Serie A table after matchday five: Roma, Inter Milan and Lazio level on 13 points as Juventus beat Atalanta
Roma and Inter Milan draw 2-2 at the Olimpico and Lazio win in Venice, so three teams go into the break on 13 points. Juventus beat Atalanta, AC Milan beat Lecce, Cagliari are fourth on their own and Venezia are still without a point. Every result with the scorers, the full table and the tally of our calls, misses included.
Serie A goes into the international break with three teams level on 13 points: Roma, Inter Milan and Lazio. Roma and Inter Milan drew 2-2 at the Stadio Olimpico, Koné's two goals cancelled out by two from Lautaro Martínez, and Lazio caught them by winning 2-0 in Venice. Juventus beat Atalanta, AC Milan beat Lecce, Cagliari are fourth on their own and Venezia still have no points.
It was a weekend of mourning for Sandro Mazzola, who died on the night of 18 September, aged 83: a minute's silence was held before every game on the orders of the Italian football federation and Olympic Committee, and Inter Milan wore black armbands. The mayor of Milan declared a day of civic mourning for his funeral, at 2.45pm on Monday 21 September in the Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio.
Serie A results: every game of matchday five
Friday 18 September
Monza 2-1 Sassuolo — Monza: Gustavo Varela 51', 63' (pen.). Sassuolo: Vasilije Adžić 88'. Here our call was fewer than five goals, confidence 7 out of 10: correct.
Saturday 19 September
Udinese 0-1 Cagliari — Cagliari: Daniel Maldini 54'. Here our call was fewer than five goals, confidence 7 out of 10: correct.
Bologna 1-1 Torino — Bologna: Federico Bernardeschi 14'. Torino: Sandro Kulenović 77'. Here our call was fewer than five goals, confidence 6 out of 10: correct.
Roma 2-2 Inter Milan — Roma: Manu Koné 6', 37'. Inter Milan: Lautaro Martínez 46', 79'. Here our call was the away side to score, confidence 7 out of 10: correct.
Venezia 0-2 Lazio — Lazio: Mattia Zaccagni 51' (pen.), Tijjani Noslin 60'. Here our call was fewer than five goals, confidence 6 out of 10: correct.
Sunday 20 September
Fiorentina 1-1 Napoli — Fiorentina: Álex Jiménez 51'. Napoli: Billy Gilmour 23'. Here our call was fewer than five goals, confidence 7 out of 10: correct.
Parma 2-1 Genoa — Parma: David Romero 38', Pontus Almqvist 80'. Genoa: Milutin Osmajić 70'. Here our call was fewer than four goals, confidence 7 out of 10: correct.
Frosinone 2-0 Como — Frosinone: Giacomo Calò 14', Giorgi Kvernadze 45+3'. Here our call was at least two goals, confidence 6 out of 10: correct.
Juventus 2-0 Atalanta — Juventus: Francisco Conceição 28', Gleison Bremer 77'. Here our call was fewer than five goals, confidence 7 out of 10: correct.
AC Milan 3-0 Lecce — AC Milan: Christian Pulisic 14', Adrien Rabiot 61', Diego Moreira 73'. Here our call was fewer than five goals, confidence 7 out of 10: correct.
Serie A table after matchday five
# | Team | Pts | P | W | D | L | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 13 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 14-3 | |
1 | 13 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 15-8 | |
1 | 13 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 8-3 | |
4 | 12 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 5-2 | |
5 | 11 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 10-4 | |
6 | 10 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 9-4 | |
6 | 10 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 8-4 | |
6 | 10 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 9-6 | |
9 | 7 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 7-6 | |
9 | 7 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 9-9 | |
11 | 6 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 5-7 | |
11 | 6 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 5-10 | |
13 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 8-11 | |
13 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5-8 | |
13 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 4-7 | |
13 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 8-12 | |
13 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 6-12 | |
18 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 3-6 | |
19 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 3-10 | |
20 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 4-13 |
Roma, Inter Milan and Lazio have the same number of points. The standings list them by goal difference, but none of the three is ahead of the others. With AC Milan, fifth on their own on 11, they are the four unbeaten sides left. Cagliari are fourth on their own with 12 points and the meanest defence, two goals conceded; Inter Milan have the best attack with 15. At the bottom Bologna are eighteenth with 2 points, Genoa have 1 and Venezia none, with the worst defence in the league: 13 goals conceded.
