The top five split the standings. Inter, Milan, Naples, Atalanta and Juventus win and dig a good furrow with those behind them, with the exception of Fiorentina, who are still missing the match against Turin (today at 17 pm) and the one against Udinese (postponed to a date by to be destined). Only the Viola, if successful, could cling to the train of the first, because the Romans, after yesterday's defeats, are effectively cut off from the race for Europe that counts. Up there at the top, however, Inter remain firmly, also with one game less, although most of Sunday saw Milan in the lead, victorious in Venice and determined not to give up.
But let's go in order and let's start from the match at San Siro between Inzaghi's Nerazzurri and Sarri's Lazio, which ended with the eighth consecutive success of the hosts. It wasn't a walk in the park, as can be seen from the 2-1 final, but this Inter has enough character to be able to win even when the bar is raised, finding within itself the necessary resources to take all the stakes. This time it was the defenders who decided, in every sense: by protecting Handanovic's goal, hit after 6 clean sheets in a row, but above all by violating Strakosha's goal.
The networks of Sticks (30') and Skriniar (67') allowed Inzaghi to win a very important victory, questioned by Immobile's paw in the 35th minute of the first half. Lazio kept the point for a long time, even without creating particular problems for the Nerazzurri, but when the Slovakian central headed off to find the 2-1, the resistance melted like snow in the sun, certifying yet another success in the championship and, consequently, the leadership in the standings.
“We wanted to restart well, despite the disadvantage of starting the second round after the others – commented satisfied Inzaghi – We won a fair, well-deserved victory against a strong team, always in the game. Before, I didn't hear that we alone could throw away the championship, but now many say it... But it's normal for what we're doing, it must be a stimulus for us to always improve".
Opposite mood at Lazio, where you have to deal with yet another misstep of the season, as well as with the almost certainty of being out of the Champions League by now. “We were in the game until the end against a strong team and we tried to equalize until the end – the analysis of Sarri – The team gave a feeling of solidity, we have never been in great pain except for a few moments. Market? The company knows that I would need something, but we are blocked by the liquidity index, even if I don't quite understand what the c…or is”.
Inter's victory restores the hierarchies at the top of the table, which have been called into question since Milan of Pioli, capable of conquering Venezia without the slightest problem. The Penzo fort, in fact, fell after just 2' when Ibrahimovic he unwrapped a chocolate served to him by Leao, transforming what appeared to be an insidious trip into a beautiful outing. The Rossoneri, just like against Roma, showed an enviable physical condition, so much so that they grew over distance: the brace from Hernandez (48' and 59' from a penalty) which made the final 0-3 arrived precisely in the second half, with Zanetti's team forced to surrender without ever bothering Maignan's goal.
“We are a young but mentally mature team – satisfied comment of Pioli – There's still a long way to go to win, Allegri is right when he says Inter are the favorites and the others are more or less on the same level, we have to keep working on ourselves and we'll see if we can do better than last year ”.
Speaking of Allegri, his is certainly the most spectacular victory of Sunday. The 4-3 with which the Juventus he conquered Roma, in fact, is a hymn to the total madness that makes football so unpredictable and spectacular, even if tactical purists obviously wouldn't take it as an example. The match at the Olimpico was completely unconventional, so balanced in the first half (1-1 with goals by Abraham at 11 a.m Dybala at 18') as crackling in the second, where everything really happened. The Giallorossi took a 3-1 lead thanks to goals by Mkhitaryan (48') and Pellegrini (53'), after which Juve came out, capable of overturning every argument within 7': so many were enough to Locatelli (70'), Kulusevsky (72') and The Sciglio (77') to complete the sensational comeback.
But the emotions didn't end there, given that in the 83rd minute Roma had the chance to equalize and play the final 11 against 10 due to De Ligt's expulsion: it was he, in fact, who committed the foul with a hand in the area that led the referee to award a penalty, but Pellegrini got hypnotized by Szczesny and the 3 points are colored black and white. In addition to the previously mentioned red card from the Dutch defender, the yellow card from Cuadrado (with a warning) and the injury from Chiesa, which will deprive Allegri of three essential players for Wednesday's Super Cup against Inter, marred the party. Problems that Mourinho would gladly have, forced instead to deal with a much worse situation, in the light of a ranking that sees him 9 points behind the Champions League zone, moreover with one game more than Atalanta.
“I don't want to criticize mine too much, but I could do it – the angry words of the Special One – Here there is some complex that doesn't allow us to win the big matches, after all it was the same last year. In any case, I never thought that just me would be enough, our project is for three years and I would like to do them all, obviously with the help of the company which is intervening on the market anyway. Here we need people who take responsibility, we need to get out of the comfort zone that makes us satisfied with finishing sixth or seventh in the standings".
If it's not a Champions League surrender, we're close, after all Napoli e Atalanta they go too fast. Despite the many absences (yesterday Insigne also stopped with an adductor problem), the Azzurri beat Sampdoria with a great goal from Petagna (43'), the Nerazzurri, also without their bomber Zapata, buried Udinese under a mountain of goals, as evidenced by the 6-2 final in which Muriel (brace), Pasalic, Malinovskyi, Maehle and Pessina scored. In short, the goal festival, for a train of four teams that travels very fast and that only Juventus, perhaps, can try to hook up.
