The games come thick and fast at the start of the season, the last matchday was complete on Monday at 11pm and today at 5:30pm Matchday 2 gets underway. An international break follows this weekend so all the teams will be looking to go into the gap with points on the board. All twenty teams play before Monday and while there’s a lot going on, we’ve picked out three matches to keep an eye on…
Cremonese v Sassuolo – Friday 17:30 BST
After Bonazzoli’s spectacular winner at the San Siro last week, Cremonese are rightly buzzing right now. I don’t think anyone tipped them to stay up, despite the presence of survival expert and Italian Big Sam, Davide Nicola. However, they potentially can be sitting on 6 points from 6 by the time you tuck into your pasta tonight. Considering that from 2022 onwards, 31-36 points keeps you up, they’d have taken a big stride towards safety going into the international break.
Sassuolo on the other hand were the pick of the pundits (including myself) to stay up from the promoted sides. They were poor against Napoli, barely laying a glove on the Champions. Now, granted, Napoli were good – but they weren’t spectacular, barely getting out of second gear. Sassuolo will feel disappointed they couldn’t do more with home advantage in that game and suddenly the pressure is on this match. They don’t want to hit that break on zero points and an away match against a fellow promoted team might seem ideal on the face of it, but Cremonese will be pumped here.
You never can tell with Serie A, this one could end up a tense, nervy 0-0 – or it could be an all out punching match and finish 2-2. Either way, I’m predicting a fascinating, if not overwhelmingly brilliant affair.
Fancy a bet? I like both teams to score here at 4/5, I think there’s good value in that given Sassuolo have a strong attack but holes at the back.
Parma v Atalanta – Saturday 17:30 BST
This may seem like an odd choice on the face of it, but I’m still fascinated to see how these two new manager get on as the season goes on. Carlos Cuesta joined Parma this summer after spending some time as Mikel Arteta’s assistant at Arsenal. However, he didn’t demonstrate that controlled attacking game in Parma’s first outing. Ok, they were away at Juve but they were so negative it prompted Juve boss Igor Tudor to say, “Parma were quite old-fashioned in their tactics, almost Catenaccio defending”.
You’d expect them to be more open at home, especially against a side not considered as strong as Juventus. It’s going to be fascinating to see how they cope having lost Giovanni Leoni to Liverpool, Ange-Yoan Bonny to Inter, Dennis Man to PSV and Simon Sohm to Fiorentina.
Atalanta on the other hand, were dominant in their game against Pisa last week, attacking almost from the first whistle to the last, but ultimately failed to win thanks to an avoidable own goal and a combination of the woodwork and Pisa’s goalkeeper. They themselves lost big attacking talent this summer with last season’s Capocannoniere Mateo Retegui heading to Saudi Arabia and Ademola Lookman still on strike somewhere after trying to force a move to Inter.
They’ll be pleased, then, that Gianluca Scamacca (once of West Ham) is back fit and scoring. He took his goal well Sunday and was unlucky not to add more, Atalanta certainly suffered when he was withdrawn. Their own new man in the dugout Ivan Juric will be judged quickly after his last two jobs at Roma and Southampton were disasters, but he has proved himself previously with Verona and Torino.
If we see a winner in this game, that coach will be going into the break fairly content with the other already fearing the worst. A draw helps neither team.
Fancy a bet? I like Atalanta to win at evens, think they should have enough to overcome Parma.
Pisa SC v AS Roma – Saturday 19:45 BST
Serie A football is back at Pisa after a short 34 year absence. The Garibaldi will be buzzing on Saturday night and if Pisa score it might just bring that tower down. Their fans need to make home matches a problem for any visiting teams if they’re to stand any chance of being in Serie A next season.
They were lucky to get away from Atalanta on Sunday with a point, although they worked hard and did have moments on the break. They’ll need to be significantly more clinical in future matches, including this one where they’ll come under sustained pressure from Roma.
Roma were fairly dominant last week in their opening day win over Bologna. Evan Ferguson impressed on his debut that some fans on X were suggesting they’d uncovered a Batistuta like forward. Perhaps a bit early for that, but he was a handful and would feel he should’ve score at least once with the chances he created. Leon Bailey is still injured, but with Dovbyk, Dybala, Soule and Kone all available they should have enough to see off a stubborn Pisa on Saturday night.
Watch this game for the atmosphere Pisa will create, it might just inspire the team to do something unpredictable, but it’s hard to see past a Roma win.
Fancy a bet? I fancy Evan Ferguson to get his first in Serie A and at 6/4 anytime scorer he has a bit of value too.
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