Roma 2-2 Inter Milan: Koné before the break, Lautaro after it
Both sides arrived on 12 points from 12 and both dropped their first points of the season. Manu Koné scored twice in the first half, set up by Molina and Gianluca Mancini; Lautaro Martínez pulled one back straight after the restart from a Thuram pass and equalised on 79 minutes. Koné came off on the hour: Gasperini said he had tired and still lacks ninety minutes in his legs. Inter Milan were without Calhanoglu, Stones and Spence.
Gasperini said the game should give his side satisfaction and belief. Chivu said Inter Milan's approach to the game had to be better, after going in two down at half-time, and called 13 points after the head-to-heads with Napoli and Roma a good return. Our Roma v Inter Milan preview billed it as a top-of-the-table clash. Nobody won, and three teams now share the top.
Juventus 2-0 Atalanta, and Sarri turns on VAR
Francisco Conceição, set up by Çelik, and Bremer, set up by Zhegrova, scored the goals. Around the half-hour, at 1-0, Kalulu held Rowe in the box and neither the referee nor VAR gave anything. Sarri said that if a foul is a foul it has to be given, and went further: if VAR does not step in on an incident like that, it might as well be scrapped. Atalanta have lost three league games in a row and have 6 points, the same as Lecce; Juventus, beaten 3-2 at Sassuolo in their previous league game, move up to 10 points, level with Frosinone and Como. The predicted line-ups were in our Juventus v Atalanta preview.
Spalletti dedicated the win to Kamil Grabara, who joined on loan from Wolfsburg in the summer and was hurt in training on the eve of the game. The club's medical update confirmed a tear of the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee and gave no recovery time. Grabara had made his debut on 17 September against NEC Nijmegen, with an assist, in a 5-0 Europa League win: our call was at least two goals, confidence 6 out of 10: correct.
Before kick-off, during the minute's silence for Mazzola, part of the Curva Sud turned their backs on the pitch and started chanting while the rest of the stadium applauded. The club distanced itself in a statement, saying no rivalry can justify a lack of respect during a minute's silence.
Lazio up to 13, Venezia still on zero
In Venice Mandas saved a Yeboah penalty on 17 minutes, then Zaccagni from the spot and Noslin with a header won it for Lazio. Thirteen points from five games is Lazio's best start in Serie A, counting three points for a win in the seasons before that rule existed. Gattuso admitted his side had been very lucky in the first half. Venezia have lost all five. Stroppa said that if he were the president he would not sack himself; general manager Antonelli and the owners are discussing his future, and as of Monday morning the club had announced no decision.
AC Milan two points off the top, Cagliari fourth
AC Milan beat Lecce through Pulisic, Rabiot and Diego Moreira, who scored four minutes after coming on: three goals in three appearances and 127 minutes. Rúben Amorim said his side had been rigid in recent games and this time everyone had more freedom. Fabio Pisacane's Cagliari won 1-0 at Udinese with Daniel Maldini's third league goal: four wins from five, the last three in a row, and the only defeat was 1-0 at home to Inter Milan. Udinese lost Keinan Davis on 37 minutes to a muscle problem.
The rest of the round
Massimiliano Alvini's Frosinone beat Como 2-0, with two assists from Schmid and seven saves from 2004-born goalkeeper Lorenzo Palmisani: Como's first league defeat under Cesc Fàbregas, and Frosinone have caught them on 10 points. Fiorentina and Napoli drew 1-1. Allegri said his side should be leaving the pitch angry and fears Anguissa may have suffered a fresh setback; Paolo Vanoli, back at Fiorentina since 7 September after Fabio Grosso was sacked, has 4 points from two games.
Raffaele Palladino, appointed on 16 September in place of Domenico Tedesco, started his Bologna reign with a 1-1 draw against Ignazio Abate's Torino, Kulenović's equaliser coming from a Skorupski error. Ivan Jurić's Monza won for the first time in the league thanks to two goals from Gustavo Varela, and so did Carlos Cuesta's Parma against Daniele De Rossi's Genoa, who have one point.
Top scorers
Roma's Donyell Malen still leads with six goals. Raimondo, Lautaro Martínez and Gustavo Varela have four; Kvernadze, Adžić, Diego Moreira, Frattesi, Mastantuono and Daniel Maldini three. Dybala leads the assists with four.
