Juventus and Milan returned to winning ways in the fifth round of the Italian football league, with the former beating visitors Atalanta 2-0 and the latter defeating visiting Lecce 3-0. Fiorentina, meanwhile, continued their improvement under new manager Paolo Vanoli by drawing 1-1 with Napoli.
Juventus settle contest with a brace against Atalanta
Sunday’s matches also saw Como suffer their first defeat of the season against Frosinone, while Parma secured their first win against Genoa. Juventus entered the match after drawing 1-1 at home with Milan and then suffering a late 3-2 defeat by Sassuolo in the previous round.
However, Luciano Spalletti’s side confirmed the level they had shown in midweek, when they thrashed Dutch side Nijmegen 5-0 in the Europa League, and secured their third league win of the season. Juventus exerted almost complete control over the match and created numerous chances in front of goalkeeper Marco Carnesecchi, but their superiority produced only one goal in each half.
Portugal’s Francisco Conceição opened the scoring in the 28th minute, benefiting from a pass by Turkey’s Zeki Çelik. Brazilian defender Bremer added the second in the 77th minute with a header from a corner taken by Kosovo’s Edon Zhegrova, who had come on as a substitute for Conceição.
Milan beat Lecce 3-0
The Lombardy side emerged from their match against Lecce with a 3-0 win, their third in the league this season. American Christian Pulisic put Milan ahead in the 14th minute, controlling a long pass from Serbia’s Strahinja Pavlović before shooting into the net.
It was Pulisic’s first goal in the Italian league for 266 days, specifically since he scored against Verona on 28 December 2025. France’s Adrien Rabiot extended Milan’s lead in the 61st minute after exchanging passes with new arrival and Portugal international Gonçalo Ramos.
Another new arrival, Belgium’s Diego Moreira, added the third in the 73rd minute, just minutes after coming on. He won the ball outside the penalty area, carried it forward, dribbled past a defender and shot into the net. The win took Milan to 11 points in fifth place and ended a run of two successive domestic draws before the European defeat by Benfica.
Napoli held to a draw by Fiorentina
In Florence, Fiorentina extended their unbeaten run to three matches after drawing 1-1 with visiting Napoli. Napoli took the lead in the 23rd minute through Scotland’s Billy Gilmour, before Spain’s Álex Jiménez equalised for the hosts in the 51st minute.
The draw continued Fiorentina’s revival under Paolo Vanoli, who began his new managerial stint with a 4-2 win over Venezia in the previous round, before leading the team to a 3-0 victory over Pisa in the second round of the Italian Cup, five days before facing Napoli.
Vanoli had led the Florence club to safety during the second half of last season before being dismissed, then returned as head coach after Fabio Grosso was sacked following the team’s defeat in each of their first three matches of the new season. Fiorentina’s improvement was evident in their wins over Venezia and Pisa, before they fought to earn a point against Napoli.
Frosinone end Como’s winning run
The draw took Napoli to 7 points in ninth place, while Fiorentina moved to 4 points in 16th. In another match, Frosinone, back in the top flight this season, inflicted a first defeat on Como, who finished fourth last season, beating them 2-0.
Giacomo Calò scored the opener in the 14th minute, while Georgia’s Giorgi Kvernadze added the second in the third minute of first-half stoppage time. Frosinone moved to 10 points, level with Como, and went ahead of them on goal difference to take sixth place.
Como manager Cesc Fàbregas admitted he had been aware of the threat posed by Frosinone, but said his players might not have fully understood the difficulty of the task. He felt the hosts’ goalkeeper Lorenzo Palmisani’s outstanding performance prevented Como from getting a different result. Fàbregas said he had explained Frosinone’s character to his players before the match, adding that he might not have done enough to ensure the message reached them.
He said a 4-1 win for Como would not have been a surprise given the number of saves made by Palmisani, explaining that his team had not controlled the match as they should have, despite creating 4 scoring chances. Como’s manager added that defeat generates a feeling of anger before the analysis begins, insisting that Frosinone had played the match in the way they wanted, while his players had not performed at the required level.
He admitted that their opponents had managed to hurt his team, stressing Como’s need to improve. In another match, Swedish substitute Pontus Almqvist scored a late goal in the 80th minute to lead Parma to their first win of the season, a 2-1 victory over visiting Genoa. Genoa’s record after the result stood at four defeats and one draw.
