Serie A round-up: Gonzalo Higuain steals headlines with Milan’s season gets off to winning start

GONZALO HIGUAIN was headline maker on a free-scoring opening weekend in Serie A.

Argentine, Higuain was the subject of the summer’s most controversial transfer and he came off the bench to net a winner on his debut as Juventus made it a staggering 27 victories in their last 29 league games.

Max Allegri’s men had a potential banana skin opener against Fiorentina as their latest title defence began, but were dominant throughout, despite the modest 2-1 scoreline.

Juve would make history with another Scudetto this season as no team has ever won Serie A in six consecutive seasons.

Meanwhile, Roma were the early pacesetters after day one with an emphatic victory over Udinese.

Diego Perotti netted two first-half penalties in the absence of 39-year-old Francesco Totti.

Former Premier League stars Edin Dzeko and Mohamed Salah completed the rout.

Carlos Bacca showed just why West Ham were so desperate to bring him to the London Stadium as his hat-trick got Vincenzo Montella’s AC Milan reign off to a good start in a thriller against Torino at the San Siro — but the Colombian still wasn’t the hero of the hour.

The former Sevilla striker’s first-half opener was cancelled out just after the interval.

But Bacca restored Milan’s lead two minutes later — and looked to have given his side an unassailable lead with a penalty just past the hour mark.

However, Torino pulled one back a minute into stoppage time and were given the chance to equalise when Rossoneri defender Gabriel Paletta was given his marching orders for fouling Andrea Belotti in the box THREE minutes later.

Belotti himself stepped up but saw his effort saved by 17-year-old prodigy, Gianluigi Donnarumma.

Torino boss, Sinisa Mihajlovic — who promoted the highly-rated stopped to the first team last season while boss of Milan — joked: “If I had known he was going to save the penalty, I wouldn't have given him his debut.”

There was less to cheer for the other Milanese giants as Frank De Boer’s first match as Inter boss ended in a 2-0 defeat to Chievo.

A second-half Valter Birsa double was enough to seal a shock win.

Last season’s runners-up Napoli showed they still have some fight despite losing last season's record-breaker, Higuain.

Dries Mertens scored twice in the second-half as Maurizio Sarri’s men came from 2-0 down to earn a point at newly-promoted Pescara.

The game of the day, however, was the Stadio Atleti Azzurri d’Italia as Atalanta went down 4-3 to Lazio.

The Romans were 3-0 up at half-time, before two Franck Kessie goals midway through the second-half set up a thrilling finale.