Juventus crashed to a humiliating 2-0 defeat at Cagliari on Wednesday, days after sealing their ninth consecutive Serie A title, prompting coach Maurizio Sarri to consider fielding his Under-23 team in Saturday's finale to conserve resources ahead of their Champions League challenge.

Cagliari's 20-year-old forward Luca Gagliano tapped in the opener eight minutes into his first Serie A match, beating veteran Juventus keeper Gianluigi Buffon to score his first top division goal.

And the young Italian then teed up Giovanni Simeone in first half stoppage time to give Cagliari their first win over Juventus in 11 years.

"The 40 goals conceded (this season) may be a concern, but tonight's game is not," said Sarri. 

"We had nine injured and we came from a championship won 68 hours ago, so it was an atypical game that should be taken for what it is. 

"We are the only ones in Europe who have played five games in 12 days, the League has created big problems for us. 

"Let's see how we are tomorrow and if it is appropriate to line up the Under-23 team on Saturday against Roma to recover better."

Cristiano Ronaldo missed the chance to keep pace with Serie A's leading scorer Ciro Immobile, the Portuguese now four goals behind the Lazio forward's tally of 35 with one match remaining.

The five-time Ballon d'Or winner had a goal ruled offside after 16 minutes and was denied twice by Cagliari goalkeeper Alessio Cragno as the 13th-placed Sardinians ended their eight-match winless run.

It was a worrying performance for Sarri's side, who have won just two of their last seven games, with key forwards Paulo Dybala and Douglas Costa fighting for fitness ahead of the Champions League showdown with Lyon on August 7 in Turin, when they need to overturn a 1-0 first-leg deficit.

Immobile on target

In Rome, Immobile moved to within one goal of equalling the Serie A single season scoring record as Lazio beat relegated Brescia 2-0 to stay in the race for second place.

Immobile struck eight minutes from time to close in on Gonzalo Higuain's record of 36 goals, scored for Napoli in 2015-16.

Lazio are fourth, equal on 78 points with third-placed Atalanta, who beat Parma 2-1 on Tuesday, and one adrift of Inter Milan who are second following their 2-0 win over Napoli.

Inter and Atalanta will go head-to-head this weekend with Lazio's last game at seventh-placed Napoli.

• Read | Immobile closes in on Serie A record as Lazio target second spot

Immobile helped Joaquin Correa open the scoring after 16 minutes at the Stadio Olimpico, with Correa returning the favour late on.

Behind the top four, who are assured of Champions League football next season, Roma sealed their Europa League group stage berth with a 3-2 win at Torino.

Napoli have already secured their place as a result of their Italian Cup win while AC Milan, who will finish sixth, must go through the Europa League qualifying rounds despite beating Sampdoria 4-1.

Zlatan AKA 'Benjamin Button'

Stefano Pioli's side remain four points behind Roma after Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored twice and set up a third in a dominating display against Samp.

The 38-year-old got his head to an Ante Rebic cross within four minutes in Genoa for his fastest goal in the Italian top flight, before nodding the ball across for Hakan Calhanoglu to add the second six minutes after the break. 

Turkish winger Calhanoglu provided the cross which allowed Ibrahimovic to add his second of the night. 

Leao added a fourth in injury time as Milan extended their unbeaten run to 11 games.

Ibrahimovic has scored nine league goals since rejoining Milan in January.

The veteran brings his club tally to 51 goals for the club, combined with his previous stint between 2010 and 2012.

He also becomes the first player to have scored 50 goals for both Milan clubs, with 57 netted during his time at city rivals Inter from 2006 to 2009.

"Like Benjamin Button, I've always been young, never old," said Ibrahimovic of the film of a man who ages in reverse.

"They tell me I'm old and tired but I'm just warming up."

Lecce's bid for survival will go down to the final day after they came from behind to beat Udinese 2-1. 

The southern club occupy the final relegation position but are now just one point behind 17th-placed Genoa, who were hammered 5-0 at Sassuolo.

Both Lecce and Genoa will face Parma and Hellas Verona respectively at the weekend hoping to avoid joining Brescia and SPAL in Serie B.

