⚽️🇮🇹 The closest Serie A title race ever!
In this week’s Italian soccer digest, we're also looking at a career first for Moise Kean, Genoa's surprising wrestling connection, and much more!
🙌 Two points separate top six in thrilling scudetto battle
Inter’s 1-1 draw with Napoli on Sunday night at San Siro left just two points separating the top six teams in Serie A, as an exhilarating title race takes shape.
😮 This is the first time in the three-points-for-a-win era (since 1994) that such a small gap has separated the top six after 12 rounds of action.
🏆 In fact, you have to go all the way back to the 1983/84 season to find the last time that the margin was this tight, when seven teams had two points between them.
👀 Antonio Conte’s Napoli sit at the top with 26 points, one ahead of Atalanta, Fiorentina, and Lazio, who all earned weekend wins. They are two points above Juventus, who triumphed in the Turin Derby - more on that shortly.
🚀 Scott McTominay scored the opener for Napoli before Inter midfielder Hakan Çalhanoğlu equalized with a long-range piledriver.
🤦 However, the unthinkable happened in the second half when Çalhanoğlu missed a penalty for the first time ever in Serie A, after 17 successful conversions.
😬 Things are equally tight at the bottom too, where two points separate Como in 15th place from Venezia in 20th.
Up next in the title race 👉 There are two huge matches to look forward to when Serie A returns after the international break: Juventus travel to seventh-placed Milan on Saturday, November 23rd, in a game we’re dubbing the Derby d’America (12pm ET, CBS Sports), before league leaders Napoli host Roma the following day (12pm ET, CBS Sports).
💪 Weah seals Turin Derby win for Juve
There is no stopping Tim Weah! The USMNT star’s fine form continued on Saturday when he scored the opening goal to send Juventus on their way to a 2-0 victory over Torino in the Derby della Mole.
🔥 Weah found himself in the right place at the right time when he tapped in a rebound in the 18th minute to put Juve ahead at the Allianz Stadium.
🤯 The American now has four goals in eight Serie A matches this season, three of which have come in his last four league outings. That means he has already equaled his career-best domestic goal tally for a season.
🗣️ Weah put his improved output down to a change of role under new coach Thiago Motta. “I play a more attacking role now [that] I’m a forward,” he said. “I like playing as a center-forward too, but it’s easier for me to play on the wing.”
🇺🇸 Weah was one of five Serie A stars to be named in Mauricio Pochettino’s USMNT roster for the upcoming Concacaf Nations League quarter-finals against Jamaica, along with club-mate Weston McKennie, Venezia’s Gianluca Busio, and AC Milan pair Christian Pulisic and Yunus Musah.
🫡 Milan, meanwhile, was held to a 3-3 draw by Cagliari in Sardinia. Pulisic still earned praise from Milan director Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who has labeled him ‘our Captain America.’
👉 It will be a big day for the Weah family on Saturday, November 23rd, when Milan host Juve at the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza in the aforementioned Derby d’America. Tim Weah’s father, George, is a Rossoneri legend who won two scudetti and the Ballon d’Or there.
🐺 Claudio Ranieri returns to Roma
Roma has announced today that Claudio Ranieri is their new head coach, marking his third stint at the helm of the club.
👋 Ranieri announced his retirement from club management at the end of last season, after securing safety for Cagliari.
🙌 The 73-year-old Roma native, however, has answered the call of his hometown club, which he previously led from 2009-2011 and again on an interim basis in 2019.
👉 Ivan Jurić was dismissed on the back of Sunday’s 3-2 home defeat to Bologna, after replacing Daniele De Rossi in September.
👉 The Giallorossi sit in 12th place in the Serie A standings after winning just three of their 12 league games.
🦊 Ranieri, famed for leading Leicester City to an extraordinary Premier League title in 2015/16, also played for Roma during the 1973-74 season.
Up next for Roma and Ranieri 👉 After the international break, Roma face a trip to league leaders Napoli (Sunday, November 24th, 12pm ET, CBS Sports). Ranieri coached Napoli from 1991 to 1993, securing them a place in the UEFA Cup.
🔥 High-flying Kean bags career-first tripletta
Moise Kean continued his sensational start to the season by scoring the first hat-trick - or tripletta - of his career in a 3-1 win against Verona.
📈 Kean’s fearsome afternoon in front of goal sent him thundering up the scoring charts into second place on eight goals, second only to Atalanta’s Mateo Retegui on 11.
😀 The 24-year-old, who joined La Viola from Juventus in the summer, has been a big factor in the Florence club’s incredible run of six Serie A wins in a row, which has sent them one point off the top spot.
💪 Fiorentina is Kean’s fifth club, and he is already enjoying the most prolific season of his career, other than a loan spell at Paris Saint-Germain in 2020/21, with 11 goals in 14 games in all competitions.
