Palermo stunned Inter 4-3 on the opening weekend of the new Serie A season as Juventus delivered new coach Antonio Conte a flying start in their new stadium with a 4-1 thrashing of Parma yesterday.
Inter twice had the lead through Diego Milito while Diego Forlan scored a late consolation but Fabrizio Miccoli scored twice and Abel Hernandez and Maurizio Pinilla gave interim Palermo boss Devis Mangia a dream start since stepping up from youth team duties.
All the talk before the game was about new Inter coach Gian Piero Gasperini’s back three and they were far from convincing.
Inter took the lead in fortuitous circumstances as Dejan Stankovic’s scuffed shot hit Milito and wrong-footed goalkeeper Alexandros Tzorvas on 33 minutes.
Despite the goal, Gasperini was far from happy with his side and immediately replaced Mauro Zarate, who was making his debut, with Wesley Sneijder, who had been surprisingly left out.
The start of the second half saw a glut of goals with three inside nine minutes.
First Miccoli equalised after latching onto a dinked ball over the top before finishing crisply.
But then Mattia Silvestre dragged Walter Samuel down in the box and Milito scored from the spot.
Then Hernandez finished off a slick passing move between Miccoli and Josip Ilicic to restore parity again.
In a crazy finish, Miccoli curled home a stunning free-kick four minutes from time and then substitute Pinilla scored an even better screamer from distance a minute later.
In injury time Forlan, on his debut, collected Sneijder’s chip and volleyed home.
In Turin, Stephan Lichtsteiner and Arturo Vidal, making their debut, alongside Simone Pepe and Claudio Marchisio scored the goals to hand the Old Lady of Turin an ideal start.
Former Juve forward Sebastian Giovinco scored an injury-time consolation from the spot after Paolo De Ceglie had been sent off for bringing him down in the box.
Having spent heavily in the summer on a number of recruits, Juve handed debuts to five players during the course of the game.
Despite the convincing victory, Conte was not an entirely satisfied man.
“In the first half there was a valid goal ruled out and we were denied a stonewall penalty,” complained Conte, who enjoyed a highly successful playing career with Juventus.
“Otherwise it was a good debut. Having said that I don’t want to mislead anyone, we weren’t perfect and there’s still a lot of work to do.”
Luis Enrique had a disastrous league debut on the Roma bench as his team lost 2-1 at home to Cagliari and finished with 10 men.
Jose Angel was sent off on his league debut for a petulant kick on Davide Biondini.
That came just after Daniele Conti had given the Sardinians the lead and in injury time Moestafa El Kabir, on his debut, scored the decisive second on the counter-attack.
Daniele De Rossi scored Roma’s consolation with the last kick of the match.
Serie A
Catania 0
Siena 0
Att: 13,258.
Chievo 2
Pellissier 5; Thereau 24;
Novara 2
Marianini 27; Paci 86;
HT: 2-1. Att: 8,000.
Red card: Sardo (C) 72.
Fiorentina 2
Gilardino 20; Cerci 47;
Bologna 0
HT: 1-0. Att: 20,040.
Genoa 2
Veloso 6; Mesto 54;
Atalanta 2
Moralez 8, 43;
HT: 1-2. Att: 20,000.
Red card: Birsa (G) 90.
Juventus 4
Lichtsteiner 16; Pepe 58; Vidal 73; Marchisio 83;
Parma 1
Giovinco 90 pen;
HT: 1-0. Att: 41,000.
Red card: De Ceglie (J) 90.
Lecce 0
Udinese 2
Basta 2; Di Natale 16;
HT: 0-2. Att: 8,578.
Palermo 4
Miccoli 48, 86; Hernandez 54; Pinilla 88;
Inter 3
Milito 33, 51 pen; Forlan 90;
HT: 0-1. Att: 36,000.
Roma 1
De Rossi 90+7;
Cagliari 2
Conti 68; El Kabir 90+4;
HT: 0-0. Att: 40,000.
Red card: Jose Angel (R) 69.
Played on Friday
Milan 2
Ibrahimovic 29; Cassano 33;
Lazio 2
Klose 12; Cisse 21;
Played on Saturday
Cesena 1
Guana 24;
Napoli 3
Lavezzi 3; Campagnaro 66; Hamsik 87;
Red card: Benalouane (C) 55.
Next fixtures
Saturday: 18.00 Cagliari vs Novara. 20.45 Inter vs Roma.
Sunday: 12.30 Atalanta vs Palermo. 15.00 Bologna vs Lecce; Catania vs Cesena; Lazio vs Genoa; Parma vs Chievo; Siena vs Juventus; Udinese vs Fiorentina. 20.45 Napoli vs Milan.
Prima Divisione ‘A’
Benevento vs Lumezzane 3-0; Foligno vs Como 1-2; Pisa vs Avellino 3-0; Pro Vercelli vs Foggia 0-0; Reggiana vs Monza 1-2; Sorrento vs Pavia 2-2; Taranto vs Spal 1-0; Viareggio vs Carpi 3-2. Playing today – Tritium vs Ternana.
Prima Divisione ‘B’
Carrarese vs Latina 2-0; Feralpi Salò vs Alto Adige 0-0; Frosinone vs Spezia 3-2; Lanciano vs Triestina 3-2; Pergocrema vs Bassano 2-0; Piacenza vs Trapani 0-1; Prato vs Barletta 1-2; Siracusa vs Portogruaro 1-0. Playing today – Andria vs Cremonese.