Platinum points. First of all for Inter, that by beating Sassuolo it goes to +11 on the second and thus flies towards the Scudetto, but also for Juve, which thanks to success on Naples review that Champions area absolutely essential for coffers and prestige. The Wednesday of the recoveries (now only Lazio-Turin is missing, at the moment still without a date) put a decidedly high stake on the plate and to celebrate, albeit for different reasons, were Conte and Pirlo, leaving De Zerbi and Gattuso instead to dry mouth. Here too, however, a distinction must be made: if for the Neroverde coach, in fact, the ranking remains substantially unchanged, the same cannot be said for the blue one, who is now seeing the ghosts of a failure to qualify for the Champions League.
That of Turin, paradoxically, was a much more delicate challenge than that of Milan, because Inter now, thanks to him (10 consecutive victories) and the demerits of others, runs only on itself. At the Stadium, on the other hand, a real playoff was scheduled, the result of which, although not definitive, has every appearance of being able to affect the final standings. Who risked the most was certainly Juve, who in the event of a defeat would have found themselves out of the first four places: a scenario so apocalyptic that it was not even taken into consideration, as confirmed by Paratici in the pre-match, yet absolutely realistic. Had it happened, we would probably find ourselves commenting on Pirlo's dismissal, instead football, as often happens, knows how to overturn hypotheses like nothing else. And so the Juventus coach, from "dead man walking", finds himself back in the saddle, ready to play the chances of reconfirmation in the season finale.
The team, that's for sure, responded in the most delicate moment, playing a great game, one of the best net of the opponent. To unlock it, after just 13', the usual Ronaldo took care of it, cold in exploiting Chiesa's winning serpentine, but the first half, beyond the goal, was of excellent workmanship, reducing Napoli to a few, sporadic, flare-ups. And then, since this is never a normal match, here are the inevitable (and justified) refereeing controversies, with the Mariani-Di Paolo (Var) duo missing out on two sensational penalties, one on each side (Lozano on Chiesa and Alex Sandro on Zielinski ), just to further inflame spirits. In the second half, Gattuso tried everything by inserting Politano and Osimhen in place of Lozano and Demme: the idea seemed to work because the Azzurri raised the center of gravity, forcing Juve to defend the result.
This time, however, Pirlo also had some changes to make and so, in the 69th minute, Dybala appeared from the bench, back on the pitch after almost three months. The Argentine, at the center of the controversy after last week's party (complete with a punitive exclusion from the derby), immediately pulled the winning rabbit out of the hat, or rather an unstoppable left foot that beat Meret for the second time (73 ') . Napoli then thought about reawakening it osimhen, who got himself a penalty in the 90th minute for a foul by Chiellini which was then converted by Insigne, giving some pathos to a final which, however, held no other surprises.
"We had tried this type of attitude, always keeping two full-backs wide, with Danilo going to be a midfielder, adding half to the field to then free up more space in the width with Chiesa and Cuadrado - the analysis by Pirlo – Unfortunately we have not always been as incisive as this time, we have left too many points by the wayside due to a wrong attitude. When you want to win you sacrifice yourself, you help yourself and in the end you bring home the result, but sometimes we didn't do it…”.
The idea of unstitching the scudetto from his chest after nine years of triumphs has not yet been digested, especially since this, barring incredible twists, will end up on the shirts of theInter of the former Conte. The victory in Bologna had already paved the way, yesterday's victory, if possible, makes it even clearer, so much so that one no longer wonders if the Nerazzurri will win the championship, but when. After all, the team has long been in the image and likeness of its coach, in other words incapable of any lapse in concentration, focused solely and exclusively on the final objective.
Aesthetic ambitions have by now passed completely into the background, so much so that yesterday, despite numerous absences, it was Sassuolo who held the ball in hand, but this did nothing other than make things easier for Inter, capable as usual to defend well, and then take advantage of the fury of his attackers. Lukaku he already unlocked the score in the 10th minute with a nice header, Lautaro he doubled up on the counterattack in the 67th minute in a moment of black-and-green dominance, moreover on a highly contested play. In fact, the action arose from a very suspicious contact between De Vrij and Raspadori in the Nerazzurri area: an episode that infuriated De Zerbi, even if it is fair to say that in the first half there could have been a penalty for Inter an arm of Rogerio.
“Had we been more cynical we could have scored 5-6 goals, but congratulations to Sassuolo – he glossed over Tale – I think we needed to take a further step if we wanted to become a contender for the Scudetto, we needed to raise the threshold of malice, attention, determination, resilience. It would be nice to oust the reign of a team that has been winning for nine years, but it's inevitable that between now and the end there will be tension, because the ball weighs more and more."
The Nerazzurri coach is right to say so, but it is clear that he too, in his heart, knows well that he now has his hands on the Scudetto. The ball weighs especially for the other 6, forced to fight for the three remaining places for the next Champions League. It won't be like winning a trophy, but in times of economic crisis like this they can weigh even more.
