Italian Serie A gets underway with a glamorous Matchday 1

Roma's Edin Džeko scores against Torino.

       Italy's highest football league, the Serie A, has now started and the drama and action point to a promising season. With breath-taking moments and nail-biting finishes, the 2018/19 edition will surely be a banger.

  

       The first Matchday started with Chievo hosting Juventus, who have recently signed Cristiano Ronaldo from Real Madrid. Sami Khedira quickly opened for Juventus at 3', while Mariusz Stępiński equalised him at 38'. Emanuele Giaccherini added another for the hosts with a penalty at 56', but an own goal by Mattia Bani at 75' leveled the score again. Federico Bernardeschi won the game for Juve as he netted one 3 minutes into stoppage time, while Ronaldo failed to score on his Serie A debut.

       Lazio then faced Napoli in the second match, and Ciro Immobile opened for the hosts at 25'. But goals from Napoli's Arkadiusz Milik and Lorenzo Insigne at 45+2' and 59' respectively meant that the match ended 2-1 in favour of the latter.

       Roma dominated Torino as 6 shots were taken by them on goal, with only Edin Džeko finding the back of the net at 89'. No other goals were made, and Roma took a simple 1-0 win over the Turinese club.

       Parma drew with Udinese 2-2, with Roberto Inglese and Antonio Barilla scoring for the hosts at 43' and 59' respectively, while for the visitors, Rodrigo de Paul bagged a penalty at 65' and Seko Fofana netted one at 69'. 

       Empoli defeated Cagliari in front of a home crowd, as they scored two goals from Rade Krunić at 14' and Francesco Caputo at 51'. No goals from Cagliari concluded the match as 2-0 for the hosts.

       Inter Milan were hoping for a good start to the season, having been in good form lately, but they were denied an opening win as they lost 0-1 to Sassuolo. The sole goal came from a penalty by Domenico Berardi at 27', while Inter suffered defeat, having failed to produce a goal-scorer in the match.

       Being absent from the Serie A for almost half a decade, SPAL kicked off their first Serie A season in 49 years with a win as they triumphed 1-0 over 10-man Bologna. Jasmin Kurtić was the goalscorer at 71', while Ádám Nagy received a red card for his rash challenge at 89'.

       Atalanta eased past Frosinone, bagging 4 goals for themselves. Alejandro Darío Gómez opened at 14', Hans Hateboer added a second at 48' while Mario Pašalić made it 3 at 61'. Gómez struck once again and the match ended 4-0 for the hosts.