Serie A SRL Round-Up | Juventus drop points, Sampdoria win thriller, Lazio lose and much more

05/23/2020

In an exciting Friday night Serie A SRL game-week, Juventus dropped the ball and dropped out of the title race with a draw to Torino. At the same time, Sampdoria and SPAL battled a five-goal thriller but Lazio stole the headlines as a loss to AC Milan sees the title race pushed to the last day.

Juventus 0-0 Torino

With Inter Milan dropping points in a six-goal thriller against Bologna last night, Juventus had the ball in their court as a win would move them into second. It would also keep them in contention for the Scudetto but unfortunately, Torino had other ideas. Il Toros put up a defensive masterclass against what was an inconsistent Juventus side but it still remained a tough task. The away side forced their visitors into taking just five shots in the opening half with Torino responding with six although both sides managed just the one shot on target in the opening half.

That also meant that neither side scored the opening goal in the opening half and that would not change in the second half as Torino continued with their defensive dominance. It forced Juventus to settle for a goalless draw and it would've allowed Lazio to confirm themselves as champions with a win. Torino, however, walked away with a smile on their face as they managed to restrict their hosts to just 54 dangerous attacks and four shots on target.

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Lazio 1-3 AC Milan

With Inter Milan dropping points earlier in the week, all Lazio had to do was win and they would’ve have lifted their first league title in a little over twenty years. But unfortunately for them and manager Simone Inzaghi, his side dropped the ball and against the wrong side. While Milan were sitting in 6th place before the game started, they were on an impressive run with just one loss in their last four games. That form helped them but what proved to be the deciding factor was the fact that Lazio failed to show up for the first half.

The hosts did next to nothing in the opening 45 minutes and it allowed the Rossoneri to take the lead via a delightful strike in the 26th minute. Little changed in the second half although Lazio did find their way back into the game and managed to pull one goal back. But it was smack in the middle of two AC Milan goals, which forced the hosts to take note and wait another week to confirm themselves as champions.

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USC Sampdoria 3-2 SPAL

The game no-one expected to be fun, turned out to have possibly the greatest first half of action in Matchweek 37 in the Italian top tier. Some may point to Inter Milan vs Bologna but that game did not see three goals scored in the first 45. Three goals from 16 shots on goal with half of those finding the target although barring their two goals, everything that Sampdoria fired flew beyond the goal.

SPAL, on the other hand, certainly looked the better side from the get-go but they simply failed to take advantage of the fact that they had ten shots on goal. That would prove to be a bad mistake, despite them scoring one goal because they failed to turn up in the second half. Instead, Sampdoria found their groove and added a third goal just before the 75th-minute mark. That seemed to rile up the visitors and while they managed to pull one back five minutes later, it was too late for it to change anything.

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Udinese Calcio 2-2 Atalanta BC

While there were four goals scored, the game didn’t really light up until the final fifteen minutes of the first half. That saw both sides fire nearly three times the shots they managed in the first half hour of the game and that should tell you everything. Not only that, it all started with a well-taken goal from Atalanta before Udinese responded with not one but two strikes before half-time and yet they could have had even more.

The second half saw the hosts charge out of the gates although they failed to improve on their lead despite them dominating most of the opening half an hour of the restart. Once again, things changed in the final 15 minutes of the clash as Atalanta found their footing and made the most of the fact that Udinese were now sitting back and hoping for a win. An equaliser in the 80th minute changed that and despite three more shots on goal by La Dea, they failed to change the scoreline any further.

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