Milan travelled to Lazio on Saturday evening, hoping to reverse the poor run of early form, while Napoli faced Parma with new signing Romelu Lukaku making his debut for the club.
Here’s what happened.
Scorers: Pavlović 8′, Leão 72′; Castellanos 62′, Dia 66′
Milan boss Paulo Fonesca had dropped Theo Hernández and Rafael Leão to the bench after some poor performances, and his gamble looked to have worked when Strahinja Pavlović scored his first goal for the club with a bullet header from a Christian Pulisic corner.
Lazio grew into the game in the second half and a dangerous cross Nuno Tavares was volleyed home by ValentÃn Castellanos.
One soon became two for the home side, and incredibly the goal was almost a carbon copy of Lazio’s first.
Just four minutes after Castellanos netted, another Tavares cross was this time netted by Boulaye Dia.
That seemed to spark the game into life, as Leão came off the bench and converted from a neat layoff from new man Tammy Abraham following an excellent team move.
Yet the result means one defeat and two draws in the opening two matches for Milan, hardly the start that Fonseca would’ve been hoping for.
Scorers: Bonny 19′; Lukaku 90+2, Anguissa 90+6
Romelu Lukaku was the star for Napoli as his late goal sparked a stoppage time comeback to secure a 2-1 win.
Antonio Conte’s men had plenty of possession in the opening exchanges without any real cutting edge as Parma took the lead thanks to a penalty from Ange-Yoan Bonny.
Even when Parma goalkeeper Zion Suzuki was shown a red card for a wild challenge and was replaced by outfield player Enrico Del Prato, Napoli still couldn’t find the back of the net.
But the script was written when Leonardo Spinazzola played a superb ball into Lukaku inside the penalty area, which the Belgian made no mistake in slamming home.
Then, as the eleven minutes of stoppage time ticked away, a David Neres cross was headed home by Frank-Zambo Anguissa to send the Stadio Armando Maradona into delirium.
