𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Romelu Lukaku looked to the heavens and pointed. When his team-mates scattered, referee Andrea Colombo dashed over. He apologetically pulled a yellow card from his top pocket. After scoring the winner against Verona with the last kick of the game Lukaku had taken off his Napoli jersey. By the letter of the law, it was a punishable offence even if he was using it to wipe away floods of tears.

“We’ve missed him,” Napoli’s skipper Juan Jesus told DAZN after the final whistle. “Come in, Rom! Come closer.” Lukaku was hanging back during the post-match flash interviews, a big but distant presence. It was his first goal since Napoli won the league last season, his first since a tendon in his hip flexor snapped over the summer.

“It was a very serious injury,” his coach, Antonio Conte, acknowledged. “We know how much he has suffered, how much he’d like to help Napoli and me, in particular, given the relationship we have.”

Lukaku’s anguish

Ever since Lukaku made his comeback at the end of January, he hasn’t been able to play more than 20 minutes. The 32-year-old went close to scoring in brief cameos against Juventus and Chelsea, only for the wait for a goal to go on.

When he finally found the net on Saturday, sweeping home a cross from Giovane in the 95th minute, his reaction indicated it was much, much more than about marking a comeback.

BIG R⚽️M 🔙#VeronaNapoli pic.twitter.com/5edHW9eBfl

— Lega Serie A (@SerieA) March 1, 2026

“Football has given me a lot,” he told DAZN. “It has given me everything. But to lose my father the way I did…”

The grief then hit like a medicine ball. Lukaku composed himself. “That’s how it is. It’s hard.” Then it hit again. “I keep going for my kids, for my brother and for Napoli.”

There were some fabulous goals in Serie A this weekend but none were as moving as Lukaku’s in Verona. Injuries are isolating and demoralising at the best of times. Lukaku’s came at the worst possible time for him. He has tried to be there for the team, often appearing in the stands, the dug-out and on the sideline to support them through a crisis-hit season.

“This club has given me a lot,” Lukaku said. “I was dead before coming here.” Whatever debt he feels towards Napoli, Conte has tried to amnesty it in these circumstances.

“I will carry the experience of this season with me for the rest of my career,” Conte said. “It’s taught me a lot. I’ve had to manage situations that have never happened to me before. You need to give proper weight to the human side and find the right words.”

These, often unseen, considerations are rarely factored into the assessment of a season. They are scrolled past, forgotten about and impersonalised when football is inherently about the people who play it and what they are going through. We zoom out to where we are more comfortable, standing back to look at the big picture.

In the grand scheme of things, Napoli’s win at the Bentegodi, a ground where they lost last season, kept them third and ensured their aspirations of returning to the Champions League remain on track amid fierce competition. This, after all, was a weekend of late drama.

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Is there still a title race?

On Sunday lunchtime, Milan looked as if they might, once again, frustratingly drop points to a team battling relegation. Then, in the inimitable words of Max Allegri, full-back Davide Bartesaghi “went off (injured) at exactly the right time.” It was the last minute of the game at the Zini and Allegri had no option but to replace Bartesaghi with Pervis Estupinan.

“Give me lucky generals” is the quote often attributed to Napoleon. Curators of the Juventus Museum and the Casa Milan trophy room should, perhaps, commission one of those 19th-century paintings of Bonaparte, only this time depicting Allegri on a prancing horse with a bicorn hat and cape.

Estupinan’s first act was to play a one-two with Luka Modric, who curled a cross into the box. It was flicked on by Koni De Winter and nudged home by Strahinja Pavlovic. Cremonese then threw the kitchen sink at Milan, only for it to come straight back at them, as Rafa Leao made sure of the win with a breakaway clincher in stoppage time.

Pulisic’s struggles

Milan deserved the points after creating a season-high 3.56xG. They would perhaps have wrapped things up earlier if Christian Pulisic had been as clinical as he was in the first half of the season. Goalless this calendar year, he cut a dejected figure upon being substituted for Christopher Nkunku, who set up the team’s second.

Milan have the same points at this stage (57) as they did when they last won the Scudetto in 2022. Ordinarily, that would set up next weekend’s Derby della Madonnina nicely.

Except Inter were 13 points clear until Pavlovic’s goal in Cremona. Their 2-0 win against Genoa on Saturday was the Nerazzurri’s 14th in 15 league games. It is, statistically at least, one of Inter’s best seasons ever. Only twice have they had more points at the start of March.

And yet, as one reporter put it to Cristian Chivu at the weekend, the mood around Inter is what you might expect of a team on the brink of relegation rather than another league title.

“It’s a narrative that has got nothing to do with reality,” Chivu said. “It’s as if nothing has gone right for four years.”

Are we too harsh on Inter?

The reaction to Inter’s elimination from the Champions League at the hands of Bodo/Glimt in midweek was unsparing. In some respects, it felt reminiscent of Juventus’ earlier-than-expected exits after their two Champions League finals in 2015 and 2017. Allegri, who was in charge of Juventus at the time, recommended journalists see a therapist, such was the depression after Ajax and Villarreal knocked out his team.

Winning the league, by that stage, was no longer enough for Juventus and even though Inter have only won it twice in the last five years, they are judged as if they’d won it four times, having lost the Scudetto on the final day in 2022 and 2025.

Better than Totti?

Meanwhile, Federico Dimarco continues to push his MVP credentials. The wing-back’s volley against Genoa was his 20th goal involvement of the season in Serie A and brought back memories of Francesco Totti’s angled strike versus Sampdoria two decades ago.

Il sinistro al volo di Dimarco 🧊#InterGenoa pic.twitter.com/qAbzgwZNth

— Lega Serie A (@SerieA) March 1, 2026

“Dimarco scored a great goal,” Genoa coach and Totti’s former team-mate, Daniele De Rossi, said. “But let’s leave Totti’s goal where it is in the pantheon of great goals.”

Was it, in aesthetic terms, the finest strike of the weekend? Well, Michael Folorunsho’s heat-seeking opener for Cagliari against Parma certainly called to mind the time Andriy Shevchenko caught out Gigi Buffon in an old Juventus-Milan game.

Gol senza senso di Folorunsho 🤯#ParmaCagliari pic.twitter.com/FkMMMzfN1q

— Lega Serie A (@SerieA) February 28, 2026

“I gave Michael a kiss before he came on to welcome him back from injury,” Cagliari coach Fabio Pisacane said. “He gave us one back by producing something like that.” To those claiming it was a cross, Pisacane scoffed: “Goals like these are nothing new to him.”

More beauties followed in the biggest game of the weekend at the Stadio Olimpico on Sunday evening.

Roma’s missed chance

Gian Piero Gasperini has claimed Roma’s owners, The Friedkin Group, did not demand he qualify for the Champions League in his first season, no matter the obvious need for its revenue. A desire to make the top four instead came from within Gasperini himself.

Juventus’ visit to the capital presented what felt like a major opportunity.

The Bianconeri were without suspended skipper Manuel Locatelli. Fatigue must have accumulated too, after playing three of the last four games down to 10 men and the heroics of midweek when they took their Champions League play-off to extra time against Galatasaray, only to go out 7-5 on aggregate.

Roma, meanwhile, had skipped the Europa League play-off round after a top-eight finish and should have been the fresher team. Donyell Malen has also provided Roma with a cutting edge they lacked in the first half of the season. A win would have sent them seven points clear of Juventus and eight ahead of Gasperini’s old club, Atalanta, who lost their first league game of 2026 in surprising scenes at the Mapei Stadium in Reggio Emilia.

Atalanta, meanwhile, were expected to be exhausted after succeeding in their own Champions League play-off reversal against Borussia Dortmund. As such, the sending-off of Sassuolo striker Andrea Pinamonti only 15 minutes into their next game felt like a godsend. Or so it seemed.

Ismael Kone, the Canada international, soon gave Sassuolo a shock lead. Kristian Thorstvedt doubled it in the second half, finding the top corner from outside the box. It was the first time in a decade that Sassuolo have won in the top flight after going down to 10 men before half-time. A run of five wins in six has pushed the promoted side into eighth and only hardened the feeling they are well and truly back.

Thorstvedt la mette all’incrocio e fa 2-0 per i padroni di casa 🔮#SassuoloAtalanta pic.twitter.com/ercT8YIWMT

— Lega Serie A (@SerieA) March 1, 2026

“We’ve been looking to put the cherry on top and this was one big, fat cherry,” Sassuolo coach Fabio Grosso said.

Would Gasperini find one in Rome? Half an hour from the end, he seemed to turn a cherry between thumb and forefinger. Roma were 3-1 up. They also have the best defence in the league and must have backed themselves to see the game out. Malen’s sixth goal in seven games had sent the Olimpico euphoric. Roma appeared on their way to a first big win of the season, excluding the derby against Lazio. They had Champions League football for the first time in seven years in their sights.

Credit to Juve

But write off Juventus at your peril. A fortnight ago against Inter, they made it 2-2 with 10 men only to lose 3-2 in the final minute. They then had the chance to win 4-0 with 10 men against Galatasaray on Wednesday, only for Edon Zhegrova to shoot wide of the post.

True to their motto — Fino alla Fine — Juventus keep going right until the end. A game that had already been lit up by fantastic strikes from Wesley and Francisco Conceicao continued to catch fire, as Jeremie Boga pulled one back and Federico Gatti equalised in the 92nd minute.

“It keeps us alive,” Gatti said.

Juventus have reaped little of what they have sown in this gauntlet of games, conceding too many goals and suffering no small injustices. The calendar eases now and they are still in touch with fourth place. Unlike Roma, Como and Atalanta, they are also out of the cup competitions.

A point earned for Gatti and Juve was instead viewed as two points dropped by Roma, the cherry squashed. Apart from the derby against a struggling and shambolic Lazio, they have yet to win in the big games — although, let’s be fair, a 1-0 victory against Como, who they play again in a fortnight, should definitely be considered as such.

Como are making all the teams ahead of them, with the exception of Inter, nervous. A goal down to Lecce at the weekend, they were still 3-1 up by half-time without Nico Paz. Twenty points better off than at this stage a year ago, it’s the first leg of their first Coppa Italia semi-final in 40 years today. Their opponents, Inter, may be dominating Serie A but the competitiveness within the league is strong and the emotions continue to run deep.