The Monday Scratch

On Olympic medal Sunday, Inter also sweeps away Sassuolo (5-0), Juve-Lazio 2-2

Inter overwhelming in the championship, ready to fight for the Scudetto between records and impressive numbers

by Dario Ceccarelli

La Presse

6' min read

Translated by AI
Versione italiana

6' min read

Translated by AI
Versione italiana

The thunderous cascade of medals (9) from the Winter Games, with all those magnificent personal stories behind each feat, as well as conveying a contagious joy, makes this long football weekend a little smaller, certainly not sensational if not for the thunderous 5-0 with which Inter beat a trembling Sassuolo, unable to stop a wave, the Nerazzurri's, too powerful for the Emilian team, who were also coming from two convincing consecutive victories.

A wave that sweeps away all that it encounters: 12 useful results in a row, with 11 victories and one draw are Inter's visiting card, with a new lead of +8 over AC Milan, who will have to wait until 18 February to recover the famous match against Como, which, as you will remember, some thinking phenomenon would have liked to have played in Australia, at 40 degrees, because by now, the game of football, as demonstrated by the continuous protests against refereeing decisions, has become a concentration of absurd rules that complicate a game that was beautiful and fascinating precisely because it was simple and immediate.

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But never mind... But then don't ask us why we are so excited about the exploits of Sofia Goggia, Federica Brignone, Francesca Lollobrigida, Giovanni Franzoni, Riccardo Lorello and all the others who are happy and proud even when they don't win or finish third or fourth. Wonderful guys who make a thousand sacrifices, even risking their skins (as happened to Lindsey Vonn) but without making us weigh it down as they unfortunately do, with the usual remote-controlled interviews ("The coach will decide it... "Now we have to think about working..." "The team comes first..." ) the stars and lesser stars of football.

Back to the bombshell, i.e. Inter, it has to be said that this Inter is a spectacle: it wins, it scores goals in bursts, it frightens its opponents and entertains its fans. What more can one ask of it? Fingers crossed that it wins the Scudetto or even that most prestigious trophy we all know.

Let's say, however, that at least for the title the signs are good: in fact, everyone contributed to this 'manita', a goal cooperative: Bisseck, Thuram, Akanji, Luis Henrique and captain Lautaro, who reached 171 goals in Nerazzurri like Boninsegna. Ahead of him only Meazza and Altobelli. But the one who amazes is Dimarco, who churns out assists in bursts: Dimarco has been involved in three goals out of five. Thirteen winning passes in the season. Better than many fantasists. With AC Milan at +8 (at least until 18 February), Napoli at +9, even the numbers begin to give reason to the party of optimists. Also because Milan (waiting for the derby on 8th March) do not have the firepower of their cousins. While Napoli, with their infirmary as crowded as an emergency room, are already working miracles to stay in their wake. Behind is Conte's grit, but how far can he go? The only note, on which that foxy Allegri is working, is that it will come in the spring. Inter is now running at full speed. It is a perfect mechanism, agreed. But doesn't it run the risk, like certain riders in the Giro d'Italia, of going up in flames in the first two weeks only to burst into flames in the last few climbs? Inter's recent record still stings, but Chivu, who is not lacking in intelligence, must surely be thinking about it. In the meantime, he says: "We're not perfect, but we're hungry..."

Juventus-Lazio 2-2. If Inter have a craving for the Scudetto, Spalletti's team has other problems. The first of which is that it struggles tremendously to score goals, not exactly a secondary issue in football. Against a resurgent Lazio at the Allianz Stadium, the Bianconeri went down by two goals in the first half (Pedro and Isaksen). In the second half they transformed, cornering the guests. A siege that, after Mckennie's 2-1, ended in the 96th minute thanks to a Kalulu header. A hard-fought photo-finish draw that, however, after the elimination from the Coppa Italia, leaves further perplexity about a team that, in order to score, has to invent the impossible. Spalletti's team, now fourth (46) and three points behind Napoli (49) pending Roma's game against Cagliari tonight, however, reacted well despite the disadvantage. The draw is fair even if, in the chase for the leader, this is another missed opportunity.

