The coronavirus upended the Serie A resumption on Thursday, with four games not played, but theAC Milan (2nd), winner of Roma (3-1), and Naples (3rd), author of a good draw against Juventus in Turin (1-1), did not suffer from their reduced numbers. The draw in Turin is more the business of Napoli, attractive despite the absentees (Covid-19 and African Cup of Nations), than Juventus (5th), still three points from the Top 4.
Napoli opened the scoring with Dries Mertens (23rd) but could not resist the hunger for the ball from the returning Federico Chiesa, away from the field since the end of November and scorer on the restart (54th). Note that Naples, deprived of five positives in quarantine, has chosen to line up three other players who are also officially placed in quarantine as contact cases.
Milan, also forced to some experiments in defense, tamed Roma with a captain Theo Hernandez and a Olivier Giroud decisive, goal scorer (8th) then decisive on the second goal of Junior Messias (17th). A few decisive stops by Mike Maignan, only beaten on a deflection by Tammy Abraham (40th), two Roman red cards at the end of the match (Karsdorp and Mancini) and a victorious entry by Rafael Leao (goal in the 82nd) did the rest. Despite a penalty missed in added time by Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
« Situation confuse »
Milan provisionally returns to a length of Inter Milan, leaders who started this strange day of recovery by a “Ghost match” on the Bologna lawn. The Nerazzurri warmed up but never came out of the locker room, due to the lack of an opponent: Bologna, affected by eight cases of Covid-19, announced on Wednesday that local health authorities had banned its players from “Participate in official sporting events for at least five days”.
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A great way to kick off 2022 ??#MilanRoma #AlwaysMilan pic.twitter.com/qsnXsNSrgj
— AC Milan (@acmilan) January 6, 2022
Three other clubs – Salernitana, Torino and Udinese – were also blocked by their local authorities and their opponents (Venice, Atalanta and Fiorentina) also waited in vain. True to a line established last season, the Italian League had kept the program for Matchday 20 unchanged. It will now be up to sports justice to inflict a defeat on the green carpet to the teams forfeit or to reschedule the matches.
This incredible situation could happen again on Sunday, since the measures applied against Bologna, Torino and Udinese will still be relevant. “We are witnessing a confused situation. The local health authorities decide independently and we see that Verona goes to La Spezia with ten positive players and other teams are blocked with fewer positive cases ”, regretted Giuseppe Marotta, managing director of Inter Milan.
At 13, we play
To avoid these different choices from one region to another, the Italian League has adopted a new protocol in theory obliging the teams to enter the field, as long as they have twelve field players and a goalkeeper. , drawing on young people if necessary.
The League hoped, in a statement, to be able to “Bring the championship to a close, with the hope that the health authorities will not intervene with inconsistent measures which, for the moment, create serious damage to the Italian sports system”.
The decisions of the local health authorities are currently required, under a case law born last season after the cancellation of a previous Juventus-Napoli. The Neapolitans had been sanctioned with a lost match for not having moved, before the meeting was replayed.
If the new peak of contagions in Italy also had repercussions on the tifosi, with a maximum capacity reduced to 50% in the stadiums against 75% at the end of 2021, the results do not necessarily depend on the Covid: Hellas Verona, despite ten positive players, won at La Spezia (2-1) while Lazio Rome, free of cases, had to be content with a disappointing draw at home against Empoli (3-3).
Results of the 20th day of the Italian Football Championship:
Thursday January 6 (in Paris hours, GMT + 1)
Sampdoria Genoa – Cagliari 1-2
Lazio Rome – Empoli 3-3
Spezia – Hellas Verona 1-2
Sassuolo – Genoa 1-1
AC Milan – AS Rome 3-1
Juventus Turin 1-1 Naples
Postponed
Salernitana – Venise
Atalanta Bergame – Turin
Bologna – Inter Milan
Fiorentina – Udinese
Ranking :
Pts J G N P bp bc dif
1. Inter Milan 46 19 14 4 1 49 15 34
2. AC Milan 45 20 14 4 3 43 23 20
3. Naples 40 20 12 3 4 36 15 21
4. Atalanta Bergame 38 19 11 5 3 38 24 14
5. Juventus Turin 35 20 9 11 4 5 28 18 10
6. Fiorentina 32 19 10 2 7 34 25 9
7. AS Rome 32 20 10 2 8 32 24 8
8. Lazio Rome 32 20 9 5 6 42 37 5
9. Empoli 28 20 8 4 8 33 37-4
10. Bologne 27 19 8 3 8 27 31-4
11. Hellas Verona 27 20 7 6 7 36 33 3
12. Torino 25 19 7 4 8 23 19 4
13. Sassuolo 25 20 6 7 7 31 32-1
14. Udinese 20 18 4 8 6 26 28-2
15. Sampdoria Genoa 20 20 5 5 10 28 37-9
16. Venice 17 19 4 5 10 18 34-16
17. Spice 16 20 4 4 12 20 41-21
18. Cagliari 13 20 2 7 11 19 41-22
19. Genoa 12 20 1 9 10 20 38-18
20. Salerno 8 18 2 2 14 11 42-31
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