The weekend’s top-flight league action in both Italy and Spain was headlined by the incredible achievement of Sampdoria striker Fabio Quagliarella, who scored for an 11thsuccessive Serie A match.
The veteran, who will turn 36 at the end of this month, scored two penalties in Samp’s 4-0 home win over Udinese on Saturday. In the process he not only went to the top of the Serie A scoring charts (with 16 goals through the 2018/19 season), but also within touching distance of a milestone which has been untouched for a quarter of a century.
Argentine striker Gabriel Batistuta was the last man to score in 11 straight Serie A games, achieving the feat for Fiorentina in 1994. Yet if Quagliarella can net against Napoli next weekend, it would give him sole ownership of the record for the most successive scoring matches.
Elsewhere in Italy, Napoli’s slim hopes of chasing down leaders Juventus suffered a blow on Saturday night when they were held 0-0 at the San Siro by Milan, with the Neapolitans ending the match with 10 men following the late dismissal of Fabian Ruiz.
Juventus responded with a 2-1 win away to Lazio on Sunday night, with Cristiano Ronaldo netting the decisive goal from the penalty spot on 88 minutes. The victory took the Old Lady 11 points clear at the top of the log.
Aside from the Juve match, Sunday was also a goal-laden affair in Italy: Fiorentina won 4-3 at Chievo, Frosinone hammered Bologna 4-0, Atalanta and Roma played out a 3-3 draw in which the former came from three goals down, Parma lost 3-2 at home to SPAL and Internazionale succumbed 1-0 at Torino.
In Spain, Atletico Madrid upped the pressure on leaders Barcelona with a 2-0 home win over Getafe (who had Djene Dakonam and Leando Cabrera sent off) on Saturday, but the Catalans hit back the following afternoon with a 2-0 victory away to Girona at Estadi Municipal de Montilivi.
Right-back Nelson Samedo scored his first goal for Barca, while Lionel Messi also got on the score sheet as the Blaugrana restored their five-point lead at the summit of the log. Manager Ernesto Valverde was pleased with the result and says he is now determined to overturn a 2-0 deficit in their Copa del Rey tie against Sevilla in midweek.
“A win today was a very important step, but now our focus is on Wednesday,” explained Valverde. “We made changes (for the first leg) as did Girona (for their game against Real Madrid), and yes we do have three games in six days, but our interest now, is in the Copa.”
In England, the FA Cup Fourth Round took centre stage and featured a 3-1 win for Manchester United away to Arsenal in the highest-profile clash – an eighth straight win for caretaker manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
Other notable results saw Manchester City and Chelsea ease past Burnley and Sheffield Wednesday respectively, while Everton and West Ham United suffered shock defeats at Millwall and AFC Wimbledon respectively, and Tottenham Hotspur were beaten 2-0 at Crystal Palace to exit a second competition in the space of three days following their League Cup semifinal defeat last Thursday.