Paradoxically, the draw burned more for the Biancocelesti who, in the 86th minute, ate up a moving penalty with Noslin. Speaking of penalties: there was a resounding one in Juve's favour (Gila's entrance on Cabal), which escaped both the referee on the pitch and the Var, rightly claimed by Spalletti.

Genoa-Napoli 2-3. A last-gasp match between disputes and multiple interventions of the Var, which rewarded Napoli thanks to a greater tenacity and a penalty scored by Hojlund in the 95th minute, conceded with a certain generosity by the referee Massa not exactly in a state of grace. It is true that Massa also awarded a penalty to Genoa after only two minutes for a contact in the area between Meret and Vitinha unmarked by a clumsy back-pass by Buongiorno, but the one in favour of Napoli, as the match was drawing to a close, unleashed the wrath of Genoa coach De Rossi: "We no longer know what a clear error is. The football we played no longer exists'.

It has to be said, however, that Conte's team, in ten for a questionable expulsion of Juan Jesus, and penalised by an infinite number of injuries (the last one was to McTominay, author of a precious double) managed to win thanks to its determination and character. A Napoli that does not give up, in the image and likeness of its coach. There remained the heavy problem of injuries (Mctominay asked for a change at half-time) and the umpteenth bad day of Buongiorno, who left in tears after 45 minutes for too many mistakes that forced Conte to replace him. Not very appreciable, from the point of view of fair play, the way Vergara, as soon as he was touched, scrambled to the ground to obtain a penalty that, in times not so long ago, he would never have been awarded.

Bologna Parma 0-1. Scoring goals in the dying minutes has become an established habit. Parma were no exception, who scored the winning goal with a razor-sharp Ordonnez in the 95th minute, officially certifying Bologna's crisis, at their fourth knockout in a row (6 points in the last 12 matches). It is true that the red and blue were left in ten on 22 minutes of the first half for the expulsion of Pobega, and they also complained of a goalpost with Orsolini, but Parma were also left in ten for the double yellow of Troio on 35 minutes of the second half. Well done to Parma who detached Genoa reaching 26 points.

Lecce v Udinese 2-1. What a coup for the Salentini, who won their first victory in 2026. A victory that had been missing since 12 December and which allows Lecce to take three points off Fiorentina, who are third-last at 18 points ahead of Pisa and Verona. The 2-1 goal came in the 90th minute thanks to a beautiful free kick by Lameck Banda, the Zambian outfielder who signed an anthology goal. Gandelman and Solet had scored in the first half on a penalty kick. A deserved victory, that of Lecce, because, unlike the Friulans, they believed in it until the end, touching the double already at the 87th minute with a cross by Gandelman. For Udinese, perhaps already satisfied, a false step after two consecutive victories.

Fiorentina-Torino 2-2. Intense match, full of twists and turns that, however, in the end displeased especially the violets who, once again, were caught in full recovery on a dead ball. A defect, costing Fiorentina 10 points so far, that they carry with them from the beginning of the tournament. Torino, gritty and determined, were not blameless: impeccable in the first half (Casadei's goal), they short-circuited in the second half, being overturned in six minutes by Solomon and Kean. The draw in extremis of Maripan, poorly marked by the violet defenders, brought back the balance: danger escaped for the granata, victory thrown away for the Fiorentini.

Verona-Pisa 0-0. A goalless draw that leaves everything untouched as both are last in the standings (15 points). Equal distribution also in the goals hit in the first half by Verona's Orban on a free kick and in the second half by Pisa's Moreo with a header. For the rest, sprinklings of combativeness but also much melancholy.

Today Atalanta-Cremonese (6pm) and Roma-Cagliari (8.45pm)

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