The month of October saw some interesting performances in Europe to say the least. With some of Europe’s elite slipping up, many sides were able to shock the supposed ‘big boys’, including our NextGoalWinner POTM for October, Giovanni Simeone. The Hellas Verona forward had a terrific month, netting 7 goals in just 5 games, of which 2 of them he only featured in a cameo capacity. It’s been a terrific month for both Simeone and Verona as they picked up some impressive, much needed and well deserved wins, and Simeone has been at the heart of all these. Therefore, we are delighted to send our prestigious award to Italy for the first time in a long time, and truly well deserved.

As always, if you disagree or have anything to add to our pick of the month, head over to Twitter (@NextGoalWinBlog) and let us know what you think.

Match By Match

October 3rd: Hellas Verona 4-0 Spezia – In the opener for Verona in October, they dominated a struggling Spezia side from start to finish, with Simeone giving his side the lead inside 4 minutes. From here, things only got better for the home side, with Simeone setting up the 3rd just before the break. By this point, the game was well won and the home side could afford to ease off. Although losing possession the most of anyone in the game (3), and having the least touches of any outfield player (35), the influence he had when on the ball was terrific and really impactful and resourceful with his output.

October 16th: Milan 3-2 Hellas Verona – Playing just 30 minutes in this one, he arrived on the pitch with his side 2-1 up and just conceded, and unfortunately it got much worse from here, as Milan had a terrific comeback to win the game 3-2 and take all the points. Not a highlight for Simeone, however we can certainly look past this with what was to come next.

October 24th: Hellas Verona 4-1 Lazio – In what was a huge victory for Verona in some fashion, they bagged another 4 goals in back to back home games, with Simeone netting all 4. A real impressive showing from the whole team, however Simeone will certainly be deserving of the headlines, grabbing a haul and earning a near perfect 9.7/10 (I’d have gone the full 10 personally). Although making the most tackles (2), he did lose the ball the most of anyone again (3) and lost the most duels of any player (13), but I mean… 4 goals is deserving of respect against a decent enough Lazio side.

October 27th: Udinese 1-1 Hellas Verona – To follow up his haul, he wasn’t actually selected for the starting XI in the 1-1 draw with Udinese. He did however, come on in the 66th minute, although to little effect, despite his side netting a late equaliser, he was unable to convert any of his 2 shots and couldn’t impact the game as he had just 3 days prior.

October 30th: Hellas Verona 2-1 Juventus – In the final game of the month, and arguably in a more impressive victory, Verona went 2-0 up inside 15 minutes thanks to a brace from our star man Simeone. With his 8.8/10 rating, he was the man of the match for his performance, and Juventus were left desperately playing catch up after Verona got off to their flying start. Verona now sit comfortably in mid-table, not too far behind their opponents, and Simeone has had one hell of an impressive month.