Cast your eye over the fixture list this past week and you might be forgiven for thinking that Serie A was taking a moment to recuperate. As the Coppa Italia fixtures grew increasingly heated, with the major sides playing one another, the league featured nothing of the sort. When the highest-profile game is Udinese versus Milan, then the week’s results can probably be pencilled in before a ball has been kicked.
But rather than a week of easy victories, many of the biggest sides faltered in their ambitions. Roma, Napoli, and, to a lesser extent, Lazio, Fiorentina, Torino, and Atalanta all dropped points. It was a week of stumbles, the top half of the table labouring to overcome the midtable sides and the strugglers. It adds a slightly new dimension to the league, that’s for sure. But what went wrong?
Let’s put the obvious to one side. Juventus won. Playing away to Sassuolo, even Domenico Berardi couldn’t help the minnows against the champions. Now wholly owned by Sassuolo, as part of the deal that took Simone Zaza to Turin, Berardi has always had a habit of avoiding games against the Old Lady. Perhaps taking inspiration from the Antonio di Natale playbook, any games involving his former-parent club would often see him pick up a slight injury or niggle.
But not this week. The mercurial forward lined up against Juventus and his side promptly lost two nil. The most run-of-the-mill result of the weekend. It kept Juve top and they barely had to move out of second gear.
But as we glance down the table, things start to get a bit more interesting.
Firstly, Roma. Always a side more comfortable when chasing a leader, Roma fans have been watching in recent weeks as they’ve closed the gap on the leaders. Before the weekend, they were within a point of Juventus. Faced with the real possibility of a title race, Roma promptly threw it all away.
A team so-often terrified of their own potential, they shipped not one, but two leads to a bang average Sampdoria side. While Samp’s colorful owner danced about in the stands, hurling all sorts of abuse, Roma had to rely on results elsewhere to cling to second place.
Those results where dictated by the opening minutes of Napoli’s game against Palermo. The only reason Palermo are not the worst team in the league is because of Pescara’s astonishing capacity for awfulness. As Palermo continued to ring the changes in their annual dance of the managers, this time bringing Diego López back into the fold, a trip away to the San Paulo must seemed an unenviable task for the side’s eleventh manager in 24 months.
So much so, that when Ilija Nestoroski scored inside six minutes, the odds were still heavily in Napoli’s favour to not only equalise, but to go on and win the match. For the next eighty minutes, the Neapolitans battered themselves against the Sicilian door. Two thirds of the way through the game, they got their equaliser. One minute from added time, Goldaniga saw red. But it was not enough. Napoli stumbled as well, dropping two points in one of the easiest fixtures of their season.
There are three Champions League spots open for Italian sides (for now). For most of the league, the chance to grab a Europa League spot is a much more attainable goal. Even the sides chasing this trophy managed to shoot themselves in their collective foot.
Take Fiorentina, for instance. For most of the game, they dominated an eager Genoa side. Continuing their decent run of form as of late, Paulo Sousa’s men were combining well, monopolising possession, and should have been — and it is not too shocking to say — four or five up before half time. But, somehow, they allowed Genoa to get back into the game. After going two nil up, they then shipped two goals. Things were equal.
When Fiorentina managed to put themselves back in the lead, people assumed that this was game over. Three points in the bag. But a goalmouth scramble saw Bernardeschi, the local golden boy, sent off for a hand ball in the box, and a penalty shipped five minutes from time. The game would have been thrilling had it not been for the sheer incompetence on display.
Then there was the game between Torino and Atalanta. Both teams are fighting for the prize of Most Impressive Runner Up, that patronising, imaginary award which is handed out to smaller sides who punch above their weight. The trophy comes in the form of the opportunity to sell off your best players to the highest bidder. Together, they managed to come to a one all draw. A fair result, perhaps, but one which does nothing to help either side.
Or at least, a point shouldn’t have helped either of these teams, had Lazio not been so abject in their own right. Playing at home to Chievo, Inzaghi’s men huffed and puffed and then let in a goal in the last minute. This somewhat agricultural Chievo side has risen to the dizzying heights of eleventh place as a result, but any team with ambitions of a top five spot will have viewed this fixture as a win. An essential three points. It was not to be.
A similar story can be said about Milan, who have faltered in recent weeks after a promising spell. But, almost across the board, those teams with the biggest ambitions seemed to come up short against the sides whose primary focus is remaining in the division. Perhaps it was as a result of mid-week cup games. Perhaps it was the result of some kind of entitled arrogance. Either way, it has stunted the progress of many of Serie A’s top sides this week.
With one notable exception. In a stunning departure from character, Inter have been quietly going about their business in a sensible manner. Usually a team utterly devoted to tickertape parades of incredible ineptitude, they are now playing in a settled formation, under a steady manager, with all of the players in the right positions. They’ve invested well over the winter, buying good players for good amounts. They have depth, they have resources, and — especially over the last few weeks — they have the points to show for it.
Inter demolished a hapless Pescara. As mentioned above, Pescara have plumbed new depths of awfulness this year, but racking up wins against the rest of the table is an essential part of any stabilising climb up the ranks. It’s Juventus’s bread and butter. And, as has been resolutely demonstrated this week, beating the weaker sides is not always that easy.
But, over the course of the last ten games, there is no side in Italy in better form than Inter. They’ve gone from grinding out wins to dominating games. Now fourth in the table, three and five points behind third and second respectively, they could still be in with a genuine shot at the Champions League positions. In a weekend of shocks and upsets, this new-look Inter side could well be the biggest surprise at all. Inter, if they want to succeed this year, need to continue their policy of being as un-Inter-like as possible. It’s so crazy it just might work.
