Call it derby fever. The one that rises day after day, hour after hour, which takes your stomach even before your head, especially after two weeks of rest which have done nothing but increase its scope. There are still four (abundant) days left for the 222nd edition of Inter-Milan (191 in championship) yet in Milan the wait is already very high, as if we were in the immediate eve and not in a simple midweek date.
Desire for football, of course, but also, if not above all, awareness that the derby in question is one of those that count and not just for mere city issues. At stake are heavy points for the area Champions and, what more more important, a viaticum for the noble areas of the classification, a kind of laura, perhaps permanent, which certifies the discovery height .
The pressure is a lot, a lot, and consequently falls on the two coaches like no other. Spalletti on one side, Gattuso on the other: whoever wins takes flight, whoever loses finds himself in the dust. In fact, both Luciano and Rino learned the instability of benches a long time ago Milanese, and even if you return from being very good risultates (6 consecutive victories for the former, three for the latter) they know that the derby can't go wrong, on pain of nullifying any judgment and starting a new trial, in which, obviously, they would have the role of defendants.
Coaches in the foreground therefore, the real challenge however will be played on the pitch and there the protagonists will be the players.
Icardi vs Higuain it's a lot of theme as obvious as it is inevitable: after all, most of the 80 at San Siro will come to see those two. Different forwards, both by age (25 years the first, 30 the second) what characteristics (Mauro more bomber, Gonzalo more technical), yet often in opposition, as if the God of football enjoyed pitting them against each other.
The two have often fought for a place in the national team and the challenge, until a few months ago, has always won Higuain, but now the roles seem to have reversed and while Pipita takes advantage of the stops to work on Milanello, Maurito goes to Argentina under the orders of Ct Scaloni, perhaps the first to truly believe in him. Select but not only: Icardi could have been the substitute of before Higuain in Naples, then enter into an exchange between Inter e Juve that would have made the whole of Italy tremble, but nothing happened and the two will end up meeting on the lawn of San Siro to lead the nerazzurri e Rossoneri.
Watching them live, in addition to 80 fans, are the respective managers of the two properties, who, as everyone knows, have very little Milanese. Suning e Elliot they will elevate the Madonnina derby to a sort of clash between China and the USA: war Cold it's another thing, for heaven's sake, but certainly there won't be room for pleasantries. Still a few days, then it will be Inter-Milan: losing it, in every sense, would really be an unforgivable sin.
