Juventus is still unbeaten in the Serie A, but that was down to Cristiano Ronaldo making a late entrance in the game against Atalanta, and rescuing a point for the Italian champions. Despite this, there was another striker making most of the headlines.
The initial plan may have been to rest Ronaldo for the match against Atalanta, but Allegri’s side soon found itself in deep waters, with one goal down and the minutes ticking away. The Portuguese entered the field and looked highly motivated, in spite of the initial promise of some well earned rest.
Ronaldo scored, the Turin fans are kept happy, and Juventus, taking advantage of Napoli’s defeat to Inter, stay at nine points above their second placed rivals. But may will be left wondering if, after half a year, th Italian giants haven’t become overly reliant on CR7.
#AtalantaJuve 2-2#FullTime#ChristmasMatch #BoxingDay #GoAtalantaGo ⚫️🔵 pic.twitter.com/dUsKet7Det
— Atalanta B.C. (@Atalanta_BC) December 26, 2018
Dybala, Mandzukic and Ronaldo may have all taken the pitch, but the Man of the match award has to go to a different striker, Duvan Zapata. The Colombian took advantage of the overly relaxed state of Bonucci and Khedira to score on two occasions. Zapata earned 50 points in FootballCoin for his efforts.
The South American is enjoying a terrific run of form. He has scored nine goals this season, seven of which have come in the last four games alone. Despite his great individual results, Zapata has not been making such big waves with fantasy fans, none of whom chose him for their sides in the free FootballCoin contest accompanying Serie A games.
By contrast to Zapata’s lack of popularity, Krzysztof Piatek has been highly sought after, The Polish striker was a part of more than a third of all the teams registered for the same contest, despite earning only 20 points, following his participation in Genoa’s loss to Cagliari.
#BolognaLazio 💬#LuizFelipe nel post partita: “Dedico il gol alla mia ragazza ed a mio figlio”
👉 https://t.co/JcKLi3Mbhg pic.twitter.com/SRDwtO06gs
— S.S.Lazio (@OfficialSSLazio) December 26, 2018
However, the player with the most impressive individual performance has to have been 21 year-old Luiz Felipe. The Brazilian scored a goal and put a tremendous performance for his side, Lazio, in their 2-0 victory over Bologna. Felipe will surely be on plenty of scouting reports for Europe’s biggest clubs, but he has made his intentions clear, stating that he wishes to remain a Lazio player for some years to come.
Since Europe’s biggest leagues are not modeling their fixture calendar after the holiday season, fantasy football fans will get the opportunity to take part in several FootballCoin contests until the year’s end. Don’t forget to enter your drafts and earn your salt as a fantasy football manager.
Eduard Bănulescu
