Italy: classic and balanced.
It’s increasingly clear: the title fight in the Italian Serie A will be between two teams – Inter and Juventus. The Italian derby deserves its name once again. Napoli are most likely out of the race for good after losing to Juventus, for whom the much-criticised defender Gatti scored. But here Juventus, who have been through several earthquakes, still managed to return, if only for twenty-four hours, to the top of the table.
Inter won a match against Udinese that they couldn’t possibly lose. Inter has a team and a coach. But it has squad problems and not infrequent playing problems. They are suffering. At the same time, Inter Milan has come to this wisdom that is not only useful in the game of football: suffering is useless. At the same time, not suffering is obscene. Inter walks this tightrope, seemingly always over the precipice. But it does it gracefully.
AC Milan went down. It lost in Bergamo to Atalanta at the end of a spectacular match that ended with a superb goal by Muriel, one of the last great strikers to come straight from the maidans, from those virgin fields in the depths of Latin America, where football is played for show, heels, scissors and folha-seca shots. As long as Muriel plays and can still score goals like the one in the final match against AC Milan, you can safely bet that Atalanta matches will be full of goals.
The battle for survival, to avoid relegation, has once again many candidates. Verona pulled a point against Lazio, even though they finished the match (I saw the whole thing) on their knees, taking blow after blow. It finished with ten men, but also held on heroically. Taty Castellano is an ultra-talented footballer but on the other hand he’ll never be able to actually replace Immobile and that’s why Lazio are having the mediocre season they’re having, so far sitting in a place that puts them outside the European cups.
Each of Empoli, Cagliari, Salernitana, Udinese, Sassuolo, Genoa, Lecce and even Frosinone can drop into Serie B. It’s going to be a big fight in the basement of the table this year too. Salernitana seem sensibly left behind, but miracles have been seen before in the winter at Salernitana.
Watch out for details
There are few teams that sail smoothly in the murky waters of Serie A. Like Monza and Torino. Who show no signs of going up or down. Bologna is having a good season and like Atalanta or Fiorentina are hoping for the European cups. AS Roma is shooting for a Champions League spot. Napoli lost the magic of last year and without magic, Napoli can’t do much of anything.
In short, in Serie A we have a classic season, with no big surprises, but no lack of the beauty of close battles.
The key word of the season in Italy is this – it also sums up the title fight and the European cups and relegation battle: balance. More than in any other league, in Italy it will be the details that make the difference. So pay attention to the little things, the details!
