“This was one of those results that felt like an instant piece of sports trivia, future material for the writers of football-themed pub quizzes. “In 2023-24, Inter won their 20th league title with a dominant league campaign in which they only lost two games. Which opponents beat them?” A trick question, as both defeats were to the same team. And an unlikely answer: Sassuolo, who are on course for relegation. We might be getting ahead of ourselves. There are still three games left in this Serie A campaign, time enough for Internazionale to lose again, or Sassuolo to steer themselves to safety. …”
Guardian

“In Italy, the final moments of a football game are known as the zona Cesarini: a reference to Renato Cesarini, the former Juventus midfielder who cemented his reputation for late goals with a 90th-minute winner for the national team against Hungary in 1931. The term has long since passed into general use, describing anything from political deals brokered right before a vote to homework assignments handed in on deadline. Perhaps it is time for an update. …”
Guardian

“On the eve of this season’s first Derby d’Italia, both managers insisted they would not “sign for a draw”. Simone Inzaghi was pragmatic, claiming he would never do that ‘unless it’s the second leg [of a knockout game] and you already won the first.’ Massimiliano Allegri found a way to be even more so, saying: ‘No. We need to play the match that starts at 8.45pm.’ Those replies were as inevitable as the question being posed. Neither manager could pre-declare a willingness to settle for a point in a game against their most likely rival for the Serie A title. Yet it was reasonable to think that outcome might suit them both. …”
Guardian

“… Those might have been his final remarks as manager of the Partenopei. Napoli lost 1-0 and the club’s owner, Aurelio De Laurentiis, imposed a press silence at full-time. He was understood to be exploring his options to replace Garcia on Monday, a decision that some fans might celebrate even more enthusiastically than a win. …”
Guardian

It has been a troubled week for Victor Osimhen after the Napoli forward was mocked by the club’s TikTok account.  
“By full time, it was tempting to believe that Napoli’s troubles had all been an illusion. After 24 hours of accusations and legal threats resulting from videos that the club’s TikTok account posted of striker Victor Osimhen, the Partenopei had come back to their home stadium and thrashed Udinese 4-1. The Nigerian played the first hour of the game, scored the second goal and continued to cheer his teammates after being substituted in the second half. …”
Guardian

“The final scene was back-to-front, each actor playing the wrong part. Dejan Stankovic’s Sampdoria had just lost 4-2 to Juventus, a result that left them joint-bottom of Serie A amid ongoing concern that the club could face bankruptcy at the end of the season. Yet there he was at full time, pulling Dusan Vlahovic into an embrace and offering consolation to the striker whose team had just beaten his own. …”
Guardian

“The Scudetto is still heading to Naples, but for one weekend Serie A belonged to the city of Rome. On Friday, Lazio toppled the league leaders at their own stadium. On Sunday, Roma beat the Juventus side who would be second if it weren’t for the 15-point penalty given to them at the start of this year. …”
Guardian

Fans celebrating the club’s eighth promotion to Serie A in May 2010
“On paper, it looked like a game Atalanta should win. They had been rounding into form since the start of 2023, piling up goals and muscling their way back into the fight for Champions League places. Last weekend, a 2-0 win at Lazio leapfrogged them into fourth, so Sunday’s fixture at home to 13th-placed Lecce should have been straightforward by comparison. Football matches, however, are not played on paper. Nor, as the Lecce manager, Marco Baroni, reminded us recently, are they played on a video game console. …”
Guardian
W – U.S. Lecce

“It has been six weeks since the last Serie A matches, so let’s have a reminder of where the races for the Scudetto, Champions League, Europa and relegation spots stand. The fixtures kick off again on January 4 with a full slate of 10 games on that day and it’ll pick up with a big clash between leaders Napoli and title chasers Inter. Luciano Spalletti’s men went into the break for the World Cup sitting a massive eight points clear at the top of the Serie A table, trailed by Milan on 33 points and Juventus on 31. …”
Football Italia

“The players were in the tunnel ready to emerge for the second half at the Mapei Stadium, but José Mourinho was headed in the opposite direction, returning from the dugout to the changing room. Roma were drawing 0-0 with Sassuolo but just for a moment that was not his priority, as he went to retrieve a team shirt to give to a young supporter in a wheelchair he had noticed beside the pitch. …”
Guardian

“Arkadiusz Milik knew the punishment but still committed the crime, ripping off his shirt and throwing it in the air as he barrelled toward Juventus’s supporters behind the goal. They came tumbling down the stand towards him, delirious and disbelieving. In the 91st minute, their team had trailed 2-1 at home to Salernitana. Now, in the 95th, Milik had scored to put them 3-2 ahead. …”
Guardian

“The biggest win in Serie A history remains Torino’s 10-0 destruction of Alessandria in May 1948. This was the era of the Grande Torino – the five-time champions of Italy (in successive seasons) and the backbone of the Italian national team. This legendary team scored 125 goals in Serie A 1947-48 – 49 more than any other team, while they won the league title by a massive 16 points despite playing in the two points for a win era. The 10-0 victory against Alessandria saw Ezio Loik score a hat-trick. …”
The Analyst

“Serie A lost some stars, but the football on the pitch still sparkled. Without Cristiano Ronaldo, Romelu Lukaku, Achraf Hakimi, Gianluigi Donnarumma or Antonio Conte the league simply had to make do with one of its most compelling title races for decades. It ended as a duel between Milan and Inter, two halves of the same city, clubs who share a stadium and the black stripes on their shirt but are divided by the red and the blue. Rivals who have emerged together from a decade in the wilderness, reminding themselves and each other that this league did not always belong to that lot down the road in Turin. …”
Guardian (Video)
W – 2021–22 Serie A

“It wasn’t Mourinho’s first match at San Siro since his return to Serie A. It wasn’t even his first game against the Nerazzurri this season. However, he had never returned to Milan to play against his ex club since he left in 2010 to join Real Madrid. It was meant to be a special night for José Mourinho and, to some extent, it was a night he would never forget. However, his first game as an Inter opponent in Milan did not end as he wanted as his Roma side were eliminated from the competition. The disappointment was visible in his eyes while he walked inside the tunnel after the final whistle. …”
Football Italia

“After losing 4-0 to Chelsea, Juventus’s week only went downhill. Tuesday’s Champions League drubbing was followed up by another loss at home to Atalanta on Saturday. In-between, the club’s offices were raided by police, who seized documents relating to player transfers and financial accounts. A statement from the Turin prosecutor Anna Maria Loreto explained on Friday that these searches were part of a wide-reaching investigation. The present focus, she explained, was to assess whether Juventus, a publicly listed company, had issued false communications to investors and invoices for non-existent transactions. But Loreto noted that further matters were also under scrutiny, including services offered by agents and intermediaries. …”
Guardian

“… The map page has a location-map of 2021-22 Serie A. The location-map features each club’s home kit [2021-22]. The map also shows the 20 Regions of Italy. And the map also shows the 11 largest cities in Italy (2019 metropolitan-area figures) {Metropolitan cities of Italy}. The cities’ population figures can be seen at the top of the location-map. Finally, the map shows the locations of both the promoted clubs and the relegated clubs from 2021… Promoted to Serie A for 2021-22 (Empoli, Salernitana, Venezia); relegated to Serie B for 2021-22 (Benevento, Crotone, Parma). The right-hand side of the map page has 2 charts. The top chart shows each of the 20 clubs’ total seasons in Serie A, with consecutive top-flight seasons also listed. The other chart is the All-time Italian titles list (1898-1915; 1920-43; 1946-2021). …”
billsportsmaps
W – 2021–22 Serie A