Paulo downplays Messi comparison
Paulo Dybala has repeatedly said he doesn’t want to be likened to his more famous compatriot Lionel Messi, but the comparisons will keep coming as the Argentine youngster goes from strength to strength.
Dybala marked his 100th Juventus appearance with his second hat-trick of the season to help Juve win 3-1 at Sassuolo on Sunday and maintain its perfect record in Serie A.
Napoli, which crushed Serie A debutant Benevento 6-0, has also won its opening four matches, as has Inter Milan, which beat Crotone 2-0 on Saturday.
“Stop comparing me to Messi, I’m Paulo Dybala,” he said. “Every player is himself. I’m Dybala. It’s not that I don’t like the comparisons with Messi, but Messi is a player who has won five Ballons d’Or.
“The comparisons don’t seem absurd to me but I want to be myself. I don’t want to be compared to any other player. I want to have my career, win my trophies, score my goals and play my way.”
Dybala now has eight goals in Juve’s opening four league matches, just three fewer than he scored in the whole of the last campaign.
All three of his goals on Sunday were impressive as the 23-year-old forward became the first player to score in each of the opening four Serie A games for Juve and the first to do so in Europe’s top five leagues since Wayne Rooney for Manchester United in 2011.
Napoli’s ninth
Dries Mertens also bagged a treble, including two penalties, as Napoli secured a clubrecord ninth straight topflight victory and recovered from its midweek defeat to Shakhtar Donetsk in the Champions League.
“We know that we can hurt our opponents, even if they have studied the way we play. Against Shakhtar we didn’t play as we know how to,” Mertens said. “The season is long. Inter and Juve are doing well, we’ll see what happens.”
Benevento was looking for its first top-flight point but Napoli was out of sight by halftime following goals from Allan, Lorenzo Insigne, Mertens and Jose Callejon.
Mertens doubled his tally from the spot in the 65th after Emanuele Giaccherini was tripped by Raman Chibsah and the Belgium international converted another penalty late on following Gaetano Letizia’s foul on Adam Ounas.
Nikola Kalinic was denied a hat-trick on review as AC Milan beat Udinese 2-1 to bounce back from last weekend’s 4-1 mauling by Lazio.
Kalinic thought he had scored a third goal eight minutes from time but it was ruled out for offside after a video review.
Udinese also had a Kevin Lasagna goal ruled out by the video-assistant referee early on. Lasagna eventually got on the scoresheet with the equalizer, between Kalinic’s goals. It was his first for Milan since joining from Fiorentina.