A crazy upset in the match that everyone considered already over before it even started, namely the one between Sassuolo and Inter, where probably the most resounding surprise of the season, of the entire championship, took place.
The Nerazzurri, the Italian champions, lost to the Neroverdi, angering the fans of all the teams engaged in the fight to stay in Serie A, according to whom Inter did not really commit. In the other matches, only draws for all teams engaged in the Champions race apart from Atalanta, which won against Salernitana: Bologna was stopped at 0-0 by Torino, while Roma and Juventus drew in Sunday night's match. Let's see what happened over the weekend:
MATCH OF THE WEEK - ROMA v JUVENTUS
Milan Svilar and Wojciech Szczesny were among the best on the field, along with Fede Chiesa, Bremer, Tommaso Baldanzi and Lorenzo Pellegrini - clear evidence that it was an extremely entertaining match.
A lot of scoring chances for both teams, both for the Giallorossi and the Bianconeri: Dusan Vlahovic and Chiesa himself had several resounding chances to score, but it was Roma who complained the most after the final whistle.
Several easy scoring chances, at different moments of the match, but in the final seconds came the most sensational one and it fell between the feet of Tammy Abraham, the striker who had been out for so long due to an ACL injury. The English striker, just seconds before the final whistle, was put in face-to-face with Szczesny by Sardar Azmoun, but his first stop was inaccurate and suddenly the goal became smaller: a far from lethal shot and in fact the Polish goalkeeper said "no" without any difficulty.
A second serious miss by Abraham in recent days, first against Bayer Leverkusen and then against Juventus. The Englishman has been out for a long time, it is understandable, but Roma needs him to secure Champions League qualification. A much closer goal for Max Allegri and his boys: the Bianconeri only need three points in their remaining three league games to be sure of playing in the next (very rich) Champions League.
To be fair, Allegri is always criticized for how he makes his teams play, but Roma-Juventus was an entertaining game and the Bianconeri created chances as well. Definitely, the great work of Daniele De Rossi should be emphasized, who since he arrived on the Giallorossi bench has kept a pace inferior only to Inter, Bologna and Milan, while Jose Mourinho in the first 20 league games had collected only 29 points: just too little.
TEAM PERFORMANCE OF THE WEEK - MONZA
The Lombard team had no reason to play with great intensity in the match against Lazio, other than to play for their fans and honour the Italian championship, and for this reason Raffaele Palladino and his boys should be rewarded.
Generally in the Italian championship we see decidedly disturbing, or at any rate sad, scenes, with teams that enter the field just because they are "obliged" and in fact compromise or risk compromising the regularity of the championship, "giving away" points to teams that instead still have goals to achieve.
Monza did not do this, on the contrary, against Lazio they played with determination and courage and at the end of the match the 2-2 is even unfair for what Andrea Colpani and his teammates showed on the field. The great protagonist of the match was Milan Djuric, who was even able to score two goals, one of them practically at the end, when Lazio was winning 1-2.
At the moment, Monza has 45 points in the standings, and there is no better image for the great work done by Palladino: 45 points for Monza is a lot, a lot, it is only 6 less than Napoli who dominated the championship last year. A big round of applause to Monza for the performance against Lazio and in general for the excellent championship played: teams that never give up and do their best every game, this is the Serie A we like.
SURPRISE OF THE WEEK - SASSUOLO v INTER
So many teams in the league in the past months have tried to stop Inter, but in the end it was Sassuolo, for the second time this season, who were the team capable of beating the newly crowned Italian champions.
Once again there was great controversy in Italy over the result of this match, because Sassuolo are fighting relegation and between the two managements relations are excellent, even on a personal level if we think of Beppe Marotta and Giovani Carnevali. Which is why the fans of Udinese, Frosinone, Empoli and the other teams in that area of the standings were furious when they saw Inter playing without intensity, with little conviction nor determination.
The decisive goal was scored by Armand Laurienté, who sent the ball into the net in the 20th minute at the end of a good team play. Inter failed to equalise and get back into the game, partly because Lautaro Martinez had a goal disallowed for offside, and thus the most struggling team in the league managed to defeat the strongest in Italy, which has dominated from the first day to the last. Sassuolo, thanks to this result, can once again dream of staying in Serie A.