Maurizio Sarri has defied his sceptics by winning the first league title of his 30-year coaching career as Juventus extended their record run of Serie A title wins to nine in a row.

A 2-0 win at home against Sampdoria on Sunday sealed a 36th Scudetto for the Italian giants with two games to spare.

Although Sarri's first season in Turin will be judged on the Champions League -- Juventus trail Lyon 1-0 in a still-to-completed last-16 tie -- it was an emotional achievement for the 61-year-old who led Chelsea to the Europa League trophy last season.

When Sarri swapped London for northern Italy to replace Massimiliano Allegri in June 2019, he declared: "I arrive with scepticism." 

He added: "I know only one way to change -- that is to win and convince while entertaining and getting results."

But "Sarrism" or "Sarriball", that fast-paced, eye-catching style of football with which he made his name at Napoli, and which Juventus bosses craved in Turin, was only seen in flashes this season.

Vincere è difficile. Rivincere è difficilissimo.
Farlo da tremila giorni e per nove anni di fila è semplicemente immenso. #STRON9ER pic.twitter.com/60ALsNrOGq

�?Gianluigi Buffon (@gianluigibuffon) July 26, 2020

Juventus were rarely brilliant and often disappointing, losing in two finals, the Italian Cup and the Italian Super Cup.

Although Sarri gave the team orders, he adapted to Juve and five-time Ballon d'Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo, who has scored 31 goals as he targets the title of Serie A top scorer.

"I have to adapt to the characteristics of the players, you can't ask for 25 purchases. Otherwise I might as well just train myself," said Sarri.

"There is no doubt that it was Juve who changed Sarri and not the other way around," said former Juventus and England coach Fabio Capello.

"Juve is not an easy car to drive, there are players with great personalities and you have to prove that you have one too.

"He would have wanted players suited to his football and he did not find them."

'Strange season'

Juventus were just one point ahead of second-placed Lazio when football resumed on June 20 after the three-month lockdown. But despite just two wins in their last six games, Sarri's side have reaped the benefits of their rivals' shortfalls.

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Ecco fatto! Campioni d’Italia Felicissimo per il secondo scudetto consecutivo e per continuare a costruire la storia di questo grande e splendido club. Questo titolo è dedicato a tutti i tifosi della Juve, in particolare a coloro che hanno sofferto e soffrono per la pandemia che ci ha colti tutti di sorpresa rovesciando il mondo. Non è stato facile! Il vostro coraggio, la vostra attitudine e la vostra determinazione sono state la forza di cui avevamo bisogno per affrontare questa stretta finale del campionato e lottare fino alla fine per questo titolo che appartiene a tutta l’Italia. Un grande abbraccio a voi tutti! #stron9er #finoallafine

A post shared by Cristiano Ronaldo (@cristiano) on Jul 26, 2020 at 3:18pm PDT

The chain-smoking coach conceded it had been a "strange season", starting with the first weeks of the campaign which he missed due to a bout of pneumonia.

Captain Giorgio Chiellini was mostly absent with cruciate ligament damage, and there were long months of uncertainty as the virus ravaged Italy.

"During the lockdown you could not rest hearing the sound of the sirens," said Sarri.

But despite the exceptional season it was once again Juventus who prevailed to give the 'Old Lady' as many titles as their nearest rivals Inter Milan and AC Milan combined.

It has been a long road to the Scudetto for Sarri whose first coaching job was at Stia, a team in the Italian eighth division back in 1990.

His family were labourers -- his father was a construction worker -- but he became an international banker.

For many years he mixed working for Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, which involved him being based in several different countries, with working for lower-league and non-league clubs.

"I stopped doing another job because I was bored," said Sarri.

"I have achieved more than was my initial intention, which was to live something that I was passionate about."

- Champions League dream -

"I get annoyed when they say, 'In Italy, he has won nothing'," said the coach from Napoli.

"I earned eight promotions from one division to another, and I achieved them all on the pitch.

"Maybe that's small compared to the Champions League and the Scudetto, but it's not easy."

