Inter and the triptych that can free them for the Champions League

Nine days to close the championship discussion, to eliminate every residue and minimum “but”. Inter have a not impossible triptych ahead of them: today Lecce at the Via del Mare stadium; recovery against Atalanta on Wednesday; Genoa at San Siro on Monday 4 March. The big obstacle is Atalanta in the middle of the week, the other two are affordable commitments, although treacherous, because Lecce needs safety points and Genoa is going through a wonderful period, led by Mateo Retegui, the national team’s center forward. The law of large numbers works against Simone Inzaghi: the league leaders won all the matches in the 2024 calendar year, it is impossible to maintain this frequency of successes. It is physiological and human that sooner or later a slowdown comes in the form of a draw, if not a slip. We hope that the stop does not take shape in Madrid, in the second leg of the Champions League against Atletico, a match in which a draw would be fine.

the big opportunity

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We are not asking Inter to win all the matches of the upcoming triptych, the scudetto will arrive anyway. The face-to-face matches with Atalanta always resemble journeys into the unknown and a point, against the “dentist” Gasperini, would be fine just the same.

However, we believe that Simone Inzaghi is aware of the great opportunity: with nine points, Inter would rise to 72 after 27 days. Napoli, a year ago, were leaders in the 27th round with 71 and had in fact already won the scudetto, it was a pure question of time. The opportunity should be seized, without feeling it as an obligation, to dedicate oneself almost exclusively to the Champions League and chase the utopia of another final, if not the Doblete, the championship-big cup combination. If in eight days the leaders reach 72 points, Inzaghi will be able to use Serie A as a training ground for Bisseck and Buchanan to grow, the former will also play tonight in Lecce; to make Frattesi feel like a starter and not just the first luxury change; to understand whether Asllani could potentially rise to the rank of Calhanoglu. More generally, to prepare for the future. Operation feasible even if the points will be seven and not nine.

The others

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The scudetto is gone and everything else is a Champions League marathon. Inter aside, there are three places left to be assigned, perhaps four if Italy remains first or second in the UEFA ranking by nations until the end of the season, a very concrete hypothesis today. Juve, Milan, Bologna, Atalanta, Roma, Lazio and Fiorentina are in the running. And Napoli, if they win today in Cagliari and on Wednesday in recovery against Sassuolo, otherwise goodbye. Seven-eight teams, with Juve and Milan no longer so sure of being safe from being reabsorbed into the group of other aspirants. Juve, at lunchtime against Frosinone, has no choice: win to break a negative sequence of two points in the last four matches, three of which against Empoli, Udinese, Verona. Any outcome other than victory would open up semi-apocalyptic scenarios. Tonight Milan will have to contain Atalanta: in the event of a defeat, they would find themselves faced with it, four steps below and with the asterisk of the game less. For Pioli, the categorical imperative is “not to lose” and not to concede goals. It will be difficult to keep the goal blank against Atalanta, but a strong signal is needed, the seven goals scored between Monza and Rennes must be sterilised.

To close, the dutiful celebration of Davide Nicola, who won at Sassuolo. In six days on the Empoli bench, three wins and three draws, twelve points, two on average per game. A Champions League qualifying performance. Empoli were second to last at 13, Nicola dragged them to 25, five floors above the red zone.

Nicola’s specialization, his ability to resuscitate inert groups, is now a school case, to be studied, and it would be wrong to reduce everything to the motivational aspect. There is more and there is never the fluff of words.