In Chivu’s debut year
©IMAGO
Inter Milan are Italian champions for the 21st time. After the 2-0 win against Parma Calcio 1913 on Sunday evening, the Nerazzurri can no longer be pushed out of first place three game days before the end of the season. Chasers and last year’s champions SSC Naples only played 0-0 against European Cup candidate Como 1907 on Saturday. Inter replaces the Azzurri and their former coach Antonio Conte at the top of Serie A after a year. Inter last won the Scudetto in 2024 and 2021.
Coach Cristian Chivu’s team dominated against Parma and still has a chance of a double in his first year as a professional coach in the Coppa Italia final against Lazio on May 13th. The Romanian ex-professional took over from successful coach Simone Inzaghi, who moved to Al-Hilal in Saudi Arabia, in the summer. Chivu didn’t always live up to the big footsteps of his predecessor, especially in the big games, Inter scored fewer points than usual in previous years. In the Champions League there was also the embarrassing elimination in the second round against the Norwegian underdogs FK Bodø/Glimt.
In Serie A, however, Inter has not been able to be pushed off the top of the table since matchday 15 in mid-December. This was also due to the fact that the pursuers Napoli and AC Milan showed little consistency in the decisive phase of the season. The Rossoneri had even won both Milan derbies against their city rivals, but are still 15 points behind in third place. Of 17 Serie A games this year, Inter only lost one, against Milan on matchday 28 (0-1).
How Chivu led Inter Milan to the championship
“At first he just seemed like a good communicator and many were tipping him to be the first coach to be sacked in Serie A, especially after the first two defeats,” Transfermarkt Italy’s Stefano Buonfino said of Chivu. “Then he proved everyone wrong by keeping the squad together, giving everyone a chance – including the young players – giving them the opportunity to develop and winning every game against the weaker teams. In the second half of the season, paradoxically, there were some poor performances in head-to-head matches, but they still won by being more cynical.”
Serie A expert Buonfino praises the Inter coach: “Perhaps his greatest achievement is that he has picked up the pieces of last year’s crisis and given continuity to the project by signing young players; tactically, however, apart from the introduction of a more aggressive first-pressing strategy, much of the credit goes to his predecessor Inzaghi, as his influence is still felt and it would have been foolish to turn everything upside down in a team that was functioning well ask.”
Buonfino describes the core of the successful team of recent years as the most important pillars in Inter’s championship team: Alessandro Bastoni, Denzel Dumfries, Nicolò Barella, Hakan Çalhanoğlu, Federico Dimarco and Lautaro Martínez. “They have ensured that it is a real group and a real team and not just a collection of individual stars. Furthermore, the squad is broad beyond the top players and there has almost never been any difficulty in compensating for even long and significant absences. Everyone feels important, including the substitutes, which is partly thanks to the work of the captain and the coach.”
Former Gladbacher Marcus Thuram’s 14th goal of the season was enough against Parma shortly before half-time (45+1). The French international was born in Parma, his father Lilian Thuram played there from 1996 to 2001. Former Dortmund player Henrikh Mkhitaryan also scored a goal (80th). In San Siro on Sunday evening there was also an acclaimed appearance by captain Martínez, who came on as a substitute for Thuram in the second half. The Argentine striker had only played one game since the end of February due to injury.
