Serie A 2017-18 season review and awards: Italian game the real winner

Serie A offered up the tightest title race of any of Europe’s top domestic leagues in 2017-18. Here’s a look back at the season.

What a season! With the title race, Champions League spots and relegation all up for grabs entering the final month of the campaign, Serie A was by far the most competitive of any of Europe’s top five leagues.

While it wasn’t necessarily a sign that Italy’s top flight is ready to retake its mantle as “the word’s best league,” as it was called in the late 1980s and early ’90s, Serie A had an excellent year. Roma’s semifinal Champions League run was yet another sign that the best is yet to come for the Italian game.

Overall, the season was highlighted by the intense, back-and-forth nature of the scudetto race between Juventus and Napoli. In the end, Juve prevailed thanks to a talented roster and the ability to get results when it mattered most. Right beneath those two was a battle for a top four finish and a spot in next season’s Champions League. The two Roman clubs, Roma and Lazio, played evenly for most of the season, while Inter Milan showed flashes of a team on the rise.

The middle of the table was highlighted by AC Milan’s awful season, a poor start that saw manager Vincenzo Montella fired and replaced with former Rossoneri midfielder Gennaro Gattuso. While scandals on and off the field didn’t help the team, Gattuso was able to right the ship, although they fell short in the end of a Champions League spot.

Here’s a look at the good, bad and ugly of what transpired in Serie A this past season.

Best team: Juventus 

Juventus won the double, their seventh straight league title and the Coppa Italia, cementing their dominance atop Serie A.

It seemed this would be the year someone would knock Juve off their perch, but it wasn’t to be. Juve were too strong and had gotten even stronger over the summer with the additions of Blaise Matuidi, Douglas Costa, Federico Bernardeschi and Wojciech Szczesny. The jury is still out on whether playmaker Paulo Dybala is the heir to Lionel Messi. Some Juve fans would like to think the Argentine is, but this season proved he still has a long way to go before even approaching the level of his compatriot.

Under manager Massimiliano Allegri, Juve have proved to be clutch when it matters most. Despite the use of VAR, critics claimed Juve got the right calls as they always doe. This doesn’t take away from the fact that the Bianconeri are well-oiled machine that won’t give up their supremacy anytime soon. American fans will see that up close this summer when Juve take part in the International Champions Cup and play against MLS in the All-Star Game.

Best manager: Maurizio Sarri (Napoli)

Juve may be the powerhouse, but there’s no doubt Napoli played some of the greatest, most-entertaining soccer in Europe this season. While they have nothing to show for it in the form of trophies, you can argue this is a team that has already won. One of the negatives includes Maurizio Sarri’s focus on trying to win the league and abandoning any hope in the Champions League (and later in the Europa League) as well as the Coppa Italia.

Napoli have won because they were able to do so much with little. They did virtually nothing in last summer’s transfer window other than to make sure players like wingers Lorenzo Insigne and Dries Mertens, midfielder Marek Hamsik and goalkeeper Pepe Reina stayed in place. With that strong commitment and team bond, Sarri was able to mold a team bent on winning. It just fell apart at the end. Part of the reason may be Sarri’s ability to burn out his players early on in the season under the weight of so many games.

Sarri could be back for another season — or maybe the rumors are true and he will end up at Chelsea. It remains to be seen. Sarri mostly made headlines all season for his coaching, but the back-and-forth barbs that came to the surface this month between the manager and the club’s ownership are sure to heat up even more over the summer.

Next: How do Italy rebuild after failing to reach 2018 World Cup?

Best player: Ciro Immobile (Lazio) 

In a league that featured a number of impressive strikers (not to mention goalkeepers and defenders), the best player this season was Ciro Immobile. While Dybala and Mertens started strong, then grew cold as the season progressed, the Lazio striker was consistent.

Immobile is quick and his ability to run into space and score left defenders dazed. Effective both in the air and on the ground, Immobile did a lot of the work. He chased down balls, tracked back and pressed defenders into giving up the ball.

The 28-year-old former Borussia Dortmund and Sevilla player proved once again his best seasons are when he plays in Serie A. His 53 goals in 68 league matches while at Lazio since 2016 are proof of that. Give him a stronger supporting cast and Lazio could very well become a title contender. Honorable mentions in this category goes to Inter Milan’s Mauro Icardi, Napoli’s Lorenzo Insigne and Roma’s Edin Dzeko.

Biggest goal: Gonzalo Higuain (Juventus)

All seemed up in the air for Juventus on April 22, when they lost 1-0 at home to Napoli. It all changed just a week later when Higuain’s goal gave Juve a 3-2, come-from-behind victory against Derby d’Italia rival Inter Milan.

Higuain’s goal in the dying minutes of that match turned things around for them and ultimately helped decide the title. Higuain, often criticized for not being able to come through when it matters most in big games, dispelled his critics.

That victory put Juventus four points ahead of Napoli and the team never looked back. As a result, the Partenopei faltered in their subsequent two games, a 3-0 loss against Fiorentina and 2-2 versus Torino, to help Juventus win it all again.

Best Roman club: Roma

The battle between Roma or Lazio is always a topic of conversation in the Italian capital. The sides met twice this season. Roma won 2-1 last November and the teams played to a scoreless draw last month.

That’s not the only reason Roma were the better team this season. Lazio’s 3-2 win over Juventus last August to win the Italian SuperCup aside, Roma had the better season, both in Serie A and in Europe. While Lazio are bound to improve, Roma are the better all-around side.

Their comeback in the quarterfinals of the Champions League to knock out Barcelona remains a bright spot for a team that didn’t overachieve this season so much as they finally started getting results after several years of investment. It also helps to have a manager in Eusebio Di Francesco who knows what it takes to win and spent his best years playing for the Giallorossi. He loves this club and it shows. This could very well be the season that will jumpstart a new era of winning at Roma.

Next: The best player on every team at the World Cup

Biggest underachiever: AC Milan 

Everyone was expecting big things out of AC Milan this season. It never happened.

After bringing in 10 new players, the expectations were that manager Vincenzo Montella could guide this team to a top four finish. Instead, the lineup never gelled. They lost too many games early on in the season before Montella was sacked.

In his place, the board hired former Rossoneri midfielder Gennaro Gattuso. Known for his toughness and no-nonsense approach as a player, it didn’t always translate well when it came to his coaching. He did, ultimately, improve things and helped the team qualify for next season’s Europa League. The 4-0 defeat to Juventus in the Coppa Italia final exposed the large gap that still exists between the league champions and the Rossoneri. It remains to be seen where this team can go and whether they can ever recapture those glory days of the early 1990s or mid-2000s.

Most-emotional moment: Davide Astori’s death

The sudden death of Fiorentina captain Davide Astori on March 4 at the age of 31 came as a shock to his teammates and fans. As a result, games that had been scheduled for that day were postponed and the entire city of Florence embraced the team and players.

An autopsy later revealed the cause of death was cardiac arrest. One of Italy’s best players was gone too soon. Astori had been capped 14 times for Italy since making his senior national team debut in 2011.

The team honored Astori’s memory through tributes and remembrances that lasted for weeks. His legacy lived on in the form of a seven-match unbeaten streak that helped Fiorentina reach the top half of the table. It will be a season the players and Viola fans won’t ever forget.