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 | Calcio FC WeeklyAre Juventus the Real Deal? |
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Welcome to Issue 4 of Calcio FC Weekly!
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Have we drawn breath yet? The weekend delivered the most entertaining Derby d'Italia since, well, last season's absolutely bonkers 4-4 draw, another Manchester United cast-off brought a smile to Antonio Conte's face and there was more Serie B drama! Oh, and European football is back.
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Don't forget you can get in touch with us on our socials and at newsletter@destinationcalcio.com
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Here's a taste of what's on the menu today:
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- Are Juventus legitimate Scudetto contenders?
- Maybe Rasmus Hojlund is pretty good after all
- Sampdoria's season is already spiralling out of control
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| | | Welcome To The Tudor Era
Be honest, you thought that nothing could come close to last season's Derby d'Italia in which Inter Milan and Juventus shared eight goals, didn't you?
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And yet Saturday evening's extravaganza in Turin not only lived up to the previous instalment of Italy's biggest fixture, it may have raised the bar even further.
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To recap: Juventus took the lead through Lloyd Kelly's first goal for the club, before Hakan Calhanoglu's two stunning strikes either side of a brilliant finish from fellow Turkey international Kenan Yildiz left it in the balance at 2-2 with 25 minutes to play.
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And just as the spoils looked destined to be shared, Vasilije Adzic let rip from 25 yards out with 91 minutes on the clock, winning the game for Juventus as pandemonium erupted at the Allianz Stadium.
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At 19 years of age, Montenegrin Adzic has already written himself in Bianconeri folklore and has a bright future ahead of him, so much so that former Fiorentina star and international team-mate Stevan Jovetic likened him to Frank Lampard.
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"While I don't like to make comparisons, his style of striking the ball is reminiscent of Lampard," the former Manchester City player told La Gazzetta dello Sport.
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"He has the potential to be a double-digit goalscorer from midfield, though reaching five or six this season would be a good achievement. Vasilije must now work with Tudor to develop from a tactical standpoint."
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If Adzic is Juventus' future, the more immediate present paints an encouraging picture as far as Igor Tudor is concerned, with his team and champions Napoli the only Serie A sides left with a perfect record after three games. Inter, meanwhile, are six points adrift of the pair after a second defeat in three under Cristian Chivu.
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Few expected Croatian Tudor to be given the job on a permanent basis when he replaced Thiago Motta as interim boss after the former Bologna manager's disastrous spell came to an end in March.
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Tudor spent a decade with Juventus as a player, yet the fact he knows the club inside out was almost used as a criticism by his detractors this summer, who suggested his appointment lacked ambition.
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The 47-year-old is proving them wrong, with Juventus looking a far more cohesive unit than at any stage under Motta. Tudor has rehabilitated Dusan Vlahovic and is getting the most out of Yildiz, something which proved beyond his predecessor.
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At the start of the campaign, Tudor (below) declared that "a club like Juventus never starts the season with the ambition of simply qualifying for the Champions League" and guaranteed his team would be a Scudetto contender.
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So far, he has kept his word. |
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| Have Napoli Struck Gold Again?
Italian journalist Paolo Condò pulled no punches on Sky Sports on Saturday night, as he analysed Napoli's 3-1 win against Fiorentina.
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"God bless Manchester United," he said. "There’s no club in the world better at ruining talent in the last 10-12 years than them.
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"Today [Rasmus] Hojlund was great, last year [Scott] McTominay led Napoli to the Scudetto. We can’t stop thanking them.”
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Criticising United has been easy for about a decade now, but it is hard to imagine a scenario in which Hojlund's debut for Napoli could have gone any better.
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Having joined the Partenopei on loan on deadline day, with a conditional obligation to buy, the Dane missed a sitter two minutes into the game but atoned for the mistake by opening his Napoli account with just under quarter of an hour gone.
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The 22-year-old pounced on a perfectly-weighted pass from Leonardo Spinazzola, getting goalside of the defender before motoring towards the box and finishing past another former United man, Spanish goalkeeper David De Gea.
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It was the finish of a striker full of confidence, the kind of striker, in short, United fans seldom saw in Hojlund's two years in England.
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"Hojlund is a young and promising talent," Antonio Conte said of his new signing after the match.
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"We need every player to contribute to Napoli's present and future. So far, the performances of the new signings have been encouraging."
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Arriving at United from Atalanta for £65m plus add-ons, the Dane never seemed the right fit when he moved to the Premier League aged only 19, having scored 10 goals in 34 competitions in his only season with La Dea.
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There were, of course, plenty of mitigating factors. As Condò alluded to, United have been a graveyard for talent over the past decade.
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They have become a paragon of dysfunctionality, a giant in name only, existing in its own biosphere of mismanagement, neglect and ineptitude.
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And yet, their cast-offs have found a new lease of life in Serie A.
