Serie A has carried an unusual scoring rhythm from one season into the next. Since Fiorentina and Genoa drew 0-0 at the Franchi on 10 May, 73 league matches have been played without another goalless draw, spanning the end of 2025-26 and the opening five rounds of 2026-27.
Key takeaways
- Every match in the first five rounds of the new Serie A season has produced at least one goal.
- The last 0-0 came when Fiorentina secured the point they needed against Genoa to guarantee survival.
- Only the 1949-50 campaign had also gone through five matchdays without a scoreless draw.
- There have been 145 goals so far, at an average of 2.90 per game.
- Como are three points off the summit as Cesc Fabregas’s side embody a more expansive phase of the league.
A break with an old Italian habit
The current run is notable precisely because the 0-0 once occupied a particular place in Italian football culture: not simply a match without entertainment, but the outcome of two teams refusing to yield the decisive mistake. This season has moved in another direction. The wait has now passed four months, and the opening weeks have offered no return to the old stalemate.
Serie A had recorded four 0-0 draws by this stage last year, and six at the corresponding point two seasons ago. The change has coincided with refereeing measures intended to reduce time-wasting and preserve the pace of matches.
The historical comparison reaches back 77 years. In 1949-50, the first five rounds likewise passed without a 0-0, although the sequence ended in round seven when Milan met Lazio. Their most recent meeting, played with Lazio at home a little over a week ago, could hardly have been more different: Milan recovered to draw 2-2.
The wider European picture is not entirely uniform. England has not had an equivalent scoreless-free start since 1958-59, while Spain has produced 15 seasons of similarly goal-filled early rounds and France six. Germany is closer to Italy, with two such starts in its history, though its latest came 13 years ago.
Goals, attacking intent and a changing league
The early scoring total puts this Serie A among the most productive starts since the competition returned to 20 clubs in 2004-05. Only three seasons had yielded more goals at this stage: 2013-14 with 152, 2021-22 with 159, and 2020-21 with 186 during the disrupted Covid campaign.
At 2.90 goals per match, the present average is the fourth-highest in that period. It is behind only 2016-17, at 2.96, 2019-20, at 3.04, and 2020-21, at 3.06.
Roberto De Zerbi has observed that, in Italy, a coach can be considered the best in the world after delivering “two clean sheets in the last two matches.” Fabregas, meanwhile, had previously questioned a domestic tradition in which sides look first to nullify opponents through defending and pressing rather than by taking the initiative.
“Winning in Italy is difficult,” Fabregas said. “There are many 0-0s and 1-0s. Teams try to stop you by defending and pressing, not by attacking.” He contrasted that environment with the Bundesliga, La Liga and the Premier League, arguing that English sides in particular tend to show a clearer structure, whereas Italian matches can at times be difficult to read.
With Como within three points of first place, his work has become part of the season’s broader story. Results such as Inter’s 5-3 win over Udinese and Roma’s 2-2 draw with Inter have reinforced the sense that the summer’s changing order may be followed by an autumn in which goals, rather than defensive deadlock, set the tone.