Our match calls: ten out of ten
We had a call on each of the ten games, published in our matchday five preview alongside the team news, and all ten were correct. The five from Friday and Saturday have already been recorded by the site; Sunday's five are not on the site's record yet, so we worked them out from the final scores. Seven were fewer than five goals, the cautious reading. Three asked for more. In Rome our call was the away side to score, confidence 7 out of 10: correct; at Frosinone our call was at least two goals, confidence 6 out of 10: correct; at Parma our call was fewer than four goals, confidence 7 out of 10: correct.
Player calls
We published 32 player calls. Of the 22 from Friday and Saturday, 18 are settled: 16 correct, 1 wrong and 1 cancelled. Four more are under review and not counted for now: Gianluca Mancini to be booked, Mancini and Ndicka to commit at least two fouls in Roma v Inter Milan, and Robinson to be fouled at least twice in Monza v Sassuolo. Sunday's 10 are still open and we will count them when they close: they cover Rabiot, Lassana Coulibaly, Bremer, Scalvini, Bracaglia, Mastantuono, Baldanzi, De Bruyne, Pongračić and Rafa Marín.
The miss is our call of the day: Monza's Jay Robinson to be fouled at least once, confidence 8 out of 10. He had drawn nine fouls in three games; against Sassuolo he was not fouled once in 82 minutes. The cancelled one is Torino's Comuzzo, an unused substitute, so that call drops out of the count.
How our season verdicts are going
On 23 August we published our nine verdicts on the 2026-27 Serie A season. They will be judged in May; this is how they look after five rounds.
Verdict | Our pick | After five rounds |
|---|---|---|
Title | 13 points, level with Roma and Lazio | |
Champions League places | Inter Milan and Roma on 13; Juventus on 10, two behind fourth-placed Cagliari; Napoli on 7 | |
Relegated | Going against us so far: Cagliari 12, Frosinone 10, Lecce 6 | |
MVP of the season | Francesco Pio Esposito | 2 goals and 1 assist in 5 appearances, 291 minutes |
Best Under 23 | Diego Moreira | 3 goals in 3 appearances: on track |
Surprise | Wrong so far: no points, bottom | |
Flop | 2 points, no wins, Tedesco sacked after four rounds | |
Top scorer | Donyell Malen | Top on his own with 6, but now carrying a fitness problem |
First manager sacked | Massimiliano Alvini | Wrong: Grosso went first, then Tedesco |
The only one already decided is wrong: Grosso was the first manager to go, sacked by Fiorentina on 6 September, then Tedesco at Bologna on the 16th, while Alvini is still in charge with Frosinone on 10 points. Venezia as the surprise and our three relegated sides are going against us too, with Cagliari fourth. Malen, Moreira and the Bologna flop are holding.
Who misses the break, and when the league returns
Roma lose three players for the break, all of whom went the full ninety against Inter Milan. Malen has pulled out of the Netherlands squad: the Dutch federation did not name the problem, and according to the Roma-focused press it is a minor strain that should not stop him facing Como. Wesley has been listed as injured by Brazil. Cristante cannot join Italy because of a physical problem, the Italian federation said, and Roberto Mancini has called up Como's Samuele Ricci instead. Como goalkeeper Jean Butez has also been called up by France for the first time.
Italy, who met up at Coverciano on the evening of Sunday 20 September, host Belgium at the Stadio Olimpico on Friday 25 September: our call is at least two goals, confidence 7 out of 10. On Monday 28 September they are in Bursa against Turkey: our call is at least two goals, confidence 6 out of 10.
Serie A returns on Saturday 10 October with Genoa v Fiorentina (15:00), Inter Milan v Parma (18:00) and Napoli v Frosinone (20:45). On Sunday 11 October it is Como v Roma (12:30), Lazio v Monza and Lecce v Bologna (15:00), Sassuolo v AC Milan (18:00) and Cagliari v Juventus (20:45); Atalanta v Venezia (18:30) and Torino v Udinese (20:45) close the round on Monday 12 October. All times are Italian, an hour ahead of the UK. Our calls for matchday six will come with the round preview.
Every game with our calls is on the Serie A page and on the Nations League page. The record of settled calls is in the results history, and our calls on individual players are in the player predictions section.
