⚽️🇮🇹 How Inter became the 'best team in the world'
In this week’s Italian soccer digest, we're also looking at Doctor Strange's visit to Como, Daniele De Rossi's pasta-eating lessons, and much more!
🥇 Inter is on top of the world!
Inter continued its Serie A title defense with a rousing 5-0 win at Hellas Verona on Saturday, a result that sent them charging to the top of the Global Power Rankings run by sports data giants Opta!
📈 Per Opta’s Power Rankings, the Nerazzurri started the weekend third in the ranking, behind Premier League giants Manchester City and Liverpool, but leapfrogged both to become the unofficial best team in the world!
🤓 Opta updates its ranking daily, assigning “an ability score to over 13,000 men’s domestic football teams […] on a scale between zero and 100.” You can read all about how it works here.
💯 Inter, like Liverpool below them, has a perfect rating of 100.0. The next highest-ranked Italian sides are Atalanta (10th, 96.8), Juventus (12th, 95.4), Lazio (13th, 94.6), and Milan (19th, 93.3).
😮 The Serie A champions’ rise to the top was made all the more impressive as it ended Man City’s reign of more than 600 days in the top spot, thanks to an 11-match unbeaten run across Serie A and the Champions League.
💙 Inter head coach Simone Inzaghi was asked about it in a press conference on Monday. “I saw the stat, and I was pleased,” he said. “We work hard to make the fans and the club happy, and we need to continue like we have in the last 11 games.”
🇪🇺 Inter also sits at the top of the Champions League standings (at the time of publication). More on that shortly…
⚽ Huge weekend ahead for the scudetto race
It wasn’t just Inter who impressed over the weekend: wins for Napoli - more on them to come - Atalanta, Fiorentina, and Lazio ensured that Gameweek 13 ended with just one point separating the top five teams.
👏 Fiorentina continues to impress under Raffaele Palladino and racked up a seventh straight victory by beating Como 2-0 when the in-form Moise Kean was again on target with his seventh goal in four league matches.
🔥 Another highlight was David De Gea’s extraordinary triple save to ensure he kept another eye-catching clean sheet for La Viola!
🦅 Lazio kept pace by dispatching Bologna with a 3-0 win at the Stadio Olimpico. The Romans are on a seven-match winning run and a hot streak that has seen them win 11 of their last 12 games in all competitions.
💪 Atalanta beat Parma 3-1 as Serie A top scorer Mateo Retegui again found the target, leaving a pack of four teams sitting one point behind leaders Napoli.
Up next in the title race 👉 In Gameweek 14, Lazio go to Parma on Sunday (9am ET, CBS Sports) before Fiorentina host Inter (12pm ET, CBS Sports) in a clash of two of the league’s most in-form clubs. Atalanta then travel south to face Roma on Monday (2.45pm ET, CBS Sports). Speaking of which…
👊 Lukaku haunts former club but dismisses title talk
The first match of Claudio Ranieri’s third spell as Roma coach ended in a 1-0 defeat away to Napoli, which was made all the more painful by their former striker Romelu Lukaku scoring the winning goal.
🐺 Lukaku represented Roma last season, when he was on loan from Chelsea, scoring 21 goals in 47 games for the Giallorossi.
🥇 The Belgian came back to haunt his former employers, notching his fifth goal of the season from close range early in the second half to keep the Partenopei one point clear of the chasing pack in first place.
👑 Ranieri remained optimistic about Roma’s season, despite getting off to a rocky start. “I am happy with the performance from my players,” he said. “We made some mistakes that we will talk about during the week, but the hunger, the determination to get back on track, was there. We have a lot of work to do, but I feel positive.”
Up next for Napoli and Roma 👉 Napoli travel north to face Torino on Sunday (9am ET, CBS Sports). Toro drew 1-1 with Monza on Sunday to extend their winless streak to four matches, but beat Napoli 3-0 in this fixture last season. Roma, who are 12th in the table, host Atalanta after a midweek European trip to Tottenham.
👕 New York fans celebrate calcio and win signed jerseys!
