Scudetto fight, balance overturned. It was supposed to be Milan's weekend, who dreamed of beating Bologna and extending on Napoli and Inter; instead, not only did Spalletti and Inzaghi win in Bergamo and Turin, but Pioli ended up tripping over the Emilian obstacle, unable to go beyond a gray 0-0 draw at San Siro. And so it becomes inevitable to get back to the accounts, because if it is true that the Devil remains in the lead alone, it is also true that the Azzurri and the Nerazzurri have become dangerously close, all with a calendar that would seem to benefit them.
Milan, another misstep with a "small" one: and now there are Turin and Genoa...
The "small soreness", this is well established, is now a chronic problem for Pioli's team, almost perfect in direct clashes but unable to assert themselves against medium-low ranking opponents. Bologna, highly motivated after Mihajlovic's relapse, didn't steal anything, on the contrary they forced Milan to play a game that doesn't belong to them, just like Spezia, Salernitana and Udinese. And so the Rossoneri extend the list of wasted opportunities, but if in the past Napoli and Inter weren't able to take advantage of them, this time they did it and even in a big way.
Pioli: "A wasted opportunity, but we just missed the goal"
“We shot 33 times but we couldn't find the play, the flash, the decisive shot to unlock the game – Pioli's bitter comment -. These evenings are like this, if you don't score immediately then they get complicated, but the performance was good, the team took to the field with the right spirit and the right determination. We were neither tense, nor too excited, nor presumptuous, I can only attribute the lack of lucidity to the boys in the last 20 meters. Now let's think about the next match against Turin, an excellent team that stopped Juve and Inter. It is certainly a missed opportunity, but the performance satisfies me and in any case the championship will be decided at the last minute, from here on out there will be difficulties for us as for the others. No one grants or gives you anything…”.
Napoli very fast, Inter loaded: Spalletti and Inzaghi aim for the top
At this point however, calendar in hand, one wonders if Milan can still be the favorites for the final victory. The next two matches with Turin and Genoa are scary, because it is likely that they will follow last night's scenario, therefore few spaces and a lot of intensity: exactly what scares the Devil, much more at ease in spaces than in such contexts.
To complete the concept then there are Napoli and Inter, considered by all to be more complete both in terms of staff and mentality. It's true that the Rossoneri beat both of them, proving to be fully competitive to fight to the end, but the psychological blow of the weekend just ended will be strong and it will take a lot of work to overcome it in the shortest possible time.
The Azzurri and Nerazzurri, on the other hand, experience exactly the opposite and are ready to take advantage of the slipstream to overtake the current leaders, albeit with different assumptions. Spalletti is the one who is better off both physically and technically, but in the next two he will have to contend with Fiorentina and Roma, not exactly the softest opponents of the moment, Inzaghi on the other hand, Turin result aside, certainly cannot be said to be at the top, but now he will have Verona and Spezia, as well as the Bologna bonus that he can take advantage of. In short, inertia would seem to be on their side, even if this championship has taught us not to take anything, absolutely nothing, for granted. And in the shift that has just ended, if there was still a need, we had yet another demonstration of it.
