Giovanni Simeone is finally emerging from his father’s shadow in Serie A.
The son of Diego Simeone, the former Argentine international and current Atlético de Madrid coach, scored twice for Hellas Verona, who beat Juventus 2-1 on Saturday.
Young Simeone is having a brilliant week, having scored all four goals in Verona’s 4-1 win over Lazio – one of the squads his father played for – last Sunday.
“Dad did his thing and I do my thing,” said the 26-year-old footballer. “Every day I grow older. I have found the right balance and everything is working fine now ”.
Simeone now has eight goals in 10 games this season, just one behind leading scorer Ciro Immobile of Lazio.
Juventus, meanwhile, now has as many defeats (four) as victories. The Bianconeri, who have not found form after the departure of Cristiano Ronaldo to Manchester United, fell to Sassuolo on Wednesday.
The result left Juve in ninth place, tied in points with Verona and 13 below leaders Napoli and Milan, who play this Sunday.
“Wearing the Juventus uniform does not guarantee that we will beat mid-table teams,” said “Vecchia Signora” coach Massimiliano Allegri. “Our mistake was to assume that we were better than Verona and at the moment we are not. We must be realistic ”.
Simeone’s first goal came in the 11th minute, when he finished off a rebound off a shot by Antonin Barak.
Three minutes later, the Argentine fired a cannon shot from outside the area at the corner.
American Weston McKennie discounted for Juventus with 10 remaining, for his second goal in two games.
Simeone has been inconsistent in periods with Genoa, Fiorentina and Cagliari. Verona acquired it in August on a loan with the option to make the agreement permanent.
“He’s a great striker,” said Verona manager Igor Tudor. “And besides being a good striker, he is intelligent, humble, eager to learn and I think that both he and (his forward partner) Ginaluca Caprari fit my style of play.”
Tudor, who was Andrea Pirlo’s assistant with Juventus last season, was signed by Verona in September after back-to-back defeats that ended Eusebio Di Francesco’s tenure.
Since Tudor took over, only Napoli and Milan have scored more points than Verona.
TIE AT THE END
Marten De Roon scored a goal in injury time to salvage a 2-0 draw by Atalanta against visiting Lazio.
The result means that Atalanta remains fifth and Lazio sixth.
After Pedro gave Lazio an early lead, Duván Zapata scored for Atalanta before the break.
Then Immobile put Lazio up at 74, overtaking Silvio Piola as the historic leader of the Roman club with his 159th goal in all competitions.
De Roon then scored the tying goal, for his first league goal in 399 days.
Also, Torino beat Sampdoria 3-0 with goals from Dennis Praet, Wilfried Singo and Andrea Belotti.
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