Over a thousand Serie A fans joined us at Classic Football Shirts store in New York City at the weekend for Serie A Day: The Fashion of Calcio.
🥳 The event featured watch parties for Milan’s tie with Juventus and Atalanta’s victory at Parma, exclusive signed jersey and Panini card giveaways, an EA SPORTS FC™ 25 game station, incredible Italian specialty food and drink provided by local businesses, and a stunning Vespa display, courtesy of Piaggio.
🎟️ Raffles were held throughout the day for jerseys signed by Christian Pulisic, Yunus Musah, Tim Weah, Weston McKennie, Mateo Retegui, Ademola Lookman, Woyo Coulibaly, and Adrián Bernabé.
👕 Classic Football Shirts - which boasts the largest collection of new and hard-to-find authentic soccer shirts available for sale worldwide - is the official non-exclusive retailer for Serie A in the USA and Canada, offering a convenient hub for soccer fans to purchase the latest season jerseys for Serie A teams.
🤯 As the world’s leading retailer of iconic authentic shirts, Classic Football Shirts also offers a catalog of more than 17,000 vintage Serie A jerseys.
🎮 In last week’s Calcio Weekly, we gave away three copies of EA SPORTS FC™ 25. Congrats to our winners: Andrew Pennacchio, Connor Lund, and Massimo Silvestri!
🇪🇺 Pulisic scores in Europe again, Inter ride high in the Champions League
European soccer returned this week, with victories for all three Serie A teams in action in the Champions League on Tuesday night.
🇺🇸 Christian Pulisic scored Milan’s opener in their 3-2 victory at Slovan Bratislava, marking the Rossoneri’s third win of the League Phase.
🔝 Inter sit at the top of the Champions League standings going into Wednesday’s action, following their 1-0 home win over RB Leipzig.
🫡 Inter are yet to concede a goal in the League Phase this season, having won four and drawn one so far. According to Opta, this is the first time Inter have ever won four games in a row without conceding in the Champions League or European Cup.
🔥 Atalanta cruised to a 6-1 victory at Young Boys, making them the main contributors to the highest-scoring matchday of the competition this season (40 goals!). Gian Piero Gasperini’s side sit fourth in the standings.
🔜 Two more Italian sides are in Champions League action tonight when Juventus travels to Birmingham to face Aston Villa, and Bologna hosts Lille.
👀 Juve is looking to hit double-figure points in the League Phase after two wins, a draw, and a loss so far, while Bologna are still looking for its first goal and win of the tournament after picking up one point from their opening four matches.
🟥 Serie A stands up against violence towards women
While tuning into Serie A games this weekend, you may have noticed that players and coaches had a red mark on their faces. What was it all about?
❤️ This was part of Lega Serie A and WeWorld’s campaign against violence towards women.
👏 It is the eighth year of the #unrossoallaviolenza (‘a red card to violence’) campaign, which aims “to oppose and fight every form of violence and abuse, physical and psychological, towards women.”
📖 The issue continues to be an alarming problem in Italy, with 98 women killed by violence in 2024 alone. Read more about the campaign here.
🗣️ “Football is not just a sport, but a powerful social phenomenon capable of reaching millions of fans,” said Serie A president Lorenzo Casini. “For this reason, we must use all its strength to convey messages of awareness capable of spreading fundamental values such as mutual respect, solidarity, and non-discrimination.”
💬 Calcio Conversations
This week we are going to have another look at some more interesting Serie A nicknames, with a focus on Inter’s clash with Fiorentina at the Stadio Artemio Franchi in Florence.
🐍 What are Inter’s nicknames? They have a few! The most common is simply the Nerazzurri (‘the black and blues’) after their famous colors. But you might also hear them referred to as the Biscioni (‘grass snakes’) or the Beneamata (‘the beloved’). The first comes from the snake being one of the historic symbols of Milan, and the second is among the many terms coined by legendary Italian sports journalist Gianni Brera.
💜 How about Fiorentina? They are best known as I Viola (“the purples”), again after their iconic shirt color. However, Fiorentina is also known as I Gigliati, meaning ‘The Lilies’, after the flower that is the ancient symbol of Florence - which remains on the club’s badge to this day.
