and the Champions League, in perfect Allegri style: for the show please come back later, perhaps when players like Dybala and Morata are fit again; in the meantime, however, the march towards the top rankings advances inexorably and this Juve is once again scary.
“It's a good result, for the third time we haven't conceded a goal against a physical and technical team like Roma – the analysis of Allegri – At first we tried to go and get them high, they were good and slowly we started playing. Szczesny then gave back to the team what is the value of him, he is having a good continuity of performance. We gave another tap to the standings, now head to the Champions League”.
The other heavy victory of the day is that of Napoli, which thanks to the suffered 1-0 on Turin recovered the first place in the standings. Spalletti had already made it clear on the eve that this match would be simple, but perhaps he didn't even expect to struggle so much to get the better of Juric's men. The beginning then had deceived everyone, with the blues several times close to scoring and a penalty conceded by Sacchi for a foul by Kone on Di Lorenzo. There however, in the 27th minute, the match changed because Insigne had his shot saved by Milinkovic-Savic, giving new life to a Bull that seemed on the brink of the abyss.
Furthermore, the Napoli captain, in his third out of five mistakes in the league (second consecutive after the one in Florence), has entered a negative vortex, dragging his teammates along too. The grenades, on the other hand, took courage, so much so that they almost took the lead in some dangerous restarts and forcing Ospina to save the result on a couple of occasions. However, the Azzurri also created problems, in particular with Lozano, author of a post against the goalkeeper. When the 0-0 seemed written, however, here was the decisive episode: insistent action by Napoli, rebound on Elmas and Osimhen's winning header, with the heaviest goal in his championship (81').
“He is becoming more and more complete, he is a very strong footballer – he exulted Spalletti – Insigne? He is very attached to this shirt, he was very sorry for the missed penalty. Insigne beats the next one, the one after Lorenzo and the third our captain. We are growing a lot from all points of view”.
Important victory also for Atalanta, which in Empoli finds goals and entertainment just like in past seasons. It cannot be a coincidence that, among the great protagonists of the match, there was Josip Ilicic, author of a brace (11', 26') and a missed penalty (68'), in perfect genius and recklessness style as per the script. However, the Slovenian illuminated the offensive game of the Goddess from the first minutes, also because Empoli by Andreazzoli has left several spaces, preferring an open fight to a more defensive one. The choice led to the goal of By Francesco (30') and on other occasions, but ended up exalting Gasperini's war machine, which literally exploded in the second half with Viti's own goal (49') and the winning tap-in from Shoe, who reached his 100th goal in Serie A (89').
“Matches are never easy, this is a difficult field – commented the Nerazzurri coach – I think we played a good game, created a lot and won three important points: now we can think about the Champions League”. Yes, because from tomorrow it will already be time to dive into the European cups, with the Italians engaged in very important matches (Zenit-Juventus, Manchester United-Atalanta), in some cases already decisive (Porto-Milan, Inter-Sheriff).
