Under the lights of San Siro, Inter and Napoli follow the scripts assigned the day before, but surprisingly share the stakes.
Inter is coming home, both in terms of friendly walls and natural habitat, that is this Serie A championship that he knows better than his own pockets, capable of stealing every secret and fishing for hidden pearls even in the most unknown pockets. A return that is good for the Nerazzurri, who find certainty and self-esteem in the first halfa in their game that perhaps Madrid’s slap could have undermined. Or, perhaps, the neutral spectators or those who care about the fate of the Neapolitans for Inter-Napoli had timidly hoped for it, but without even really believing it;
Actually, Inter plays without even engaging the high gears, or at least giving this impression: a journey at cruising speed for Inzaghi’s team, who only seem to keep their foot on the accelerator, without even forcing the engine revs, aware that perhaps there isn’t any it wasn’t even necessary. That alone is enough to produce Darmian’s opportunity, good for the lead in the only circumstance in which Meret, best of his team in the first half, was unable to do anything;
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If Sparta (Inter) cries in Europe, Athens (Napoli) certainly doesn’t laugh: the defeat of Barcelona extinguished the Azzurri’s last hope of giving prestige to a cursed season, and he arrives in Milan with the task of trying to rekindle a fire, that of Champions League qualification, which now seems dormant. Dormant like the spirit of the Azzurri (today blank) throughout the first half: quelled by the high pressing which was, to say the least, frenzied by the hosts, which made the Azzurri’s construction a pure utopia, continually forcing the Azzurri to make mistakes (in particular Di Lorenzo seemed particularly breathless). However, if Napoli suffers in the possession phase, leaving their attackers alone like Paolo Giordano’s prime numbers, in the non-possession phase it holds up well, repeatedly luring Thuram and Lautaro into the offside trap, effectively rendering the Milanese’s clear territorial superiority sterile and unproductive;
In the second half the match becomes more hostile, but above all it loses tactical sophistication, an element that is increasingly important at high levels. If the outline remains substantially unchanged in the course of the process, it’s the details that make the difference and, in fact, to punish Inter: if Napoli’s mistakes I continued, undaunted, to be present, on the other hand Inter proved to be more wasted than usual. A cynicism that Napoli, curiously, has not lacked, capitalizing as best he could on the only real mistake made by the home team, who up until then had played a very important match. A goal, signed by Juan Jesus, which on the one hand certifies the chronic madness of Inter, on the other rewards one of the symbols of the mistakes of this tragic blue season: a player who, with all his limitations, found himself a starter and, despite himself, he disguises himself as a hero, if only for one night;
It stops the consecutive winning streak in the championship for Inter after 10 victories. A “negative” result, which came after the bad elimination in the Champions League, which would lead to talk of an Inter crisis, if only just thinking about it makes you laugh. A draw, all in all deserved by his defensive phase, which is completely unexpected for Napoli, perhaps convinced that they will have to start the crazy Champions League race only from the next match. A point, however, that Napoli is very happy to take home, more for the injection of confidence it could give to the group of former Italian champions than for the actual contribution it can offer to the standings.