The first set of World Cup qualifiers have past, so now it’s back to Serie A action this weekend starting with AC Milan versus Atalanta at the San Siro in Milan.

This is the so-called “Lombardy Derby” as both clubs represent the same region. The Rossoneri are fresh from their first win of the season and are looking to obtain their first win at home as well. The Diavoli have struggled in their first two games and things are certainly not getting any easier with the injuries they have. Robinho, Boateng and Montolivo are all out this for this fixture.

Atalanta are heading to the San Siro with questions of their own, hoping that goal keeper Andrea Consigli will be able to play after the heroics he displayed last game saving two pk’s in a single game.

In the last nine meetings between these two teams, Milan has won six, drew once, and lost twice. Although, Milan has many key injuries, the Rossoneri are expected to still bag the three points and continue to inch closer to the top.

Genoa will do battle with Juventus at the Marassi in Genova. The Bianconeri have looked impressive this year so far even though they find themselves benefiting from a few controversial calls. Nonetheless, the Old Lady has been doing well even without some key players who will be returning to the starting line-up, namely Buffon, Chiellini and Giovinco.

Juve has shown great strength in midfield and will try, and probably succeed, in dominating the middle of the park against the Grifone. Genoa will most likely depend on quick counterattacks in order to capitalize on possible blunders from the Juve defence. The loss of Rodrigo Palacio is tough to handle for the Genoese, but have brought back Marco Borriello to strengthen the attack. The ex-Roma striker will be partnered with up-coming star, Ciro Immobile, who is looking rather impressive these days. Vargas, Seymor and Jankovic will try to slow down the Juve midfield, but it will be extremely difficult to accomplish as the Bianconeri boast perhaps the strongest midfield in all of Serie A. Juventus are favoured to claim yet another three points against Genoa, who is normally very tough on home turf against the big clubs.

Inter will travel to Turin to take on newly promoted Torino at the Stadio Olimpico di Torino. The morale is riding high for the Granata after week 2’s domination of Pescara. Torino are expecting new buys Alessio Cerci and Ante Vukusic to be in the line-ups this weekend. Torino’s Rolando Bianchi and Sprigna have been connecting very well with each other. Their back line has played well led by Italian international Angelo Ogbonna.

Inter is coming from a 3-1 slap-in-the-face defeat to AS Roma who was able to stop the Nerazzurri’s trident attack of Antonio Cassano, Wesley Sneijder and Diego Milito. Inter struggled all over the park especially defensively. Stramaccioni’s men are hoping the return of goal keeper Samir Handanovic will help to tighten up the backline. A little difficult to choose a winner here, so my pick for this game is a tie. I believe Torino will try to attack Inter the way Roma did which will cause problems at the back for Cassano and Co. The Torino defence will be tough to be beat and will certainly not make life easy for the Inter attack.

Week 3 16 Sep 2012 Chievo Lazio Fiorentina Catania Genoa Juventus Milan Atalanta Napoli Parma Palermo Cagliari Pescara Sampdoria Roma Bologna Siena Udinese Torino Inter