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5 anni 5 scudetti! Grazie a tutti!

A post shared by Paulo Dybala (@paulodybala) on Jul 26, 2020 at 3:04pm PDT

During three seasons with Napoli he turned them into title contenders but they finished second twice and third once behind Juventus, before he left for England in 2018.

Chelsea was the only time Sarri has coached outside of Italy but although he won the 2019 Europa League he failed to win over the club's fans during his single season in charge.

And even now, despite finally bagging his first title in Italy, his season at Juventus will be judged next month, when his side must come from behind to beat Lyon to reach the Final Eight of the Champions League in Lisbon. If they make it to Portugal, they have the unenviable task of facing either Manchester City or Real Madrid in the quarter-finals.

"After an extremely strange championship I expect that the final phase of the Champions League will also be extremely strange too," predicted Sarri.

Juventus fans will expect nothing less than a third European crown, having finished runners-up no fewer than five times since last winning in 1996.

Feature image courtesy: AFP / Marco Bertorello

Serie A made its comeback this weekend following a break brought about by the pandemic crisis that hit Italy especially hard, with Atalanta back thrilling fans and Romelu Lukaku continuing his brilliant debut season for Inter Milan.

We look at five of the key moments from the first round of matches after three months away:

Lukaku continues where he left off

The Belgian's impressive debut season with Inter Milan continued on Sunday against relegation strugglers Sampdoria, with his first-half strike taking his league tally to 18 goals this term.

Lukaku has already bettered former Brazilian star Ronaldo's debut season total of 16 and has scored 24 times in all competitions for Inter since joining from Manchester United.

Inter sit six points adrift of league leaders Juve with 12 matches remaining and will need Lukaku to maintain his form if they are to claim a first Serie A title since winning the treble under Jose Mourinho in 2010.

"It was very important to win today, as from now to the end of the season it's 12 finals, they are all life or death," Lukaku told Sky Sport Italia.

Eriksen thrives again

Inter were not at their best against Sampdoria, but coach Antonio Conte would have been content with a 2-1 win that keeps their title hopes alive and by the performance of Christian Eriksen.

The January signing from Tottenham Hotspur, who scored directly from a corner in the Italian Cup semi-final loss to Napoli, was handed a more central role behind forwards Lukaku and Lautaro Martinez.

The Dane, who made 62 assists during his seven years in the Premier League, laid on Lukaku's opening goal in another influential display.

Atalanta burst into life after virus 'warfare'

Atalanta continued their remarkable campaign exactly where they left off with Sunday's 4-1 win over Sassuolo, bringing some joy to a city that was at one point the global epicentre of the global pandemic.

"This is not just any restart. It's for a region that has suffered three months of living in warfare. Nobody can forget the sounds of the ambulances streaking down the street," said director Umberto Marino pre-match.

The minute's silence before the match was accompanied by a video honouring the near 35,000 people who died and a song called "Rinascero, Rinascerai" (I will be born again, you will be born again).

Then the goals rained down, three in the first 37 minutes with two more chalked off and goalscorer Duvan Zapata also hitting the bar. With 74 goals in 26 league matches, Atalanta are well on course to net over 100 times this season.

They will be one of the eight clubs to take part in the last eight Champions League tournament set to be held in Lisbon in August, and Sunday's spectacular win showed why they are favourites to rejoin Europe's elite next season.

Black Lives Matter protests

While matches in the Bundesliga and Premier League have begun with teams taking a knee in honour of the global Black Lives Matter, the approach has been more ad hoc in Italy.

Neither match on Saturday began with players taking the knee as a minute's silence is held for those killed by the disease, although Cameroonian Nicolas NKoulou did after giving Torino the lead in their 1-1 draw over Parma.

However, Torino drew heavy criticism on social media for publishing a tweet with the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag with an image of NKoulou kneeling before Italy striker Andrea Belotti, who is white.

Lukaku also took a knee after his goal on Sunday.

Deflating start

Just five seconds had passed of Serie A's comeback fixture when the referee at Turin's Stadio Olimpico Massimiliano Irrati had to call the players back to retake kick off -- thanks to a deflated ball.

