Balotelli scoring, Inter leading and racist abuse gave the new decade in Serie A an eerily familiar feel to the start of the 2010s
For Italian football, the decade began with a little bit of history repeating. It was Mario Balotelli who scored the first Serie A goal of the 2010s, and on Sunday he delivered the opening strike of the 2020s as well: spinning away from his marker in the 18th minute of Brescia’s game at home to Lazio, before dispatching Stefano Sabelli’s long pass with a first-time finish off his left boot.
Why always him? In truth, the slogan no longer feels apt. Balotelli has dazzled us only intermittently, the highs of a
Premier League win and European Championship final in 2012 obscured by too many nondescript seasons since.