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None more so than McTominay, who left Manchester in the summer of 2024 and was named Serie A MVP following a stunning debut campaign which delivered Napoli’s second Scudetto in three years and consecrated him as a city’s cult hero.
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Can lightning strike twice and can Conte turn Hojlund into the striker his team needs with Romelu Lukaku out for three months?
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One game is a small sample size, but the early signs are positive. |
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| | Sampdoria’s Crisis Deepens
Massimo Donati's glass had been resolutely half-full so far this season. Despite losing his first two games in charge of Sampdoria, the former Celtic midfielder insisted his side were on the right track.
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Donati's optimism will be sorely tested after the Blucerchiati lost again on Saturday, this time to Cesena, who won 2-1 at Marassi courtesy of a stunning free-kick from Michele Castagnetti and a goal from Giovanni Zaro.
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Victory kept the Seahorses joint-top of the table with seven points after three games, alongside Modena, who are managed by former Sampdoria boss Andrea Sottil, Palermo and Frosinone.
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Samp, meanwhile, are rock bottom, one of only three teams across the 100 that make up professional football in Italy yet to win a point this term, along with Lumezzane and Siracusa in Serie C.
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Even Triestina and Rimini, who were both docked points before the season got underway, have numbers on the board.
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So where do they go next? Andrea Pirlo was sacked three games into the season a year ago and Donati already looks to be a dead man walking. On Saturday, the 44-year-old took a leaf out of Old Trafford chief Ruben Amorim's book and suggested the club may need to make a managerial change to stop the rot.
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"I believe the people at the club need to evaluate what my staff and I are doing on the field. If they don't think it's good, it's only right that they make a change," he said.
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"I always feel my position is in question, even before the season starts."
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Donati's appointment already looks to be the latest disastrous move from a club that under the ownership of Matteo Manfredi has got just about every call wrong in the past two years.
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| EXCLUSIVE: Nico Paz on His 'Beautiful' Life by the Lake and Playing for Fabregas |
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Nico Paz has taken Serie A by storm after joining Como last season and is arguably the most exciting young player in the division. He spoke to Harry Slavin about improving under Cesc Fabregas, living on the shores of Lake Como and his future.
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| | Khephren Thuram Heading in Right Direction with Juve After Beating Big Brother |
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Forget the Derby d’Italia, Saturday was the Derby dei Fratelli Thuram. And it was younger sibling Khephren who took the bragging rights. Alasdair Mackenzie on why Khephren could be the Thuram brother having the last laugh this season.
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| | Why the Igli Tare Approach Could be About to Transform AC Milan |
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AC Milan spent more than any other Serie A club this summer and also recouped more money than any of their rivals through sales. Dan Cancian explains why being a selling club may not necessarily be bad news for the Rossoneri under Igli Tare.
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| | Serie A's Magic Number... How Many Points Are Needed To Avoid Relegation? |
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The 40-point mark is often spoken of as the survival line. Once you are over it, you will be fine. But is this myth or reality? Alasdair Mackenzie has been crunching the numbers.
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| | | Don’t forget, Destination Calcio will be bringing you live Serie B action during every round of the 2025-26 season on DCTV- Click HERE to find out the matches we will be showing across the next few weeks.
- Click HERE for the full 2025-26 calendar.
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| Things you may have missed this week- According to Opta, Luka Modric is the oldest midfielder to score a goal in the history of Serie A. The Croatian legend claimed the winner for AC Milan against Bologna on Sunday night, five days after turning 40 and beating the previous record held by Nils Liedholm, who also scored for Milan, against Inter, on March 26, 1961 at the age of 38 years and 169 days.
- Massimo Cellino is a colourful character to say the least, but even by his standards, escaping from a hotel room through the window to avoid meeting an agent seems extreme. Speaking to La Gazzetta dello Sport, former Serie A left-back Stefano Bettarini revealed he was wanted by Fiorentina while at Cagliari, but Cellino, then the Rossoblu president, was so against the idea of selling him that he fled through a window to escape Bettarini's agent. The full-back remained in Sardinia.
- In the same interview Bettarini, who played 303 league games in his career, said AC Milan and Juventus both passed on his services because Adriano Galliani and Luciano Moggi considered him to be "too good looking for a footballer".
- Jamie Vardy has decided to live in Salò, rather than settle his family in Cremona. Set on the shores of Lake Garda, the town is famous for its rolling hills, promenades and stunning views, and was the capital of Benito Mussolini’s Italian Social Republic between 1943 and 1945. Salò, of course, only recently lost its football club, with Feralpisalò relocated to Brescia and rebranded as Union Brescia after the Rondinelle failed to meet the Serie C registration deadline.
- Over 3.8 million fans passed through the San Siro turnstiles across all competitions last season, the most of any stadium in Europe according to UEFA's annual European Club Talent and Competition Landscape report. Only Manchester United and Real Madrid welcomed more fans through the turnstiles than Inter Milan did, with a combined 1.96m fans watching the Nerazzurri. AC Milan, meanwhile, ranked sixth with 1.80m.