It was an inauspicious restart to the top division after what had been a successful return of football over the previous week, with Napoli winning the Italian Cup after entertaining last four and final fixtures in front of large terrestrial TV audiences.

Feature image courtesy: AFP / Filippo Monteforte

Four Sampdoria players who had contracted the recent disease have recovered from the disease, the Serie A club announced on Thursday.

In a short statement, Sampdoria said that the players had undergone "two tests in quick succession" and are "currently negative" just a week after announcing that the four had the virus.

Samp, Fiorentina and Torino had between them announced eight cases of the virus among players, which has killed over 31,000 people in Italy and left the season suspended since mid-March.

On Saturday, AC Milan announced that they had found no cases among first-team players or staff, a day after president Paolo Scaroni told local media that some of the club's players were recovering from the virus.

Serie A wants to restart the suspended season on June 13, over three months since it was halted, if they get the all-clear from the Italian government.

Earlier on Thursday, the president of the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) Giovanni Malago said he was "99 percent" sure that the league would restart on that date.

Clubs have been given permission to restart team training sessions from Monday after players were allowed to enter club facilities for individual sessions earlier in the month.

The most delicate issue surrounding a possible restart to the 2019-20 campaign is the quarantine period after an eventual positive test, with government scientists seeking a two-week isolation period for those who have been in contact with the infected person.

Feature image courtesy: AFP / Marco Bertorello

Four Sampdoria players, including one who had previously recovered, and three from Fiorentina have tested positive for the recent disease, the two Serie A clubs announced on Thursday.

"During the tests to which the footballers were subjected, three new cases emerged, with one player testing positive again," Sampdoria said in a statement.

Top clubs in Italy are testing team members and staff as they prepare to return to training facilities this week for individual sessions.

Earlier Fiorentina had revealed that three players and three of the club's staff had tested positive, taking this week's tally among Italy's top-flight clubs to eight after Torino announced on Wednesday that one player had the virus.

Five Samp players -- Omar Colley, Albin Ekdal, Morten Thorsby, Antonio La Gumina and Manolo Gabbiadini -- had previously suffered from COVID-19, along with the club doctor.

#COVID19: comunicazione U.C. #Sampdoria del 7 maggio 2020 ➡️ //t.co/oUvawd1tDb pic.twitter.com/MQnsHtlBkF

�?U.C. Sampdoria (@sampdoria) May 7, 2020

Three Fiorentina players -- Patrick Cutrone, German Pezzella and Dusan Vlahovic -- also tested positive in March, but have since been given the all-clear.

Fiorentina said that the rest of the team will undergo tests on Friday in preparation for the start of training, which will be on a voluntary basis.

On Thursday, the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) met the government's technical-scientific committee to discuss the medical protocol for a potential return to group training.

Sports Minister Vincenzo Spadafora said after the meeting he was "hopeful" team training could resume of May 18.

"There has been a very important, very in-depth meeting, with many requests from doctors and scientists to the FIGC," Spadafora said on Facebook.

"Now the committee, on the basis of these insights, will draw up its own assessment which will be sent to the Ministry of Health."

Feature image courtesy: AFP / Marco Bertorello

The 2019/20 Serie A season has been an action-packed one, filled with big wins, nail-biting finishes and huge upsets along the way. It had the makings of one of the most closely-contested title races in Italy that we’ve seen in recent years until the coronavirus pandemic struck and the season had to be suspended last month.

With the season currently on an indefinite pause, SportsAdda takes a look back at five of the best matches from the 2019/20 Serie A season so far.

Juventus 4-3 Napoli (August 2019)

Aside from two early title contenders facing off, the event also marked Maurizio Sarri’s first match against former employers Napoli. Naturally, fireworks were expected and we were not disappointed.

Read | Top five matches in the 2019/20 Bundesliga season so far

Within twenty minutes, Danilo and Gonzalo Higuain had put Juventus two goals ahead, and once Cristiano Ronaldo made it 3-0 in favour of the reigning champions at the hour mark, it felt like the game was done and dusted.

