Papu Gomez became a club legend at Atalanta B.C. last season after his goals fired the club to a fourth-place finish in Serie A (their highest-ever league finish) and qualification for the Europa League. Hopefully you’re familiar with the forward’s goalscoring celebration, a dance which was turned into a viral sensation.
Antonio Donnarumma is AC Milan starting goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma's brother. Gigi Donnarumma is a boy wonder, starting for Milan at just 18 years old. Antonio Donnarumma is, um, not that. He's 27 years old, AC Milan's third-choice goalkeeper and probably only there to keep his family and younger brother happy.
However, with Gianluigi injured and regular backup Marco Storari having injured himself during warmups, the job of seeing AC Milan past hated rivals Inter into the Coppa Italia semifinals fell to Antonio.
So far, Inter Milan has had an excellent season. A mere glance at the table going into this weekend would reveal as much, as they sat in first place, ahead of Juventus and Napoli. Going into the season, not many people expected too much from the Milanese club. A top-four finish seemed the best they could hope for.
Last week, Serie A news revolved around goals. Goals change games was the mantra. After Juventus beat Napoli, it seemed like it was all change at the top of the table.
Instead, many of this week’s most important matches were goalless. Not bad, as such, but not quite the high scoring affairs we’d hoped for.
AS Roma’s 1-0 victory over Qarabag in Champions League group play put the finishing touches on a remarkable progression for the Eternal City club. Coupled with Chelsea’s 1-1 draw with Atletico Madrid in Tuesday’s other Group C match, Roma now finish atop the group and will face a runners-up opponent in the Round of 16.
Goals change games. That’s pretty much football 101. That’s how the game works. But not every goal is created equal. This week in Serie A, the true value of a goal was shown to be different on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. So let’s take a look at the three goals that defined the weekend and why they differed so widely.
This goal has some layers to it, y'all.
Udinese put three goals past Crotone in Serie A on Monday, and the best of the bunch was the third, a delicious, flavorful team move finished off by ...
(opens oven)
(takes megaphone out of oven, wearing oven mitts, obviously, because the megaphone is really hot)
(blows on megaphone to cool it down a bit)
KEVIN LASAGNA.
Georghe Hagi had a knack of scoring from anywhere on the pitch. Like Steph Curry, give him a few feet and he could launch a shot from anywhere inside his own half — and usually score. Now the Romanian legend’s 19-year-old son is doing the same with Fiorentina, which beat Chievo Verona 3-2 in a youth match thanks to an unlikely Ianis Hagi goal.
Benevento’s raucous point against AC Milan on Sunday, their first after 15 matches in Serie A, was as historic as it was surreal. It put an end to the worst losing start ever in Europe’s big five leagues, but it was also miraculously earned by goalkeeper Alberto Brignoli after the shot-stopper pushed forward on a 95th minute free kick.
Also, it was a glorious diving header to make life that much more hellish for the floundering seven-time European champions, Milan.
Benevento finally got off the goose egg. After starting the Serie A campaign with 14 straight losses, an Alberto Brignoli goal in the 95th minute gave Benevento a 2-2 home draw with AC Milan on Sunday. Oh, did we mention Brignoli is a goalkeeper?
With Benevento trailing 2-1 late but with a man advantage after Alessio Romagnoli was sent off for a second yellow card, Brignoli marched up the pitch for a free kick in the fifth minute of five minutes of stoppage time. Improbably, the ball found his head and zipped past Gianluigi Donnarumma and into the goal.