Milan reopens the championship. There victory in the derby allows him to move to minus 1 in the standings from Inter and if it is true that the Nerazzurri still have a game to recover, it is also true that next Saturday they will have to deal with the Napoli by Spalletti, the other big winner of the day. The Scudetto fight therefore comes back to life, precisely in the match in which it seemed to have definitively ended. For most of the match, in fact, Inzaghi's Inter dominated and were solely to blame for not finding the second goal. It would have been the exclamation point on the derby and, probably, on the championship; instead, Milan held on until, as sometimes happens in football, they found the episode that changed everything. “I'm too happy, I have a team that never gives up, kids who want to go beyond their limits – he exulted Pioli -. This is a victory that must give us conviction, knowing in any case that we have the same points as last season and therefore there is still a lot to do”.
"I saw a derby dominated far and wide, with the only defect of not having scored the second goal: losing like this hurts, it's a hard and burning lesson - he retorted Inzaghi -. My players got nervous at 1-1 because there was an obvious foul on Sanchez, but there we had to be 2 or 3-0. If you play it 10 times, you only lose one match like this…”.
So the cover of the evening takes it Giroud, who since yesterday officially writes his name in the history of Milan. Up until this derby, in fact, the AC Milan number 9 had never managed to affect the season, limiting himself to a few sporadic goals without however shifting any balance. He did it yesterday, right in the most important match, thus transforming the regrets for the absence of Ibrahimovic in a bunch of hugs, real (from Pioli and his companions) and virtual (from all the fans).
In fact, he and Diaz, the other great factor in this victory, steered the match for Milan: his entry onto the pitch in place of a spent Kessié, in fact, gave courage to the team, hitherto at the mercy of a decidedly superior Inter. If the first half ended only 1-0 (goal from Perisic in the 38th minute) it is mainly due to Maignan, very good on several occasions, or, depending on your point of view, to the imprecision of the Nerazzurri, really ravenous in devouring numerous goalscorings. However, even they didn't think that the derby could change color sensationally, but in the last quarter of an hour Giroud took the chair, who first found the 1-1 with a touch of robbery (75', an action born from a contact with Sanchez judged regular by the referee), then he invented a 1-2 with a play like a great striker who killed De Vrij and, above all, a Handanovic who was not without fault (78').
In the final, very excited like any self-respecting derby (Hernandez sent off in full recovery), there were no particular occasions and the result remained like this, with Milan taking 3 fundamental points, both for the standings and for morale.
The same, albeit with due proportions, can also be said of Lazio, which clears Florence with a sensational 0-3. The Franchi match appeared to be very balanced, instead the biancocelesti conquered it without ifs and buts, annihilating a Fiorentina evidently shaken by Vlahovic's farewell. Cabral and Piatek will score their goals, there's little doubt about this, hence to say that the absence won't leave aftermath but we'll pass, as indeed we saw last night. The goals in the second half from Milinkovic-Savic (52'), Immobile (70') and Biraghi's own goal (81') were decisive, to certify the greater state of health, physical and mental, of Sarri's team, to which the protest by the fans against Lotito does not seem to have had any effect, on the contrary. “The market is now closed, we have these guys and I have the feeling that they are growing rapidly – the satisfied comment of the Biancoceleste coach -. I'm having fun during the week, now a good tour de force will start again and it will be more difficult, but the sensations remain positive".
Saturday of anger and controversy instead on the other side of the capital, or the yellow and red one. There Rome, in fact, failed to go beyond the 0-0 draw against Genoa, but it was the endgame, characterized by the Zaniolo's goal disallowed for a foul by Abraham on Vasquez and the subsequent expulsion of the attacker for protests.
Decision that will cause discussion, there is no doubt about this, but which all in all, in football at the time of the Var, could be there: however, woe to tell the Special One, protagonist of a harsh outburst (yet another of the season) in the post-game. “I don't want to comment, I can talk about the match but not about the goal or the red light for Zaniolo – his words at the press conference – If those are the indications that the referees have then we have to change the name of this sport, it is no longer football. If the referee made a mistake and had to evaluate the goal, he will be the first to be unhappy and for us it's deja vu.
It happened many times during the season, "Roma in the eyes of power is small". Very strong concepts, which however are not enough to explain the seventh place in the standings of the Giallorossi, four points behind fourth-placed Atalanta but with two more games: the area Champions it is now a chimera and, at this rate, the growth process of Mou's team also risks becoming such.