However, Napoli rallied back with vigour. Quickfire goals from Kostas Manolas and Hirving Lozano brought the Partenopei right back into it before Giovanni Di Lorenzo squared things up in the 81^st minute, completing an unlikely turnaround.

The drama wasn’t over though. Into the stoppage time, Kalidou Koulibaly diverted the ball into his own net, handing Juventus a crucial win early in the campaign breaking Napoli’s heart after their sensational second-half display.

Atalanta 2-2 Fiorentina (September 2019)

Atalanta have been one of the most prolific teams in Serie A over the past couple of seasons. So, when they were two goals down against Fiorentina courtesy of a Jose Luis Palomino own goal in the first half and a Franck Ribery strike in the second, it would’ve been imprudent to count them out of the contest yet.

With a handful of minutes left and no changes to the scoreline, it started to feel like Fiorentina were going to walk away with three points. That’s when Josip Ilicic struck, in the 84^th minute, to pull one back and set the game up for an entertaining finish.

Read | Top five matches in the 2019/20 La Liga season so far

Mario Pasalic seemed to have levelled it up in the 91^st minute, but his goal was ruled out by VAR due to handball in the buildup, handing Fiorentina a lifeline. However, Timothy Castagne pulled the proverbial rabbit out of the hat in the final minute of stoppage time, unleashing a fierce volley to send his teammates, his manager and supporters into a frenzy.

Cagliari 4-3 Sampdoria (December 2019)

This was a game in which Cagliari snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. The hosts had been pegged back by Sampdoria through a Fabio Quagliarella penalty in the first half, before Gaston Ramirez had made it 2-0 early in the second period.

But Cagliari fought back hard as Radja Nainggolan pulled one back for his side in the 69^th minute. However, Quagliarella would strike in the next minute itself to restore the visitors�?two-goal cushion again. With their back against the wall, Cagliari rallied, and a quickfire double from Joao Pedro in the 74^th and 76^th minute brought the teams on level terms.

It looked like the spoils would be shared between the two sides, but five minutes into stoppage time, Alberto Cerri found the back of the net to send the home crowd into raptures, capping off a sensational comeback.

Inter Milan 4-2 AC Milan (February 2020)

The Derby Della Madonnina is always a special occasion in Serie A, with AC Milan and Inter Milan reviving their intense rivalry on the field, and on this occasion in February, it was no different.

AC Milan hadn’t had the best season, while Inter were pushing for the title. Antonio Conte’s side, therefore, went in as the favourites.

But the Rossoneri stunned everyone, as Ante Rebic handed them the lead in the 40^th minute before Zlatan Ibrahimović made it 2-0 early in the second half. Inter, though, did not lose hope. Goals from the unlikeliest of sources �?Marcelo Brozovic and Matias Vecino �?brought them right back into the game, as both teams upped the ante in search of a winner.

Read | Top five matches in the 2019/20 Premier League so far

The turnaround was complete in the 70^th minute when Stefan de Vrij found the back of the net. Romelu Lukaku then added the cherry on top, finishing off a fine counter-attacking move late in the going.

It was yet another riveting and pulsating encounter between the two behemoths of Italian football.

Lecce 2-7 Atalanta (March 2020)

To be fair, Atalanta have scored seven goals in two more games along with this and either of them would have been a justified addition to this list. However, this one makes the list as there was some sort of fightback from the opposition, at least in the first period.

Indeed, when Atalanta were 2-0 up halfway through the first period due to a Guilio Donati own goal and a Duvan Zapata strike, Lecce rallied back and levelled things up well before half-time as Riccardo Saponara and Donati found the back of the net.

However, after the restart, La Dea stepped it up a notch and annihilated their hosts. Josip Ilicic made it 3-2 just two minutes in before Zapata completed his hat-trick with two quickfire strikes.

Gian Piero Gasperini’s men were not done though as substitutes Luis Muriel and Ruslan Malinovskiy got into the act late on to add more sheen to the scoreline.

Feature image courtesy: AFP / Marco Bertorello