- Palermo president Dario Mirri missed the 2-0 win against Sudtirol on Sunday afternoon as he chose to spend the entire 90 minutes in the stadium car park to show solidarity with Sicily-based fans, who had been banned from attending the game in Bolzano. Palermo fans based outside Sicily were allowed at the Druso and made for a raucous away end.
- Joel Pohjanpalo scored both Palermo goal as they became the first side to beat Sudtirol at the Druso in this calendar year. The Finland international has three goals in three Serie B games after scoring nine in his first nine appearances for the Rosanero last term.
- Renovations at the Stadio Artemio Franchi continue at a glacial pace even by Italian standards. Fiorentina's 94-year-old home is undergoing a facelift ahead of Euro 2032, but progress has been excruciatingly slow for months. The £86m project began last year and was expected to be completed by the end of this season, a deadline which looks increasingly optimistic as you can see from the picture below.
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 | | | Watch the Calcio FC podcast on YouTube and listen on Spotify | | Kit of the week
There was only one winner for this particular section this week. Or rather, there was from the moment pictures of Dua Lipa donning Palermo's 2023 home top surfaced on the Rosanero's Instagram a few days ago. In case you haven't been paying attention, the latest trend on the internet involves the pop star posing with kits of different teams. The problem is that those pictures are in fact AI-generated, much to the chagrin of fans of Valencia, Fenerbahce, Bayern Munich and half a dozen other European clubs. Palermo took the opportunity to remind everyone the London-born singer did in fact really wear their kit, posing for a photoshoot.
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A reminder that if you spot a classic shirt while you're at the game or out and about, get in touch on our socials or via email and let us know why we should feature it!
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 | | What we are reading this week|
European football is back this week as the Champions League, Europa League and Europa Conference League all get underway in a feast of football that definitely hasn't been engineered with lucrative financial returns in mind. Serie A has four representatives in the Champions League in the form of Napoli, Inter Milan, Juventus and Atalanta, while Bologna and Roma will fly the flag in the Europa League and Fiorentina take their now customary spot in the Europa Conference League. The good guys at Tiro have dived into the minutiae of European football, with a very detailed preview of all Italian teams, which you can - and should - read here. |
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| | | Coffee corner
This week's entry comes from Florence, specifically the Mercato Centrale, one of the best destinations in the city, showcasing Tuscan delicacies to locals and visitors. The perfect spot to get your day started before a trip to the Artemio Franchi.
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Got a tip for the best espresso you've had in Pisa? Had a memorable cappuccino in Parma? Let us know on our socials or by email at newsletter@destinationcalcio.com! |
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 | | | Where to watch calcio this weekendSerie A (times BST/EST)- Lecce vs Cagliari, 19:45/14:45, DAZN (UK and US), Paramount + (US)
- Bologna vs Genoa, 14:00/09:00, DAZN (UK and US), Paramount + (US)
- Hellas Verona vs Juventus, 17:00/12:00, DAZN (UK and US), Paramount + (US),
- Udinese vs AC Milan, 19:45/14:45 DAZN (UK and US), TNT Sports 1 (UK), Paramount + (US)
- Lazio vs Roma, 11:30/06:30 DAZN (UK and US), Paramount + (US)
- Cremonese vs Parma, 14:00/09:00, DAZN (UK and US), Paramount + (US)
- Torino vs Atalanta, 14:00/09:00, DAZN (UK and US), Paramount + (US)
- Fiorentina vs Como, 17:00/12:00, DAZN (UK and US), Paramount + (US)
- Inter vs Sassuolo, 19:45/14:45 TNT Sports 1 (UK), DAZN (UK and US), Paramount + (US)
- Napoli vs Pisa, 19:45/14:45 TNT Sports 1 (UK), DAZN (UK and US), Paramount + (US)
Serie B- Palermo vs Bari, 20:00/14:30, Destination Calcio
- Venezia vs Cesena, 14:00/09:00, Destination Calcio
- Monza vs Sampdoria, 16:15/11:15, Destination Calcio
| | Random former Serie A/Serie B footballer of the week|
With Modena top of the table in Serie B, it feels only appropriate to select one of their cult heroes in this section. And they don't come much bigger than Diomansy Kamara. Readers in Britain may be familiar with Kamara as a winger with an eye for goal - 39 in 151 appearances across the Premier League and the Championship for Portsmouth, West Brom, Fulham and Leicester City - but the former Senegal international made his mark in Italy too, scoring 11 goals in 58 appearances for Modena in Serie A and four in 24 in Serie B between 2001 and 2005. He also bagged 13 in 50 games across two spells for Catanzaro. |
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That is all for this week folks. We hope you enjoyed this latest issue of Calcio FC Weekly, make sure you hit the subscribe button to have it landing in your inbox every Tuesday and don't forget to get in touch at newsletter@destinationcalcio.com or on our socials! |
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