🇮🇹 Comebacks, corner kicks and classics on epic Serie A weekend | OneFootball

Whew. There has not been as chaotic a weekend in Serie A as the last one for quite some time.

Allow us to run you through some of the madness that occurred across the eight games played on Saturday and Sunday …

Firstly, prior to the games kicking off, only five players had scored goals directly from corner-kicks in the last decade and then two ‘Olimpico’ goals were scored in the space of as many days!

Hakan Çalhanoğlu was first to pull it off for Inter against Roma, catching a flat-footed Rui Patrício out at his near post to send Inter on their way to a 3-0 win.

It should be noted that chastening as the Giallorossi’s seventh loss of the season was, they were missing several key players and facing one of the form sides who are really finding their groove under Simone Inzaghi.

That said, it didn’t stop José Mourinho showing signs of strain when he snapped with a reporter afterwards.

Just over 24 hours after that drama in the capital, Juan Cuadrado whipped in an even better corner kick goal for Juventus, violently curling one in off the crossbar to help his side to a 2-0 victory over Genoa.

It is the first time since Opta began collecting data in 2004 that the Old Lady didn’t allow their opponents a single shot and it is already becoming a worrying trend for Andriy Shevchenko’s side, who are haven’t scored in any of his four games in charge.

And those stunners were the tip of the iceberg. In Napoli, the leaders welcomed Atalanta for a game that promised goals and delivered emphatically as Gian Piero Gasperini’s free flowing Bergemaschi took an early lead, fell behind after half-time and then scored twice to leave with all three points.

On current evidence, they are very much part of the four-team title race, having been set on their way by Ruslan Malinovskyi’s early strike which seen him take his tally of goals from outside the area in the last two-and-a-half seasons to 13 – only Lionel Messi has more.

Then there were the comebacks. Lazarus himself would have been proud with some of the recovery missions in Italy over the weekend.

Sassuolo looked dead and buried on 66 minutes away to Spezia at 2-0 down but Giacomo Raspadori scored two late goals to deny the hosts two important points in their fight for survival.

And they weren’t the only relegation-threatened side who couldn’t believe the damage they may have done to their hopes as Venezia’s collapse against Hellas Verona made history.

The Lagunari led 3-0 against their north-eastern neighbours at the break but inspired by more Giovanni Simeone heroics, Verona stunned their hosts with an epic second half fightback for a 4-3 win.

It is the first time in Serie A history that the Mastini have won from that position and is also the first time it has been witnessed in the top flight since Milan did so against Lecce 10 years ago.

Christmas came early in Italy last weekend!