REGGIO EMILIA, Italy
Serie A: Lazio go top, and the late shows steal the undercard
Lazio did not ease to the top of Serie A. They kicked the door in. Kenneth Taylor scored inside two minutes at Sassuolo, and even after a Josip Sutalo own goal levelled it at 1–1 seven minutes in, the game never really came back to the hosts: Gustav Isaksen restored the lead on 13 minutes, Romano Floriani made it 3–1 on 16, and when Kristian Thorstvedt was sent off for Sassuolo on 31 minutes the only question left was the margin.
It briefly looked like a contest anyway. Sebastiano Esposito pulled one back at 43 minutes, but Mattia Zaccagni's header in first-half stoppage time restored the two-goal cushion, and Tijjani Noslin finished the job with goals on 55 and 65 minutes. The 6–2 could honestly have been worse — Reuters' match report notes Lazio also had two penalties saved by Stefano Turati, one from Zaccagni and one from Davide Frattesi. Gennaro Gattuso's side are unbeaten through nine — eight wins, one draw, five straight wins — and sit on 25 points, three clear at the top.
The catch, and Lazio know it: "top" is provisional until this afternoon. Inter, on 22 points with a game in hand, play at bottom club Venezia today (10:30 AM PT), and AC Milan — fifth on 18, also with a game in hand — host Bologna in the same window. Juventus and Napoli play later today as well. By tonight, the summit could have a different name on it. What cannot be taken back is the statement: nobody in Italy has beaten Lazio yet, and they just scored six on the road.
Third-placed Roma kept pace the hard way. M'Bala Nzola's 10th-minute penalty put Cagliari ahead at the Olimpico; Emanuele Lulli's header (15') and Niccolò Pisilli (21') turned it around, and there the game sat — until the 81st minute, when, per ESPN's match summary, Daniel Maldini equalised for Cagliari and 2–2 threatened to cost Roma real ground. Roma's answer took three minutes: Rodrigo Mora's header on 85, Donyell Malen's volley on 87, 4–2, done. Roma are unbeaten too — 21 points, six wins and three draws — one point ahead of the day's other late act.
Como were losing at Torino for 80 minutes. Ché Adams scored on 24 minutes and Torino protected it into the final stretch, and then Como scored three times: Jacobo Ramón's header on 81, Nico Paz's header on 87, Martin Baturina on 90+2. A 3–1 win built entirely in the last eleven minutes takes Como to 20 points and fourth — a Champions League place, nine games into the season. Torino stay eighth on 13.
Three games, eighteen goals, and a new leader. Serie A's midweek round finishes today and tomorrow — and the top of the table is now the story of the week.
League Cup: the giant-killing already has its own story
The biggest soccer story of the day did not happen in Italy. Fleetwood Town — 18th in League Two, 84 league places below Arsenal — drew 1–1 with the Premier League champions and beat them 5–3 on penalties to reach the League Cup quarter-finals for the first time in the club's history. It has the full Previously treatment already: read "Champions of England. 84 Places Above Them. Knocked Out by Fleetwood".
The night's other tie sent Bradford City through as well: goals from Macaulay Gillesphey (13') and Adam Phillips (67') beat Peterborough United 2–0. Five more ties play today, headlined by Chelsea at Liverpool (1:00 PM PT).
Elsewhere
No Premier League, La Liga, Champions League or MLS matches finished in the window — those leagues were between fixtures, with MLS's full Matchday 33 slate tonight (including FC Cincinnati at Inter Miami and Sporting Kansas City at Minnesota United, both in today's invite plan). One news line from Spain, via Reuters: Espanyol have sacked coach Manolo González after Tuesday's 4–3 extra-time Copa del Rey defeat to fourth-tier Sestao River, with the club 18th in La Liga.
Sources · 4 sources
- ESPN scoreboard and match summaries (ita.1, events 401874980, 401874780, 401874786; eng.league_cup, events 401921835, 401921833) — all five finals double-read, two pulls at least 60 seconds apart, both STATUS_FULL_TIME / STATUS_FINAL_PEN and agreeing on every score, scorer and minute.
- Reuters (reuters.com) — the Lazio–Sassuolo wire report (two saved penalties, provisional top, Inter at Venezia today) and the Espanyol–González line, Oct. 27, 2026.
- Football Italia (football-italia.net) — independent match report of Sassuolo 2–6 Lazio, cross-checked scorer-for-scorer against the ESPN record in the publish pass.
- Previously Serie A table (live, updated Oct. 28, 08:00 AM PT) — Lazio 25, Inter 22, Roma 21, Como 20, AC Milan 18; build-time freshness re-check Oct. 28, 08:58 AM PT found all five of today's Serie A fixtures still STATUS_SCHEDULED.
