Patrick Vieira oversaw his first training session as the new coach of Genoa and reunited with Mario Balotelli after their previous personality clashes.

The former Crystal Palace and Strasbourg boss was appointed today to replace Alberto Gilardino and met his players for the afternoon session at the Villa Rostan camp.

Genoa released several images of Vieira in his first session, including pointedly a picture of him speaking individually to Balotelli.

The pair were teammates at Manchester City and then famously clashed when reunited at OGC Nice, where Vieira was coach and Balotelli a player.

The new boss will make his debut on the bench in a relegation tussle against Cagliari at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris, also known as Marassi, on Sunday at 11.30 GMT.

It remains to be seen how he will be greeted, as the Genoa fans were very fond of Gilardino and are protesting his sudden dismissal.

Atalanta star Ademola Lookman has been named as one of the candidates for the African Footballer of the Year award, where he is the hot favourite.

The other nominees for the award are Simon Adingra (Brighton and Hove Albion and Ivory Coast), Serhou Guirassy (Borussia Dortmund and Guinea), Achraf Hakimi (PSG and Morocco) and Ronwen Williams (Mamelodi Sundowns and South Africa).

The winner in 2023 was Napoli and Nigeria striker Victor Osimhen, who was fresh from securing the Scudetto as Serie A Capocannoniere.

Lookman was crucial in helping La Dea win the Europa League over the summer, scoring a sensational hat-trick in the Final 3-0 victory over Bayer Leverkusen in Dublin.

He was also instrumental in Atalanta’s push to the Coppa Italia Final, losing 1-0 to Juventus, and fourth place in Serie A with qualification for the Champions League.

The 27-year-old scored 17 goals with 10 assists in 45 club games last season.

He contributed three goals and an assist in Nigeria’s run to the Final of the Africa Cup of Nations, losing 2-1 to the Ivory Coast.

This all allowed Lookman to finish 14th in the Ballon d’Or tally for 2024.

Although born and raised in England, Lookman opted to represent Nigeria at international level.

Atalanta moved level with Serie A leaders Napoli on Sunday after coming back from a goal down to beat spirited Udinese 2-1 and continue an unlikely title bid.

Mario Pasalic’s first-time strike 11 minutes after the break and an unfortunate own goal from Isaak Toure moments later gave Atalanta their sixth straight league win.

Gian Piero Gasperini’s side are second, joined on 25 points with Napoli.

Atalanta trail Napoli despite having a significantly better goal difference as they have played a game more and in any case cannot finish the day in top spot.

Regardless Atalanta have won eight in their all-competitions unbeaten run of 10 matches and have deserved to be considered contenders for what would be their first ever Serie A title.

Under Gasperini and the guidance of the Percassi family, who are from Bergamo, Atalanta have slowly worked their way up from provincal also-rans to become one of Italy’s top teams and last season’s Europa League winners.

Gasperini has admitted in recent weeks that his team can be considered Scudetto hopefuls and they showed resilience to battle back from going behind on the stroke of half-time to a thunderous strike from Hassane Kamara.

Udinese, who fully deserved to lead at the break following a brilliant first-half display, sit eighth on 16 points after their third straight defeat.

Earlier, Juventus edged a tense derby against city rivals Torino 2-0 on to move within one point of the summit of Serie A, while AC Milan dropped points in an entertaining draw at Cagliari.

Strikes in both halves from Timothy Weah and Kenan Yildiz were enough to give Juventus victory over their fellow side from Turin and send the Old Lady up to third in the table with 24 points.

The victory, provisionally, leaves Juventus level on points with champions Inter Milan in second and one behind league leaders Napoli.

“It was another good performance where we brought the three points home,” Juventus coach Thiago Motta told Sky Sport Italia.

“I am happy both with the result and the performance, in a derby on home turf, and thank our fans for their support.”

Torino’s form has fallen off drastically in recent weeks after they had sat top of the table in September.

With one win in their last seven league outings, Torino now sit 11th in the league and 10 points adrift of their city rivals.

The deadlock was broken on 18 minutes when Weah tapped into an open net after Vanja Milinkovic-Savic had failed to hold onto Andrea Cambiaso’s driven effort from wide on the left.

Both sides struggled to create chances in a match that will likely not live long in the memory of either set of fans.

Yildiz then ended Torino hopes of a draw six minutes from time with a stooping back-post header.

AC Milan fell further behind the title race after twice throwing away the lead in a thrilling 3-3 draw with Cagliari.

The Rossoneri remain seventh but are now four points off the Champions League places and seven behind pacesetters Napoli.

Rafael Leao scored twice in the first half to give Milan the lead after Nadir Zortea’s early opener.

Cagliari struck back soon after the break through Gabriele Zappa before Tammy Abraham restored the visitors’ lead, only for Zappa to score a sensational equaliser in the final stages.

“This draw is clearly a step backwards,” AC Milan coach Paulo Fonseca said to DAZN, referencing his side’s midweek 3-1 victory in the Champions League against Real Madrid.

“Our problem today was our defence, we lacked aggression, we let them cross too much, we lost too many aerial duels, it’s not possible to win a match in those conditions.”

For the home side, the draw takes them to 16th place on 10 points, one clear of the drop zone.

Zortea gave Cagliari the perfect start on two minutes as he smashed home from the back post after a corner.

Leao brought Milan level 13 minutes later with a lobbed finish after being sent in behind the defence by Tijjani Reijnders’ excellent lofted pass.

The Portuguese winger then doubled up five minutes before the break as Youssouf Fofana released him with an accurate long ball to his feet and he rounded the goalkeeper to give Milan the advantage.

Nine minutes after the break Fofana was at fault as he inadvertently played Zappa in behind his own defence and the Cagliari player finished past the advancing Mike Maignan.

Abraham looked to have completed the comeback for Fonseca’s side with his second goal of the season when he tapped home on 69 minutes.

But Zappa equalised again for Cagliari with one minute left via a thumping volley from a looping cross.

Parma came from behind to beat bottom-of-the-table Venezia 2-1 away from home.

Hans Nicolussi Caviglia opened the scoring for the hosts but goals either side of the break from Emanuele Valeri and Ange-Yoan Bonny moved Parma up to 14th, three points clear of the relegation zone.

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