It is the revenge of the South. With the ball, at least. There at the top Napoli started running againless fast than before, but that’s enough for him and he goes on like this. Then there is Lazio: liquidates Juventus (2-1) and consolidates second place. Sarri doesn’t have a team of champions, and he doesn’t even have the champions of Naples, Koulibaly behind and Higuain in front, but he has been able to adapt to his men, less fantasy and more counter-attackand build a group that sticks to business and travels well. Mou’s Rome is thirdwho almost never misses the appointments that matter. The Milanese are all focused on the Champions Leaguewith the result that in the end it will be a good Milanese brawl to get into the four elected ones. Atalanta loses strokes, also outclassed by the surprising Bologna by Thiago. In the relegation zone, it’s going very badly for Sampdoria, while Verona keeps their hopes alive and Lo Spezia and Lecce are on the grill. And the Juventus? He plays leaning on his opponents and it doesn’t always work out for him. She is not pretty to look at and when she seems to march forward she runs into the wrong square every time which brings her back. You bet a lot on the Europa League, but you will face a very difficult opponent, who runs and presses for 90 minutes, precisely the characteristics that Allegri’s staid team suffers the most.
A bit of confusion in the league awaiting sports justice
Overall, however, there is still a bit of confusion under the sun in the Italian championship, apart from the first and last of the standings, whose destinies already seem sealed for better or for worse. Then there is sports justice, never to be overlooked. We can boast the most incredible sporting Justice in the world, a conventicle that sometimes produces somewhat incomprehensible verdicts. So, from what we have understood thanks to their decisions, even if it is difficult to understand something: you can insult and mock the innocent dead, perhaps wishing others more, but you can’t make racist chants; if they insult you and offend the color of your skin you cannot answer; if you are a Jew or a Slav the offense is less serious; then if you are Lazio you can choose the eventual penalty, how, where and when, and if you like. Otherwise the law is inflexible. Then everyone picks on poor prosecutor Santoriello – who made a mistake on his own, of course, and who in any case withdrew from prosecution -, but no one is asking for the resignation of the judging members of the Coni Board of Guarantee who can offend and give the shit to whoever they like without getting upset about the role they play. This is all a bit difficult to explainshocking even. But she is patient. Let’s try to talk about football which is better.
The Scudetto is already gone
Il Milan, fresh from the Maradona massacre on Naples, jams at home against Empoli, who then only play their honest provincial game barricaded within its borders and nothing more. Pioli chose some second line for the occasion, throwing the big shots onto the field in the last twenty minutes, the elf Diaz with his escort, the dancer Leao and the swordsman Giroud, but the truth is that whoever had lined up the head it was elsewhere. The Scudetto is already gone anywayEverybody knows. Spalletti has once again traced his footsteps in the championship deep that divides him from humans, Lazio minus 16, Rome 21, Milan 22 and Inter 23, marking now impassable barriers ten days from the end. With Lecce, however, he wins on an own goal and with a short face, not really the house’s specialties, also hiding the plots of his game in the folds of a small pitch game. With a view to the Champions League, on 12 April at San Siro and 18 at Fuorigrotta, you must have some apprehension, because this year the great beauty of Napoli has always been harnessed by Milan, even in the first leg, a 2-1 signed by Cholito, which was – a rare occurrence – an excessive reward to the merits of Kvara and Company. Behind Lazio, Rome comes up, who like Juve doesn’t shine much for the game, but for the substance yes. With a compact and orderly team, without a center forward but with many raiders, he conquered Turin by harnessing the grenades after Dybala’s goal from a penalty. Mou sees goals in front of him and hardly misses them: a place in the top four of the championship and the Europa League Cup that he promised the Joya to convince him to choose the Giallorossi with a reduced salary. The Budapest final is in his sights, and he knows it well that it would be a masterpiece to be marked with a blue felt-tip pen.
Six games in a row without a win for Inter
L’Interwaiting to visit Benfica in the Champions League, does not go beyond the draw even at the Arechi against Salernitana. It’s already six games in a row without a win, an unfortunate sequence that hasn’t been repeated since 2018. The beauty is that if you compare the performances of the two Milanese, that of the mistreated Inter was unlucky, but not so bad, and that of the acclaimed Milan post Napoli disappointing and faded, almost rolled up in its muddled plots. Both are looking elsewhere, as if to say that they will think about the championship later. But Pioli showed with Napoli what his Milan would be capable of. He knows he has a team in form. Inter have the attack problem. In all matches (except the unwatchable one in the Coppa Italia with Juve) he has always produced chances in series, even with Salernitana. The problem is that it wastes them. He plays but doesn’t finish. Inter’s attack is like those lights that color a sheet of fog without piercing it. Inzaghi mixes the pairs up front, only the result is always the same. Lukaku misses goals in clusters and hasn’t scored from open play since the first day of the championship. Lautaro, dry for 33 days, quite unusual abstinence, seems to be trudging in search of himself. Dzeko no longer affects as before and Correa, who hasn’t hit the target for five and a half months, always gives the impression of being a foreign body. When they ask him for an explanation, Inzaghi shakes his head: “It’s such a moment.” He probably isn’t getting too far from the truth. There are matches like Arechi’s that could have ended with the abacus. The important thing is to keep creating opportunities, sooner or later a light will turn on and something will change. The problem, unfortunately not a small one, is when. It has to happen now, otherwise it’s bad luck. Inzaghi was certainly wrong in the league, also because Napoli was quick to dictate their law and set the record straight. He chose to focus on the Cups. But in the curriculum of “Mister Spiaze” there has always been a slowdown in the first months of the year: his teams are now racing again in the spring. I’d wait to give him up for dead. If Benfica get through, they can watch the Champions League final up close and then I’d like to hear all those who are after him.