Italy

First versus second in Serie A – Juventus eventually got the breakthrough, and now lead Napoli by three points. Antonio Conte’s main decision was about which forward combination to select – he went with Fabio Quagliarella and Sebastian Giovinco, the same duo he selected at Fiorentina, last time ZM covered Juventus. Marco Storari played, as...
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Inter preserved a one-goal lead for almost the entire match after Walter Samuel’s crucial early goal. Max Allegri played Daniele Bonera at right-back rather than Ignazio Abate, and used Urby Emanuelson on the right flank. Andrea Stramaccioni named the same XI that defeated Fiorentina last weekend, in a 3-4-1-2 starting shape. There was barely a tactical battle...
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Edinson Cavani hit a hattrick – and missed a penalty – as Napoli stormed to victory. Walter Mazzarri started Alessandro Gamberini rather than Salvatore Aronica in defence and Valon Behrami ahead of Blerim Dzemaili in midfield. Vladimir Petkovic moved back to his 4-1-4-1 / 4-3-3 after an unsuccessful experimentation with 4-4-2 against Genoa, with Miroslav Klose...
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3-5-2 versus 3-5-2, and one point apiece. Vincenzo Montella made three changes. The most significant involved him selecting the industry of Romulo over the creativity of Mati Fernandez. Adem Ljajic came in for Haris Seferovic, and Manuel Pasqual for Mattia Cassani. Antonio Conte and Massimo Carrera decided to rest Claudio Marchisio, with Emanuele Giaccherini starting instead....
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An extremely open game finished with Roma on top. Andrea Stramaccioni surprisingly used new signing Alvaro Pereira on the left of his central midfield three in place of Esteban Cambiasso – otherwise, the XI was the same as in the 3-0 win over Pescara last week. Zdenek Zeman gave debuts to Panagiotis Tachtsidis, Alessandro Florenzi and Mattia Destro...
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