It may only be the second week of action in Serie A, but already things have settled into a comfortable routine. Last week, at least we had the interesting plot twist of Milan falling to newly promoted Verona. This time around, there were absolutely no surprises, except perhaps for sheer number of goals scored over the weekend. In total, 43 goals found the back of the net, with only Hellas and Torino failing to get on the board.
Serie A, week 2 in review: Goals goals goals
Just how many goals were scored in Serie A over the weekend? A surprising amount for a league still often characterized as “boring” and “dull”.
Without further ado or elaboration, here’s a quick rundown of what happened on the peninsula in Round 2.
Saturday, August 31
Chievo Verona 2-4 Napoli
Despite the inferiority of their competition, this victory was absolutely essential for Napoli. The partenopei have spent much of the last few years muddling up matches against lower-table sides, and Chievo were no exception -- the last time Napoli beat the Flying Donkeys was in May 2010. But a brace from Marek Hamšík, another from José Callejón and Gonzalo Higuaín's first Serie A goal meant Napoli collected all three points.
If Lazio had harbored any faint hopes of making a scudetto challenge this season, or even attempting to reach the Champions League spaces, those dreams must now be well and truly extinguished. The biancocelesti have now lost to Juventus twice in two weeks, with a combined scoreline of 8-1. Plus Hernanes picked up a red card, so he'll miss the next match. But hey, Miroslav Klose scored. So that's something, right?
Sunday, September 1
AS Roma 3-0 Hellas Verona
Hellas were unable to stage a repeat of last week's surprise win over Milan, instead looking much more like the recently promoted team they actually are. The scoring started when a cross from Francesco Totti deflected off Verona fullback Fabrizio Cacciatore and into the back of his own net. Roma's second followed three minutes later, with even Andrea Mandorlini applauding Miralem Pjanic's chipped shot. New giallorossi signing Adem Ljajic completed the scoring shortly after, hammering his shot into the bottom corner of Rafael's goal.
The rossoneri may have got off to a rocky start last week, but they made up for it with a solid win against Cagliari. Robinho opened the scoring and Philippe Mexes added a second before Milan's defense inevitably cracked, allowing Marco Sau to score a lovely solo effort for the visitors. But Mario Balotelli restored his side's two goal cushion -- and Massimiliano Allegri's heartbeat -- with a goal in the 62nd minute.
Atalanta claimed their first win of the season against a surprisingly sprightly Torino side. In fact, you almost have to feel sorry for the granata, as the normally ultra-conservative side actually got in five or six shots before Atalanta scored the first. In the end, though, goals from Guglielmo Stendardo and Stefano Lucchini brought victory to the home side.
The first point of the season for both sides came in this surprisingly sprightly affair. It was the visitors that took the lead, through Eder, only to see Bologna come back with goals on either side of the half. Samp weren't quite ready to give up, however, and a 71st minute goal from Manolo Gabbiadini saw them grab their share of the spoils.
Catania 0-3 Inter Milan
Inter continue their impressive resurgence under Walter Mazzarri, very well dominating a solid Catania side in Sicily. The visitors weren't overly reliant on one player, either, with the goals coming from Rodrigo Palacio, Yuto Nagatomo and Ricardo Álvarez. The nerazzurri are now second in the table, just behind Mazzarri's former partenopei.
Genoa 2-5 Fiorentina
Poor Mattia Perin. Just poor, poor, poor Mattia Perin.
Whoa, what happened here? The last I looked, in the 67th minute, these two recently promoted sides were drawing 1-1. Then Innocent Emeghara put Livorno ahead, Paulinho added another five minutes later, and Sassuolo’s capitulation was complete when Emeghara converted a penalty with five minutes left to play.
The most that can be said for poor Parma is that they finally managed to score a goal. We’ll just leave it at that.
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