With Milan’s draw against Genoa, Chivu is practically certain to finish the first round in first place: even in the event of a draw, the goal difference puts the Nerazzurri in clear advantage
Stanciu’s (reviewable) penalty took a couple of verdicts that seemed about to be issued and made them waste paper. The first: no defeat for Milan who at least have remained on a positive streak since August, since that one defeat against Cremonese. The second: Inter are virtually winter champions. The Nerazzurri make a small leap towards the Scudetto, but talking about escape is out of context: if Stanciu had inflated the net, Chivu and his team would have toasted to +4.
asterisk
—
Let’s sort out the Milanese rankings. A part of Serie A travels with 19 matches played so far, but not the top three in the class which, together with Bologna, took part in the Super Cup. Therefore, four matches of the sixteenth round, the one in mid-December, have not yet been played: Inter-Lecce, Napoli-Parma, Como-Milan and Verona-Bologna. As a result, no one has yet reached the top of the rankings. This is the situation: Inter 42, Milan 39, Napoli 38. Conte’s team is inevitably excluded from the symbolic mid-season title, considering the impossibility of recovering four points in a single day. However, from an arithmetic point of view, the Milanese remain in the running. Who will not see the title of winter champion “assigned” this weekend because the twentieth matchday will be played, and therefore the first return match: Fiorentina-Milan and Inter-Napoli will therefore not be considered valid for the purposes of the calculation, regardless of the results that accrue.
no direct confrontation
—
No, to officially assign the finish line to the halfway point we will have to wait for the recovery of that sixteenth matchday which the big teams did not play for the Super Cup. With dates within reach: on January 14th Inter-Lecce will be played at San Siro, the following day there will be Como-Milan. The Nerazzurri will be certain to finish as winter champions alone if they collect at least a draw against the Salento team, at that point becoming unattainable for anyone at the end of the first round. Even in the event of defeat, however, a turnaround by the Rossoneri would be almost science fiction. With the return derby missing, the criterion to take into consideration is goal difference. Inter can currently boast a more than reassuring +25, against Milan’s +15. Barring shocking results, the Nerazzurri will therefore finish top of the first round.
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED