Serie A round-up: The best and worst performers from GW12

Juventus head into the international break with a healthy six point advantage over second-place Napoli after triumphing 2-0 away to AC Milan in Sunday’s evening kick-off. Full-backs Alex Sandro and Joao Cancelo both make the WhoScored Team of the Week after their contributions to the victory but the match will best be remembered by Gonzalo Higuain’s meltdown.

In his first match against Juventus since being forced to leave in the summer, Higuain missed a penalty on the stroke of half-time when Milan were 1-0 down and was sent off midway through the second half. He garnered a WhoScored rating of 4.66 for his performance but incredibly it was not the lowest rating across the weekend’s Serie A action.

Sampdoria goalkeeper Emil Audero was in fact the worst performing Serie A player (4.46). The 21-year-old let in four goals against Roma and committed an error directly leading to Roma’s final goal. Audero only made one save, as Sampdoria slipped to their second straight 4-1 defeat in a row.

While Higuain and Audero endured weekend’s to forget, the same cannot be said for Atalanta creator Josip Ilicic, who finished October as the WhoScored player of the month in Serie A. Ilicic was in terrific form on Sunday morning, helping Atalanta dispatch Inter 4-1.

Ilicic provided two assists in the win and should have really had a goal to his name, only to come up against an inspired Samir Handanovic in the first half. Ilicic registered four key passes, had four shots and completed seven dribbles against Inter to finish as the highest WhoScored rated player in Serie A this weekend (9.30).

Stephan El Shaarawy benefitted from Audero’s error to score his second goal in Roma’s 4-1 triumph, finishing GW12 as the second highest WhoScored rated player in Serie A (8.68). The Italy international scored twice from three shots, completed three dribbles and also registered one key pass.

Rounding off the top-three is 22-year-old Udinese striker Ignacio Pussetto, who scored in a 2-1 defeat away to Empoli. The Argentine forward netted his second goal of the campaign from seven shots against the newly promoted outfit. He also registered four key passes, completed three dribbles and won two fouls.