Outside90’s Joshua Scarcella breaks down the major talking points to come out of Serie A matchday 27.
Records continue to tumble for Gianluigi Buffon
The Serie A has had the luxury of housing some of the finest goalkeepers in the world over a considerable amount of time. This includes a strong contingent of youngsters who continue to push their claim for a starting position at both the big clubs in Italy and the national team. However, one man continues to stand in their way.
The Juventus No.1 has edged his name into the record books on multiple occasions this season and this week added one more individual triumph to his CV. Buffon kept a clean sheet against Inter Milan at the Juventus stadium, which now takes his total time without conceding to 746 consecutive minutes, a new personal best for the 38-year-old. He is but a mere 183 minutes away from breaking the 929 minute record set by Sebastiano Rossi during the 1993-94 season for Milan and 157 minutes away from the second best effort which happens to belong to Buffon’s idol, Dino Zoff.
Gianluigi Buffon has gone 746 mins without conceding in Serie A, beating his previous personal record by 2 mins. pic.twitter.com/SDNRr11sLA
— Squawka Football (@Squawka) February 28, 2016
Atalanta lost that winning feeling
The Nerazzuri season can be best described as a turbulent one, going from third after round five to 14th position with 11 matches remaining. Results have been met with a number of inclusions to the squad, while the omission of just as many names has created a high turnover of talent.
Atalanta’s draw against Carpi at the weekend was their 12 consecutive match without a win, their last was on the 7th of December 2015 at home against Palermo. The winless run becomes the club’s longest in the Serie A since December 2004 and with an upcoming home fixture against Juventus followed by a match in Rome against Lazio, the record may be set to continue for Edoardo Reja’s men.
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Super-sub Carpi
With relegation looming, the Biancorossi have at times provided us with the entertaining football some say the Serie A is lacking. The club’s most notable result of the season was a surprise 1-0 win in Florence, after nearly stealing a result at home against Juventus.
Carpi have netted the equal least number of goals at this point of the season and have struggled in recent weeks to add to the scoresheet after Marco Borriello’s departure to Atalanta, however, this has seemed to inspire the substitutes.
Their last five goals have all been scored in the second-half by a substituted player, the widely celebrated Kevin Lasagna, with three of the five also earning the the same amount of points.
Milan’s unbeaten run
After falling short to Juventus during the 2011-12 season, the Rossoneri have been but a shadow of their former salves. The great outfit that once was during the 1990’s and early 2000’s is a distant memory for this club that is currently in a rebuilding phase, with a number of young talent taking to the pitch week in and week out.
The strategy to utilise the young brigade is now starting to pay dividends for Sinisa Mihajlovic, as after a shaky start to the season Milan find themselves unbeaten in nine matches and just one point away from pipping their rivals Inter Milan for a European spot. The difference during this period has been a compact defence, only concededing six goals in their last nine matches and 22 in the 18 previous outings. Couple these efforts with Carlos Bacca, Giacomo Bonaventura and M’Baye Niang and it evident that the once mighty Milan is back on the move, which will please fans greatly.
Napoli continue to haunt Fiorentina
The rise of the top clubs in Italy has been one of the enjoyable elements of the current season and namely Fiorentina are a big part of this. Although they have been deprived of success in recent years, La Viola pose themselves as a major contender for the Scudetto more often than not.
However, there is one little team that stand in their way and that team is Napoli. I Partenopei have taken the chocolates on six of the last 12 meetings, and also five draws, Fiorentina only able to manage one win over that period both at home and away. To add the disappointment, the team from Florence have only found the back of the net once each in seven matches and not at all in the other five.
It is a worrying statistic for a club who were once at the head of the table and are currently battling the Napoletani for a Champions League birth in 2016. Fiorentina now find themselves five points behind second and equal points to third with 11 matches remaining in the season, and now with Europa out of the picture, the team will need to win the majority of the games left to cement a chance to take on some of Europe’s best.
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