Como and Roma deliver Serie A’s first 0-0 after 54 games

Como and AS Roma produced Serie A’s first 0-0 of the season, with 54 matches played (including this one) before the first goalless draw appeared in the Italian top flight. It was the headline game of the round, but neither side broke the deadlock.

The main reason, as Mundo Deportivo points out, is the carryover into Serie A of the World Cup 2026 rules designed to speed things up: five seconds to take a throw-in, ten seconds to leave the pitch for a substitution, and one minute off the field after medical treatment for an injury. The piece also notes that in Serie B the last 0-0 before Como-Roma had come on September 19 (Cremonese-Entella), and that right after the international break there were two more goalless draws in Serie B: Arezzo-Cremonese and Sudtirol-Ascoli.

Cristian Chivu, Inter’s coach, linked the change to more intensity and quality after their 2-2 with Roma: “I see a championship where intensity and quality have increased.” He added that the new rules bring “speed and eliminate dead time.” Daniele Orsato, newly in charge of referees in Serie A, said the World Cup highlighted the referee’s role and that with these rules “my referees end up exhausted,” though “the results show it.”