Expansive football, end-to-end encounters and flurries of goals are not what you’d normally associate the Serie A with but the 2016-17 season has sprung a bit of a surprise.
The typical Italian football aficionado may not be too pleased that the tactical nous and defensive solidarity the league usually identifies with has slightly given way to the more mainstream aspect of the game; goals.
The country that brought the football world the gift of Catenaccio has this season delivered plenty of goals, quite a few of them in threes.
Keita Balde Diao scored the league’s latest hat-trick on Sunday as Lazio beat Palermo 6-2. The hosts were 5-0 up after 27 minutes courtesy of Keita’s six-minute hat-trick (21′, 24′, 27′).
What’s more is that it was the 17th hat-trick in the Serie A this season. The Bundesliga has featured 13 so far this season while the Premier League, La Liga and Ligue 1 have all had only nine.
Furthermore, Keita’s isn’t the first quick-fire treble of the season in the Italian top flight. Andrea Belotti also scored thrice against Palermo but over an eight-minute period while Mauro Icardi took nine minutes for his hat-trick against Atalanta.
Check out the gallery above for all 17 hat-tricks in the Serie A in this campaign.
Which Serie A hat-trick has been your favourite this season?
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