Winter break is over for Italian Serie A and the teams return to finish what they started. We wonder if these teams had a New Year’s resolution?
No slip ups. The top seven teams in the current standings of the Serie A had a victory in this round.
January 7, 2017
Empoli 1-0 Palermo
Massimo Maccarone 78’(pen)
A penalty helped Empoli to a home victory and created a seven-point gap between themselves and the drop zone. Arguably, this wasn’t a deserved victory for the home side.
Napoli 2-1 Sampdoria
Manolo Gabbiadini 77’ Elseid Hysaj 30’(o.g)
Lorenzo Tonelli 90’+5”
6 – Napoli have won their first league game of the year for the 6th season in a row. Tradition. #NapoliSamp pic.twitter.com/5XzsYa2n25
— OptaPaolo (@OptaPaolo) January 7, 2017
A late goal helped Napoli to avoid the dropping of points in front of their home fans. Napoli had to come back from a goal down against a 10-man Sampdoria side to win the match in the final quarter of the fixture.
January 8, 2017
Udinese 1-2 Inter Milan
Jakub Jankto 17’ Ivan Perisic 45’+2’, 87’
Ivan Perisic rescued Inter Milan by scoring a late goal in each half to help Inter to an away win at Udinese.
?️ “The lads deserved this win.” Read Stefano #Pioli‘s thoughts after #UdineseInter ? https://t.co/YgriZk03eH #FCIM pic.twitter.com/Ui1aHWPWae
— F.C. Internazionale (@Inter_en) January 8, 2017
Inter Milan’s victory opened an 8-point gap between the two sides. The victory also marked the fourth straight league victory for Inter Milan.
Chievo Verona 1-4 Atalanta
Sergio Pellissier 62’ Alejandro Gomez 4’ 23’
Andrea Conti 42’
Remo Freuler 69’
Atalanta scored four away at Chievo Verona to hold their place in among the top six teams in the Serie A standings.
Genoa 0-1 Roma
Armando Izzo 36’(o.g)
And early own goals was the difference in this fixture.
The single goal gave to Roma a very important win to try and keep pace with Juventus at the top of the league table.
Lazio 1-0 Crotone
Ciro Immobile 90’
Struggling Crotone made Lazio struggle for win.
Ciro Immobile scored late to rescue Lucas Biglia from his early penalty miss and to give Lazio a very important home victory against newly-promoted Crotone.
Pescara -POSTPONED- Fiorentina
Sassuolo 0-0 Torino
Torino maintained an eleven point gap between themselves and Sassuolo after a goalless draw between the two.
AC Milan 1-0 Cagliari
Carlos Bacca 88’
We are back to winning ways! 3 points! ?
Si torna alla vittoria! 3 punti! ?#ForzaMilan pic.twitter.com/x0NrR0iN85— AC Milan (@acmilan) January 8, 2017
Carlos Bacca scored late to give AC Milan a deserved home victory over Cagliari.
Juventus 3-0 Bologna
Gonzalo Higuain 7′ 55′
Paulo Dybala 41′
Juventus bounced back from their Italian Super Cup defeat against AC Milan by adding to their string of victories in the Serie A.
It would be unwise to expect Juventus to fall at home. Another win for the defending champions kept their four-point lead in Serie A intact for another round.