The schedule for Serie A 2017-18 has thrown up some huge fixtures at crucial times during the season.
While every season sees each team play each other once, home and away, the order in which the fixtures fall can have a huge bearing on the outcome of the season.
Whether you’re planning a trip to Italy or just need to ensure a day off, Football Italia has compiled a list of the fixtures you won’t want to miss this season.
Lazio-Milan [Week 3]
After their takeover by Chinese investors, Milan have spent big this summer.
The schedule for Serie A 2017-18 has thrown up some huge fixtures at crucial times during the season.
While every season sees each team play each other once, home and away, the order in which the fixtures fall can have a huge bearing on the outcome of the season.
Whether you’re planning a trip to Italy or just need to ensure a day off, Football Italia has compiled a list of the fixtures you won’t want to miss this season.
Lazio-Milan [Week 3]
After their takeover by Chinese investors, Milan have spent big this summer.
The first two rounds of the season are relatively kind for the Rossoneri, with a trip to Crotone followed by a home game with Cagliari.
That means Week 3 will be the first real test of the Diavolo’s Scudetto credentials, as they travel to face a Lazio side which finished above them last season.
In Leonardo Bonucci, Lucas Biglia and Andrea Conti, Milan have certainly improved their squad, but if Vincenzo Montella can’t get all the new faces to gel, they could come unstuck in Rome.
All of Weeks 8 and 27
Take time off work, send the kids to Grandma’s, turn down any wedding invitations – you won’t want to miss any of Week 8.
Inter and Milan face off in the first Derby della Madonnina of the season, with both sides aiming for at least a Champions League place this season.
Juventus welcome Lazio to Turin, before Napoli travel to face Roma at the Olimpico.
Throw in an early relegation six-pointer between Verona and Benevento, and a Europa League showdown between Sampdoria and Atalanta and this could be the best weekend of the season.
That is until you consider the reverse fixtures in Week 27 – all of the above drama, played out just as the season enters ‘Squeaky Bum Time’.
Milan-Juventus [Week 11]
In 2011, Juventus signed Andrea Pirlo from Milan and subsequently took the Scudetto from them too.
Six years later, the Rossoneri hope the capture of Leonardo Bonucci will see the balance of power swing back the other way, and the two sides go head-to-head at San Siro in Week 11.
The game comes far enough into the season to determine whether or not both teams will be going for the title, and if they are the Week 30 return leg could be extremely tasty.
Juventus-Napoli [Week 34]
Napoli look like the most credible threat to Juventus’ dominance, so much so that the Partenopei squad have vowed to stay together to win the Scudetto this season.
If Maurizio Sarri’s men are to knock the Old Lady off her perch, then they’ll surely need to pick up a result when they visit Juventus Stadium in Week 34.
Napoli haven’t beaten the Bianconeri in Turin since October 2009, losing on their last seven visits between Serie A and the Coppa Italia.
Another defeat with five games to go could be fatal, but a win at Juve could spur the Neapolitans on to the Scudetto…
Roma-Juventus [Week 37]
With just two games of the Serie A season to go, Roma welcome Juventus to Stadio Olimpico.
This could be a direct Scudetto showdown between the sides which finished first and second last year, or an opportunity for other hopefuls to gain points on one or both of these teams.
Week 38 looks set to be momentous, but the penultimate round could be equally dramatic.