
Results: Saturday Parma 0 Juventus 1 Fiorentina 3 Napoli 4 Sunday Udinese 1 AC Milan 0 AS Roma 3 Genoa 3 Cagliari 0 Brescia 1 Torino 2 Sassuolo 1 Hellas Verona 1 Bologna 1 SPAL 2013 2 Atalanta 3 Sampdoria 0 Lazio 3 Monday Inter 4 Lecce 0 Round-up: The Serie A season has finally begun and it kicked-off on Saturday with reigning champions Juventus travelling to Parma. It was a case of business as usual for Juventus, despite the absence of their new manager Maurizio Sarri who is currently suffering from pneumonia, as they kicked off their season with a narrow 1-0 win thanks to a first-half Giorgio Chiellini goal, whilst Cristiano Ronaldo had a goal disallowed for offside after the intervention of VAR. In the Saturday late evening kick-off, last season's runners-up Napoli won 4-3 in an entertaining match away to Fiorentina. Erick Pulgar gave the home side the lead from the penalty spot after just nine minutes. They led for around half an hour, before Dries Mertens levelled the scoring in the 38th minute for Napoli, and five minutes later they awarded a contentious penalty of their own which Lorenzo Insigne converted, meaning they led going into half-time. It did not take long for Fiorentina to equalise again, as defender Nikola Milenkovic struck in the 52nd minute, though just four minutes later Napoli restored their lead through Jose Callejon. It did not take too long for Fiorentina to level for a second time, as Kevin-Prince Boateng levelled the scoring at 3-3 in the 65th minute, but Napoli took the lead just two minutes later thanks to Lorenzo Insigne's second goal of the game, and they then saw the game out to ensure they got their season off to a winning start. The action on Sunday kicked off with Udinese hosting AC Milan, and the hosts grabbed a rather unexpected 1-0 win thanks to a 72nd minute goal from Rodrigo Becao. In the late evening kick-offs, there was six-goal thriller in Rome, as AS Roma and Genoa shared the spoils in a 3-3 draw. Cengiz Under gave Roma the lead inside just six minutes, before Genoa's loan signing from Internazionale Andrea Pinamonti equalised 10 minutes later. Edin Dzeko, himself subject to much transfer speculation, restored Roma's lead on the half-hour, but Roma could not hold out till half-time as Domenico Criscito levelled the scoring once again for Genoa from the penalty spot. Then former Manchester City left-back Aleksandar Kolarov restored Roma's lead once again in the 49th minute, before Christian Kouame levelled the scoring once again for Genoa in the 70th minute to ensure they avoided a defeat on the opening day. After they lost in the Europa League play-off first leg at home to Wolverhampton Wanderers on Thursday, Torino bounced back in perfect fashion as they won 2-1 at home to Sassuolo, as Simone Zaza bagged a brace against his old club, with Francesco Caputo's goal for Sassuolo proving to be a mere consolation. Atalanta, who against all odds qualified for this season's Champions League, produced a sensational comeback against SPAL 2013, winning 3-2 in the process. Federico Di Francesco, son of current Sampdoria boss Eusebio (Di Francesco), gave SPAL the lead after just six minutes, before 20 minutes later Andrea Petagna doubled it. Robin Gosens halved the deficit for Atalanta eight minutes later, before a second-half brace from Luis Muriel sealed a 3-2 win. It was a great start to the season for last season's Serie B winners, Brescia, as the newly-promoted side bagged a 1-0 win away to Cagliari thanks to an Alfredo Donnarumma penalty. The other promoted side, Hellas Verona, began their season with a decent 1-1 draw at home to Bologna, who had manager Sinisa Mihajlovic back in the dugout having spent 41 days in the hospital battling leukaemia. Hellas Verona actually went down to ten men after 13 minutes, as Pawel Dawidowicz was shown a straight red, and two minutes later Nicola Sansone stepped up to score from the penalty spot for Bologna - before Miguel Veloso equalised just 22 minutes later. It was a disappointing first game at the office for manager Eusebio Di Francesco, as his Sampdoria side fell to a 3-0 defeat at home to Lazio thanks to a Ciro Immobile brace which was sandwiched by a Joaquin Correa strike.
The opening weekend's action concluded on Monday night, as Inter hosted newly-promoted Lecce San Siro. The home side ran out comfortable 4-0 winners in the end, which took them to the top of the very early Serie A table. It has been a summer of considerable change for Inter, as they replaced manager Luciano Spalletti with former Juventus, Italy national team and Chelsea manager Antonio Conte, whilst they spent a reported £75m to sign Romelu Lukaku from Manchester United. It did not take too long for Inter to open the scoring, as they did so in the 21st minute thanks to a wonderful goal from Marcelo Brozovic, and they doubled the lead shortly after thanks to Stefano Sensi. Then in the second half Lukaku scored a debut goal, before Lecce were reduced to 10 men as Diego Farias was given a straight red card. Inter then wrapped up the scoring in the 84th minute thanks to another sensational strike, this time by Antonio Candreva.
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