Football

Three things to watch during Serie A Matchday 12 as Milan look to stay on Napoli's coat-tails

After Luciano Spalletti's leaders thrashed Sassuolo 4-0 in the opening game of the weekend on Saturday, the rest of the top four - Milan, Lazio and Atalanta - all play on Sunday.

Published: 30 October 2022, 2.42pm | 3 min read

The Serie A title race continues to thrill.

After Napoli put Sassuolo to the sword thanks largely to Victor Osimhen's hat-trick, Milan, yet to experience defeat domestically on the road this season, will also fancy their chances when they travel to Torino in Sunday night's marquee game, while Lazio welcome Salernitana to the Stadio Olimpico and Atalanta go to Empoli earlier in the day.

Here's the lowdown on all the main storylines as another intriguing matchday draws into view - and scroll to the bottom to see how you can watch the rest of this weekend's Italian top-flight games exclusively live on BT Sport.

Mighty Milan beginning to motor

Despite Napoli's formidable start, Milan only sat three points behind the Partenopei going into the weekend after four straight wins.

The latest of those was a 4-1 win over Monza that saw Divock Origi open his account for the Rossoneri in fine style and also come up with an assist as Brahim Diaz bagged a double for the first time in his career.

A 4-0 win at Dinamo Zagreb further underlined that Stefano Pioli's reigning champions aren't to be underestimated as they travel to Torino on Sunday, in a game you can watch live on BT Sport 1 from 7.45pm.

The hosts are no pushovers though. They are currently 10th and ended a five-game league winless run by winning 2-1 at Udinese last weekend thanks to strikes by Ola Aina and Pietro Pellegri.

Ivan Juric's men also held Milan to a goalless draw last season. Can a repeat result - or better - be secured?

Divock Origi brilliantly opened his Milan account after a slow start at San Siro

October has been 1-2 forget for Verona

The decision to sack Gabriele Cioffi and replace him with Salvatore Bocchetti has yet to bear fruit for Hellas Verona.

The Gialloblu have lost their last six league games, and have, incredibly, been defeated 2-1 in their four matches so far during October.

Bocchetti obviously wouldn't mind that scoreline next up as long as the numbers were swapped around, but the task will be tough against Jose Mourinho's Roma.

Verona sit 19th on five points - one point above winless Cremonese - and have the league's second-worst defence, with 21 goals shipped in 2022/23.

Roma aren't scoring many but are fifth, sitting on the shoulders of Lazio and Atalanta.

A winner-takes-all Europa League clash against Ludogorets Razgrad next Thursday may lead to a slightly weakened line-up on Monday at the Stadio Marcantonio Bentegodi, but whoever Mourinho ends up playing, they will be considered favourites against the strugglers.

Salvatore Bocchetti has lost his opening two games in charge of Hellas Verona since replacing Gabriele Cioffi

Twelfth time lucky for Cremonese?

As alluded to earlier, it has not been an enjoyable start to the campaign for Cremonese.

The Lombardy-based outfit are playing in Serie A for the first time since 1995/96, but have earned just four points from 11 games and are yet to taste victory, missing a golden opportunity to get off the mark last weekend as they lost 1-0 to fellow relegation candidates Sampdoria.

Massimiliano Alvini's men have the chance to end that miserable run against Udinese, something that wouldn't have seemed possible a few weeks.

However, the Little Zebras are without a victory in three and have slipped out of the Champions League places following a fairytale start to the campaign that saw them sit top at one stage.

Another reason for Cremonese optimism comes in the form of Cyriel Dessers, who has scored twice in his last three games having failed to score in his opening eight outings since joining from Genk in August.