Naples like Diego. And Juventus… | Agresti’s comment

Only Diego, the eldest, had succeeded. And now Napoli is returning up there: Raspadori’s coup against Juve – not just any opponent – also brings the Scudetto closer in time. Now it’s really there, one step away, so much so that it could even arrive this weekend. If Spalletti’s team beat Salernitana on Saturday, and Lazio fail to win at San Siro against Inter on Sunday, the third title in Azzurri history will be done, with an extraordinary advance compared to the end of the championship, a full six days. At that point, everything – even the Champions League that flew away a few days ago – will be forgotten: nothing can and will not stain a Scudetto won in this way. No, there will be no afterthoughts: only pure enjoyment.

Leao and Lukaku

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The Champions League wears out those who don’t play it. And we don’t just think about Napoli, who reacted to the elimination by going on to win in Turin. If anyone expected Milan and Inter to physically suffer the strains of the cup, and to be mentally drained by qualifying for the semi-final, they were very wrong. On the contrary, it almost seems as though Europe has given the Milan teams new lifeblood, new energy, new confidence. The successes against Lecce and Empoli – determined by Leao and Lukaku – represent signs of great significance in the race for another Champions League, that of next season, which Pioli and Inzaghi must conquer through the championship as they prepare the assault on this one, of Champions . These are results that also give confidence to the two clubs, for which finishing in the top four of Serie A is certainly worth more than for the coaches themselves: without qualifying for the 2023-24 Champions Cup, the economic accounts do not add up and the managers have to invent who knows what to fix them.

The Milanese

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Lecce and Empoli are not irresistible opponents, you will say: why celebrate these successes with such emphasis? In short, it is all in all normal that Milan and Inter beat them. Not true. The Nerazzurri, for example, had never won in the previous five league games, losing even four times (also against Spezia, Fiorentina and Monza, as well as against Juve) and snatching only one point from Salerno. And the Rossoneri too came from a dark period: in six Serie A matches they had indeed beaten Napoli, but only the Azzurri, drawing instead with Salernitana, Empoli and Bologna and falling not only against Fiorentina, but also against Udinese. Medium or low-level opponents had therefore turned into insurmountable obstacles for Inzaghi and Pioli. The fact that two convincing successes have arrived this time should not be overlooked at all, right now that the great sprint to enter the top four of the standings is entering the decisive phase.

Champions League places

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Yes: the fight for places in the Champions League. Waiting for Atalanta-Roma (which could relaunch or definitively burn the players from Bergamo, trigger or slow down Mourinho), this week the tussle has reignited behind Napoli. A situation to which the defeat of Lazio against Turin and the decision of the guarantee college on the penalty of Juve also contributed. For the moment, the bianconeri have recovered their fifteen points and, until the contrary sentence, have returned to occupy a top position, immediately behind Sarri’s team and ahead of Rome, Milan and Inter. And this despite the daring defeat against Napoli. The race for the Champions League is wide open and full of uncertainties, starting precisely with the fate of Juve linked to the courts as well as to the pitch. It’s not easy for Allegri’s players to play with that doubt in mind every time: how many points do we have? Yet against Napoli they remained in the match from start to finish, coming close to success and only giving up in added time.

Ransom

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Even Napoli, like Milan and Inter, won their match immediately after the Champions League, but the state of mind of the Azzurri was completely different, opposite to that of the Rossoneri and Nerazzurri. The latter, full of joy, were looking for points in order not to fall too far from the top positions of the standings; Spalletti’s team, the great disappointment of the European week, was looking for immediate redemption to erase the bad thoughts left by the elimination. And this even though he didn’t have an absolute need for those three points, because no one would have been able to question his primacy anyway. It was a matter of pride, above all. It was a desire for redemption for having missed a goal – the semi-final of the Champions League – that Napoli believed they had to achieve, especially considering the superiority over all their Italian rivals, and therefore also Milan, shown in the league. But that doesn’t matter much now. Now the Scudetto counts, the one that only Diego, the greatest, had brought there.