📝 Matchday 5 ratings: Pulisic, Camarda shine 👑, Tudor, Napoli flop 👎 | OneFootball

The 5th matchday of Serie A has ended and brought with it several changes in the standings: from Milan's victory over Napoli to Fiorentina's latest misstep, through to another useful result for Cremonese.

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Let's look at the scores from 10 to 0 of our usual report card.

10) Pulisic's performance

Christian Pulisic once again dominated the game, Saelemaekers' goal is an invention of the American and the 2-0 goal against Napoli consecrate a perfect start of the season: 4 goals and 2 assists in 5 Serie A matches (to which add the brace in Coppa Italia).

Doing without him seems impossible today, will Leao's return and Nkunku's adaptation be able to take his place? It seems difficult, because Pulisic is the MVP of Serie A in these first 5 matches.

9) The goals of Pio Esposito + Camarda and... Sarri is back?

We hope to remember this end of September 2025 weekend as the opening of an era: the first goals in Serie A of Pio Esposito (2005) and Francesco Camarda (2008) have opened an account that - fingers crossed - is as long as possible.

Lazio instead overwhelms Genoa on Monday evening with a 3-0 that puts behind the defeat in the derby: the whole trident scores and Sarri gets the second clean sheet of his Serie A season. The chase is long and the next one with Torino is another opportunity.

8) The courage of Pisa and Sassuolo

Pisa put Fiorentina in great difficulty, also scoring a beautiful goal with Meister (then cancelled for handball) and being denied a dubious penalty for a hand touch. Gilardino's team shot 11 times and risked conceding a goal but certainly did not hide: the standings are still complex but the improvements seem to be there.

Sassuolo instead redeemed itself after two consecutive defeats and showed all its offensive potential, especially in the 1st half against Udinese. Grosso's team still has a lot to improve in defense, also because it hardly gives up the attack: after all, with Berardi, Laurienté and Pinamonti it would be too costly a sin.

7) The confirmation of Kamaldeen

The man who can stand out and invent a play on the outside Atalanta has it anyway, despite Lookman still has to return to the field. Because Kamaldeen Sulemana has made clear the reason for his price: about 20 million. The goal (beautiful) against Juve in addition to that against Lecce are clear signals to Serie A, Kamaldeen is there.

6) The rotations of Gasp

The men change, also in an attempt to recover the "thorny cases", and Gasp's Roma gets another victory that puts it at the top of Serie A. Dovbyk's goal will be crucial to recover an important player and the umpteenth clean sheet reminds us of Svilar's abilities, while the defensive performance is to be recorded: if Gift Orban had converted a glaring opportunity the end of the game would have been different.

5) The expulsions of Como

In a day when Cremonese (grade 8) also stops Como on a 1-1 draw, Como's expulsions are insufficient. The punch and the reaction kick by Jesus Rodriguez in a delicate moment of the match are naive - to use an understatement - and compromised the match for the Larians. Fabregas' behavior at the end of the game was also not perfect: expelled for saying a few too many words to Di Bello.

4) Tudor's choices

In attack Tudor rewarded Adzic by giving him a starting shirt but, apart from a few hints, it was him who lost the ball that triggered Atalanta's goal. Individual errors aside, Juve struggled to be dangerous after the first 30 minutes, coming back into vogue only after De Roon's expulsion.

Openda did not give the expected answers as a first striker, as did Vlahovic when he was lined up from the start, in addition to David now on the bench. Yildiz now seems an increasingly indispensable factor: is Juve becoming "dependent" on his bursts?

3) The instability of Udinese

After a great start Udinese has suffered two consecutive defeats, conceding 3 goals both against Milan and Sassuolo: really too much considering Runjaic's defensive roster. The offensive sterility of the first half is worrying and the goal came mainly thanks to a mistake by Muric.

Buksa, Bayo need to be recovered, and the return of Iker Bravo from the U20 World Cup is awaited, because Zaniolo was not able to make an impact. The numbers clearly show this: only 1 1vs1 won out of 7 attempted and only 4 touches in the opposing area.

2) Fiorentina's game

Pioli's Fiorentina is still looking for its identity: for the third game in a row the attacking partner next to Kean has changed (Dzeko, then Piccoli and now Gudmundsson in the last three). Kean himself was not very precise and remained dry despite the 5 shots attempted, getting nervous in the final and also taking a yellow card.

Fiorentina needs to change gear because 3 points in 5 games are too few: there is still time to find the right balance but the Viola's square is already starting to rumble.

1) The championship of Torino and Genoa

After the victory against Pisa, Baroni's Torino also disappoints in the 2-1 against Parma. As has already happened on other occasions, the granata shoot several times on goal but then concede in defense: 10 goals conceded in 5 games and only 2 goals scored. In total, however, the shots conceded were "only" 2, namely the penalty and Pellegrino's header. The attack then remains imprecise, Vlasic and his teammates need to produce more.

Terrible start also for Genoa which is second last with 2 points: the 3-0 against Lazio was the worst test of the championship in the approach, despite the Griffin tried to recover with several shots in the finals of both halves.

0) Napoli's start and KDB's little scene

Napoli started very badly against Milan: 2 goals conceded in 31 minutes and 6 shots allowed, 3 of which on target. Milan's tactic has rooted out Napoli's forced exits to free the men on the three-quarter and on the outside: an idea that worked on the counterattack, because Milan's block remains and will remain generally low. However, Conte was not able to scratch it.

In the second half the changes did not please part of the public and especially Kevin De Bruyne, very upset about the substitution in a key moment of the match. Frustration or contestation towards Conte's choice? We know that KDB has no problem talking on par with coaches, and Guardiola knows it well.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇮🇹 here.

📸 Jonathan Moscrop - 2025 Jonathan Moscrop