😎 Celebrities are flocking to Como!
The Stadio Giuseppe Sinigaglia in Como is becoming something of a celeb-spotting venue this season, and Sunday was no different: Hollywood stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Sophie Hunter, and Chris Pine were in attendance for the Serie A clash with Fiorentina.
🤦 Unfortunately for the home team, even the presence of Doctor Strange in the stands could not inspire a victory, as Como fell to a 2-0 defeat.
💎 They are far from the first high-profile names from the world of acting to grace the beautiful lakeside ground this season; Hugh Grant and Andrew Garfield were in attendance last month, while Kate Beckinsale has also dropped by.
👉 Want to hear more from the Como camp? Head coach Cesc Fabregas sat down with our friends at Destination Calcio this week for an in-depth exclusive interview.
Up next for Como 👉 Como welcomes Monza to the Sinigaglia on Saturday (9am ET, CBS Sports), where Fabregas’ side will look to break a seven-match run without victory and climb out of the relegation zone.
🇩🇪 Italy to face old rivals Germany in UEFA Nations League
Italy knew that narrowly missing out on top spot to France in their UEFA Nations League group would result in a tougher quarter-final draw, and so it proved when Germany came out of the hat in Friday’s draw.
🗓️ The Azzurri will take on their age-old rivals over two legs in March 2025, with the first leg in Italy on Thursday, March 20th, and the second leg in Germany on Sunday, March 23rd.
🏆 Italy and Germany are two titans of the international game, boasting four World Cup titles each - second only to Brazil with five.
🙌 They have had some epic encounters over the years, including the so-called ‘Game of the Century’ when Italy won 4-3 in extra-time in the 1970 World Cup semi-final and the Azzurri’s win to knock out the German hosts at the same stage of the 2006 World Cup.
🥺 More recently, however, form has favored the Germans, who won their last meeting 5-2 in June 2022 in the Nations League.
➡️ The winner of the two-legged tie will face Denmark or Portugal in the semi-finals, while on the other side of the draw, the Netherlands face Spain and Croatia take on France in the remaining last-eight ties.
🍝 Social Post of the Week: De Rossi shocked by Keane’s pasta-eating technique!
Two legends of the game met in the capital when former Roma and Manchester United icons Daniele De Rossi and Roy Keane ate lunch together…only for the latter to disgrace himself by cutting his pasta up!
📺 This weekend on CBS Sports, Paramount+, FOX Deportes, and SiriusXM
Friday, November 29th
Cagliari v Verona (2.45pm ET)
Saturday, November 30th
Como v Monza (9am ET)
Milan v Empoli (12pm ET)
Bologna v Venezia (2.45pm ET, also on SiriusXM FC)
Sunday, December 1st
Udinese v Genoa (6.30am ET)
Parma v Lazio (9am ET)
Torino v Napoli (9am ET, also on FOX Deportes)
Fiorentina v Inter (12pm ET, also on FOX Deportes)
Lecce v Juventus (2.45pm ET, also on FOX Deportes and SiriusXM FC)
Monday, December 2nd
Roma v Atalanta (2.45pm ET)
🇨🇦 Watch ALL Serie A games live on Fubo - and select games with Italian-language commentary on TLN 🇨🇦
🇺🇸 Watch select games with Spanish-language commentary on FOX Deportes and English-language commentary on SiriusXM 🇺🇸
🦃 Thank you for supporting Calcio Weekly!
If you like this newsletter, you may also enjoy the great work of our friends at Total Italian Football, who bring you daily calcio content, podcasts from Serie A stadiums, Women’s Serie A coverage, and much more!
We’d also like to spotlight Destination Calcio, an essential hub for English-language Serie A news and exclusives!
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Ciao ciao - and a very Happy Thanksgiving to you all!
I don't watch much Serie A, but care about what's happening in the league. This newsletter is the perfect way to stay on top of all of the interesting goings-on there. Thanks so much for helping me keep up with the Serie A teams and players I care about!
Thank you for the copy of fifa!