⚽️🇮🇹 Lautaro Martínez breaks a huge club record!
In this week’s Italian soccer digest, we've got plenty of updates from Serie A's Argentine players, including Lautaro, Paulo Dybala, Benjamín Domínguez, and Santiago Castro!
🍿 Serie A hasn’t been this close in decades!
The title race in Serie A is incredibly close, with just a single point separating league leaders Inter and second-place Napoli. This trend continues across the top of the table, which hasn’t been this tight in the last 30 years!
😲 Only six points separate the top four of Inter, Napoli, Atalanta, and Juventus. Opta Paolo says this is the closest top-four race in the three-point era (which started in 1994-95).
📰 Italian newspaper Corriere dello Sport extends this to the top eight teams, who have just 15 points between them. There have never been so few points separating the top eight at this stage of the season in the three-point era.
3️⃣ If you’re wondering what the ‘three-point era’ means, it’s when three points were first awarded for a league win. Before 1994-95, a win was worth two points.
🔥 Juventus hosts Atalanta in huge top-four clash
The picture at the top of the table could change this Sunday when fourth-place Juve hosts third-place Atalanta (3.45pm ET, CBS Sports and SiriusXM FC).
😲 Juve, which still only has one loss on the league season, comes into the game on the back of five league wins in a row, most recently at home against Verona.
🇺🇸 USMNT stars Weston McKennie and Tim Weah both started that game, in midfield and at right-back, respectively.
👉 Atalanta tied Venezia in the most recent match week, but secured an emphatic 5-0 win over Empoli in their most recent road game.
🤓 Juventus is three points behind Atalanta but could leapfrog their rivals with a win on Sunday, even though the Bergamo side has a vastly superior goal difference (see the league table above). How is this possible? Well, the next tiebreaker after points in Serie A is head-to-head record, rather than goal difference. These sides tied 1-1 earlier this season, so a winner here will own the head-to-head and claim third place!
🇦🇷 The young Argentine forwards driving Bologna to success
It takes two to tango, and that’s certainly the case in Bologna, where a run of just one defeat in 10 Serie A games has been fueled by the fantastic form of their Argentine forwards Benjamín Domínguez and Santiago Castro.
⚽️ Domínguez (21) has three goals and an assist on the league season, while Castro (21) has notched seven goals and five assists for Vincenzo Italiano’s side.
👏 For their efforts, both players have earned their first Argentina senior team call-ups for this month’s World Cup qualifiers against Uruguay and Brazil.
🙌 The reigning world champions have called up several other Serie A stars for this window, including Como sensation Nico Paz, Roma’s Paulo Dybala and Leandro Paredes, Juve’s Nicolás González, and Inter talisman Lautaro Martínez (more on him shortly).
🗣️ Coach Italiano spoke of Bologna’s continental ambitions after Sunday’s comeback win over Cagliari: “Our declared objective is to qualify for Europe. We will get the best results possible in the next 11 games, and the atmosphere at the stadium is fantastic. It pushes the guys to never fall out of a game.”
Up next for Bologna 👉 The Rossoblù will visit Verona on Sunday (6.30am ET, CBS Sports). Their most recent matchup at the Marcantonio Bentegodi Stadium was a goalless tie.
🇺🇸 Pirlo and Materazzi join Serie A President in New York
This week, Serie A icons Andrea Pirlo and Marco Materazzi joined Serie A President Ezio Simonelli at the league’s New York headquarters to celebrate the growth of the league in North America.
🙌 With live Serie A games available on CBS, FOX Deportes, and SiriusXM, Italian soccer has never had as much presence and reach on these shores. The cumulative live audience has increased by 50% year-on-year as of January 2025.
🗣️ President Simonelli said: “This season marks a historic milestone for Serie A in the United States. Never before has Italian football been so widely accessible across the country. The upcoming CBS main network broadcast of Juventus vs. Genoa on March 29 is yet another key moment in our mission to bring Serie A to as many fans as possible.”
🏒 World Cup winners and Serie A Ambassadors Pirlo and Materazzi also spoke at the event, before heading to Madison Square Garden to swap jerseys with New York Rangers superstar Mika Zibanejad.
