Big winners from Thursday's Serie A & ATP Cup action

What happened in Thursday’s Serie A action?

AC Milan moved within a point of Serie A leading rivals Inter with a 3-1 win over Jose Mourinho’s Roma. Former Arsenal and Chelsea striker Olivier Giroud opened the scoring from the penalty spot after a handball from another former Blues frontman, Tammy Abraham. Junior Messias doubled that lead with his follow up after Giroud hit the post before Abraham grabbed one back. Roma had two men dismissed late in the second half, either side of Rafael Leao’s clincher.

Multi-Bookings (settled at 2800)

Roma’s chances in this game were all but ended by ill discipline, having two players send off in the second half. Rick Karsdorp was given his second yellow card in the 74^th minutes, and Gianluca Mancina also went for an early bath for bringing down Leao in injury time, though Zlaten Ibrahimovic saw his spot kick saved by ex-Wolves goalie Rui Patricio. Multi-Bookings multiplies first half booking points by second, and with a total of 8 yellow and 2 red cards across the game, the make-up landed at 2800. The spread had been set at 655-775, so buyers won a tasty 2025 times their bet.

Where was the most exciting game in Italy?

Lazio and Empoli played out a 3-3 draw that had everything! The visitors started best and were awarded a penalty after just six minutes, which was converted by Nedim Bajram, and they were soon two up, Szymon Zurkowski doubling their lead before 10 minutes were on the clock. Ciro Immobile pulled one back with a deft header, and Lazio were level when Sergej Milinkovic-Savic volleyed home with 24 minutes to go. Federico Di Francesco put Empoli ahead again, and when Immobile missed a penalty it looked like the Lazio fans would be heading home disappointed, only for Milinkovic-Savic to pop up with an equaliser deep into added time.

Sergej Milinkovic-Savic SMM (settled at 246)

Super Mega Minutes doubles the goal minutes of any second goal and trebles those of a third, so when the highly rated Milinkovic-Savic grabbed his second of the game deep into added on time, it was buyers of his SMM as well as Lazio fans who rejoiced. The SMM spread was set at 18-22, meaning buyers on 224 times their stake.

What happened in the ATP Cup?

Team GB were knocked out after the impressive Canadian team beat Germany to claim the place in the semi-finals. Great Britain had needed the Germans to do them a favour, but they went down 2-0. Denis Shapovalov put Canada ahead with a 7-6 4-6 6-3 defeat of Jan-Lennard Struff and  Felix Auger-Aliassime completed the job by beating world number 3 Alex Zverev 6-4 4-6 6-3.

Shapovalov v Struff Set 1 Cross-Points (settled at 1755)

Tight opening sets have been a trait of this week’s ATP Cup, and buying Set 1 Cross-Points has often been an avenue to decent returns for punters. The spread for yesterday’s Cross-Points in the opener between Shapovalov and Struff was set at 1015-1090, meaning buyers copped 665 times their bet.