Serie A winners and losers from Matchday 1: Cremonese notch a big win

And Canadian players make both sides of this feature.
Federico Bonazzoli went tail over teakettle to score the winner against AC Milan.
Federico Bonazzoli went tail over teakettle to score the winner against AC Milan. | Jonathan Moscrop/GettyImages

A new season opened this weekend in Serie A, and we know who started the campaign off right, and who got left in the starting gate. Read on for the details.

SERIE A WINNERS

Federico Bonazzoli

He was with Cremonese when they went up from Serie B to the top flight, and he gave them a memorable win to open the season at San Siro when he scissor-kicked Giuseppe Pezzella’s cross past Mike Maignan to earn the grigiorossi a famous win over AC Milan. They will return to a lot of smiles in Lombardy.

Jonathan David

The Canadian striker just joined Juventus from Lille, and he almost wound up in the losers’ section after missing a bucketful of chances in their opener against Parma. However, those matter less than the Kenan Yıldız cross that he turned into Parma’s net for Juve’s 2-0 win. With Canada hosting the World Cup next summer, he’ll want a good season in Serie A to prepare for that.

Wesley

Encouraging signs all over the place in Roma’s 1-0 win over Bologna, as the attack looked energized under new coach Gian Piero Gasperini, with Evan Ferguson (on loan from Brighton) creating a number of chances. Still, it was the Brazilian right-back who scored the winning goal after being newly acquired from Flamengo. He created scoring chances, too, for Manu Koné and Paulo Dybala that they might have converted on another day. 

Nico Paz

Last season’s Serie A young player of the year picked up where he left off in Como’s win over an off-the-pace Lazio, with his raking pass assisting on Anastasios Douvikas’ opening goal before his free kick found the top corner of Ivan Provedel’s goal that gave the biancoblú three points to start the season.

Kevin de Bruyne

His free-kick cross missed all his teammates but found the inside of the far post for Napoli’s second goal in the champions’ win over Sassuolo. Welcome to Italy, Kevin!

Giovane

The Brazilian’s arrival in Italy will be less heralded than the former Manchester City player’s, but he was Hellas Verona’s most dangerous player in their draw with Udinese, and he assisted on Suat Serdar’s equalizing goal for the visiting gialloblú. The Corinthians signing is paying dividends so far.

Sebastiano Luperto

Cagliari largely outplayed Fiorentina, but they were nevertheless behind thanks to Rolando Mandragora’s headed goal. However, Luperto managed to head home Gianluca Gaetano’s free kick in stoppage time to salvage a draw for the Sardinians at home. The big central defender doesn’t score much, so buona per lui.

Alberto Gilardino

Remember this guy? The striker for Fiorentina, Milan, and others who would play an imaginary viola whenever he scored (like he did when he scored for Italy against USA in World Cup 2006)? In his Serie A debut as the coach of Pisa, he managed to take points off Atalanta by snatching a 1-1 draw at the Gewiss Stadium, thanks in no small part to his Croatian goalkeeper Adrian Šemper. Survival is the goal for the newly promoted Tuscan club, and this is a good start.

SERIE A LOSERS

Maurizio Sarri

He returned to coach Lazio after taking 15 months away from the sport, but his team looked the opposite of recharged while getting overrun by Como. The faithful for the Roman club had better hope his team gets into gear soon, for the sake of their Champions League hopes.

Ismaël Koné

Acquired on loan from Marseille, the Canadian international got sent off during his first match for Sassuolo for two yellow-card fouls. With Canada hosting the World Cup next summer, he’ll want a good season in Serie … wait, I already wrote that.

Andrea Cambiaso

The Juventus defender drew a straight red card during a late shoving match. His hand started out in the chest of Parma defender Mathias Løvik and wound up in his face, and the Norwegian player made sure to go down like he’d been shot to provoke the action from referee Matteo Marcenaro. Stupid from the Italian international who’s been around long enough to know how this works. 

Torino’s defense

Inter Milan rang up five goals on them, some of which were manufactured by the Bulls themselves. Lithuanian left-back Gvidas Gineitis’ back pass to goalkeeper Franco Israel instead found Lautaro Martínez, who slide-tackled the ball into the net, and then a bad touch by French midfielder Adrian Tamèze while receiving Israel’s pass gave Ange-Yoan Bonny his first goal in a nerazzurri uniform. Torino might want to consider hoofing the ball up the pitch at every opportunity, given how bad things happen when they have it near their own net.