👏 Lautaro claims goal record as Inter triumph in Champions League test
Lautaro Martínez became Inter’s all-time top scorer in Europe’s top continental competition as the Nerazzurri took a commanding 2-0 lead in the first leg of their Champions League Round of 16 bout with Feyenoord.
⚽️ After Marcus Thuram gave Inter the lead in Rotterdam, Martínez scored his 18th Champions League goal. That puts the Argentine one goal ahead of legendary forward Sandro Mazzola, who scored 17 in the European Cup era.
💪 Inter has a significant advantage for the return leg at the San Siro next Tuesday against the Dutch side, who eliminated their rivals Milan in the Knockout phase play-offs (3pm ET, CBS Sports).
⏭️ Today, Roma hosts Athletic Club in the Europa League Round of 16, while their neighbors Lazio head to Viktoria Plzeň (both 3pm ET, CBS Sports). Fiorentina, meanwhile, already kicked off their Europa Conference League clash with Panathinaikos at 12.45pm (CBS Sports).
🏆 Claudio Ranieri wins Coach of the Month Award
Before Roma’s comeback win over Como on Sunday, coach Claudio Ranieri was presented with the Philadelphia Coach Of The Month award for February.
🐺 The Giallorossi are in contention for European places after recording three wins and a draw in February.
🗣️ Lega Serie A CEO Luigi De Siervo said: “Claudio Ranieri’s Roma is the only team still undefeated in 2025 in Serie A, with an impressive 10 consecutive useful results that bring it first in the special ranking for that period.”
👏 Our friend Opta Paolo notes his incredible impact since arriving back at the Stadio Olimpico in November: Roma has 30 points from 15 games in Ranieri’s current tenure, a tally only bettered by Napoli and Atalanta.
💪 Roma is on a run of four straight league wins for the first time in five years.
Up next for Roma 👉 As noted earlier, Ranieri’s side is hosting Athletic Club in the Europa League today (3pm ET, CBS Sports) before resuming league play at Empoli on Sunday (1pm ET, CBS Sports and FOX Deportes).
💬 Calcio Conversations
When you read interviews with coaches or players ahead of Serie A games, you might notice the phrase alla vigilia della partita repeatedly popping up.
🤷♂️ What does it mean? It means “on the eve of the match” and is often used in newspaper headlines when media conferences are held before matches.
🧐 Wait, haven’t I seen that term before? Quite possibly! You will see vigilia popping up in plenty of non-soccer contexts too - for example, vigilia di Natale is Christmas Eve!
💬 Paulo Dybala reflects on his Serie A success
Paulo Dybala is enjoying his tenth season in Serie A, and caught up with CBS Sports’ Marco Messina to discuss the purple patch he is experiencing at Roma.
🗣️ “The people have made me feel an incredible, unique love from day one,” said the Argentine, who has eight goals and four assists across all competitions this season.
👏 This week, Dybala received the ultimate Roman endorsement from Il Capitano himself: Francesco Totti said the 31-year-old is the best player in Italy.
📺 This weekend on CBS Sports, Paramount+, FOX Deportes, and SiriusXM
⏰ Remember: the clocks go forward in the United States this weekend, so Sunday and Monday’s matches will start an hour later than you may expect
Friday, March 7th
Cagliri v Genoa (2.45pm ET)
Saturday, March 8th
Como v Venezia (9am ET)
Parma v Torino (9am ET)
Lecce v Milan (12pm ET, also on FOX Deportes)
Inter v Monza (2.45pm ET)
Sunday, March 9th
Verona v Bologna (7.30am ET)
Napoli v Fiorentina (10am ET, also on FOX Deportes)
Empoli v Roma (1pm ET, also on FOX Deportes)
Juventus v Atalanta (3.45pm ET, also on SiriusXM FC)
Monday, March 10th
Lazio v Udinese (2.45pm ET)
🇨🇦 Watch ALL Serie A games live on Fubo and select games with Italian-language commentary on TLN 🇨🇦
🇺🇸 Watch select games with Spanish-language commentary on FOX Deportes and English-language commentary on SiriusXM 🇺🇸
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