Serie A Takeaways: Three things we learned from Matchday 28

Inexplicably the season is nearly 80% over; 84 possible points are behind us, and a mere 30 are still up for grabs.

For perspective’s sake, that’s almost triple the amount of points Pescara have managed, and one off the gap between first-placed Juventus and ninth-placed Sampdoria.

What did we learn this week?

The Atalanta bubble may be bursting

This column, among many other Serie A articles around Europe, has been full of nothing but praise for the young, talented, and hardworking side from Bergamo.

After the past two weeks, “overachieving” may be added to the list of adjectives that describes Gianpiero Gasperini’s men. It’s probably too soon to say, but if the wound this past weekend was Ever Banega and Mauro Icardi each notching hat-tricks, then the salt was that the other goal came from ex-player Roberto Gagliardini, who scored to restore Inter’s five-goal lead after the break just when Atalanta had given themselves a glimmer of hope by scoring themselves.

The best thing the visitors can do now is try to forget about this as soon as possible, and a comfortable home match against Pescara coming up this weekend is the perfect opportunity to bounce back.

After all, just two weeks ago they conquered Napoli at the San Paolo. The short time since then has been costly, however. The loss to Inter combined with a draw against Fiorentina have seen their hopes of a Europa League spot drift away, sandwiched between Inter in fifth and Milan in seventh.

No team above 13th has picked up fewer points in the past two weeks, and any further slips could see Atalanta settle at mid-table. That’s how tight Serie A is this year.

Sampdoria have reason to celebrate

Sampdoria have the 11th best offense in the league this season, and are tied for eighth best defence; their mid-table position at ninth seems rather fitting on the surface. Mid-table mediocrity, however, would be anything but a just label to adequately describe the feeling that must be surging through Marco Giampaolo and his men.

Thanks to Luis Muriel’s strike over the weekend, Sampdoria won both Derby della Lanterna clashes in a season for the first time since 1960, knocking Genoa down to 16th in the process.

Over the past five matches they’ve not lost, a record only matched by Lazio and Juve; in that time, they’ve picked up more points than every team bar those two sides, Roma, and Napoli.

They have quite the schedule coming up – hosting Juve and Fiorentina between a trip to the San Siro – but with confidence, luck, and form, Giampaolo’s team certainly must believe they can finish the season on a high note.

Serie A remains as entertaining as ever

Turned off a match before it was over this weekend? Chances are you missed very late strikes. For Roma and Lazio, respectively, it may not have mattered much - as Bruno Peres and Felipe Anderson’s 90th minute strikes just cushioned a win.

Chievo and Pescara similarly found the net with less than 10 minutes left, though it didn’t change the result in either case. Fiorentina, however, snatched a late, late victory with Nikola Kalinic’s last minute strike, and Juventus-Milan ended in the most dramatic fashion with a controversial 97th minute penalty from Paulo Dybala.

Matches this weekend averaged 3.2 goals, with four penalties and one sending off across all ten.

If anyone believed Serie A was defensive, boring, and not worth watching until the final whistle, this weekend should have gone a long way in persuading them otherwise.