🤫 The striker responded to his doubters on Instagram after his superb treble: “They ain’t think I would do it, but I did it,” he wrote.
👏 New Fiorentina coach Raffaele Palladino, who moved south from Monza in the summer, has been delighted with his star signing. “I already wanted Kean when I was at Monza,” he said. “I saw him as a great striker who has it all.”
⚔️ Italy coach Luciano Spalletti was in attendance to watch Kean’s hat-trick, and the Fiorentina man will now hope for some game time in the UEFA Nations League, where he is likely to battle for a starting spot with Retegui.
Up next for Fiorentina 👉 Kean and his teammates will travel to the luxurious lakeside destination of Como on Sunday, November 24th (9am ET, CBS Sports) when they return from international action.
🔙 Giampaolo makes Serie A return with Lecce
Ranieri will not be the only familiar face to return to a Serie A dugout after the break, as Lecce have appointed former Milan and Sampdoria boss Marco Giampaolo.
👉 The Salentini dismissed Luca Gotti following a 1-1 draw with Empoli on Friday that left them in 18th place, with nine points from 12 games.
⏳ The experienced Giampaolo has been out of coaching since his second spell with Sampdoria ended in October 2022.
⚽ High on Giampaolo’s agenda will be finding a route to goal; Lecce are the lowest-scoring team in Serie A, with just five goals in 12 matches.
Up next for Lecce 👉 Giampaolo’s debut will be a crucial relegation six-pointer as Lecce travel to rock-bottom Venezia on Monday, November 25th (2.45pm ET, CBS Sports).
🪦 Social post of the Week: The Undertaker links up with Genoa!
We didn’t see this one coming! Genoa released its brand-new third kit this week, and who better to model the all-black effort than…wrestling legend The Undertaker!
📷 The WWE Hall-of-Famer stepped in front of the cameras to show off Genoa’s new jersey, and the Serie A club said in a statement that the American is “in the pantheon of legends of the ring in a much-loved and trans-generational sport.”
💬 Calcio Conversations
When the Turin Derby took place last weekend, you might have heard Juventus and Torino being referred to by different names. So what is the story behind their nicknames?
Why do people call Torino ‘Toro’? Torino’s badge features a rampant bull, and Toro is the Italian word for bull. The animal is also the symbol of the city of Turin and can be found everywhere around town. It’s also a handy shortening of the club’s name!
What is Juventus’ nickname? Juve has a few alternate names: I Bianconeri simply refers to their striped jerseys (bianco is white and nero is black), while Le Zebre means “the Zebras,” for similar apparel-based reasons.
🏆 Mazzitelli scoops Goal of the Month award
Como’s Luca Mazzitelli scored an outstanding overhead kick against Baroni’s Lazio and his virtuoso effort has been named Goal of the Month.
🙁 The midfielder may be pleased with his effort but might want to forget the night he scored it, as it proved to be a spectacular consolation in a 5-1 defeat.
⚡ Mazzitelli isn’t usually known for his goalscoring prowess, as he has never scored more than five in a season, and this was only his seventh strike in 86 Serie A appearances. Not that it stopped him trying an outrageous attempt!
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🇮🇹 Spalletti calls up fresh faces for UEFA Nations League
International soccer is back! Italy faces a double-header against Belgium and France over the next few days that will decide their UEFA Nations League fate.
🆕 Three uncapped players were called up by Luciano Spalletti for the November break: Fiorentina defender Pietro Comuzzo, Juventus right-back Nicolò Savona, and Lazio midfielder Nicolò Rovella.
🤕 Spalletti will have to do without Torino’s Samuele Ricci, who has been replaced by Juventus’ Manuel Locatelli due to injury.
🔝 The Azzurri sit at the top of Group A2 on 10 points, with France (9 points), Belgium (4) and Israel (0) behind them. The top two will qualify for next year’s quarter-finals.
📅 Italy face Belgium at the King Baudouin Stadium in Brussels today, before concluding their campaign by welcoming France to the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza in Milan on Sunday, November 17th (2.45pm ET, FS2).
🗣️ “I saw what I like to see from my players when you’re in a role like mine,” Spalletti said ahead of the trip to face Belgium, who Italy drew 2-2 with at Rome’s Stadio Olimpico last month. “I saw players confident in their qualities, and we’re eager to play these two matches, which can give us so much for the future.”
🎖️ It was a proud week for Spalletti, who was inducted into the Italian Football Hall of Fame along with Daniele De Rossi, Valentina Giacinti, Roberto Boninsegna, and Andriy Shevchenko this week.
👋 Grazie e arrivederci!
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Ciao ciao!
Great round-up