“Inter, are you scared?”
That was the pointed question La Gazzetta dello Sport dared to ask of Serie A’s defending champions as they stumbled unconvincingly towards the finishing line, in pursuit of a third successive scudetto.
From eleven points clear, Inter’s lead had gradually ebbed away following a series of indifferent performances – culminating in a nightmare derby defeat at the hands of Milan and a 2-2 draw with lowly Siena during the past fortnight. The latter game featured a last-gasp penalty miss by controversial anti-hero Marco Materazzi which, if converted, would have sealed the title there and then. Materazzi took his frustrations out on his telly, which he was reported to have hurled out of the bedroom window of his home in Pisa.
Meanwhile, down in the south of the peninsula, free-wheeling Roma were making the most of the nerazurri’s jitters – reeling in the long-time leaders with an exciting brand of open, attacking football. As the final 90 minutes of the Italian season kicked-off yesterday afternoon, Roberto Mancini’s spluttering Inter juggernaut had only a single point advantage over their Roman rivals left to defend.
Luciano Spalletti’s men were faced with a simple equation – they must turn over relegation-threatened Catania in the Sicilians’ own backyard and pray that Inter failed to win at Parma; another side haunted by fears of demotion to Serie B.
Due to a peculiar ruling by Italian football’s powers-that-be, the Inter ticket allocation for their season-defining clash at the Tardini was heavily restricted. Such a decision was apparently taken to ensure ‘fairness’ to Roma, whose notoriously volatile tifosi had been barred from making their delightful presence felt in Sicily. Nonetheless, the Parma faithful were out in force to provide raucous backing to their team’s improbable fight for survival.
The biggest roar of a tight, tense first half came as a result of news filtering through from Catania. Mirko Vucinic’s stunning solo goal put Roma 1-0 up, giving Parma renewed hope of preserving their cherished top-flight status. At the same time, the lanky Montenegrin’s moment of genius had put the Romans in the driving seat for the scudetto. Now Inter simply had to score.
It was Parma’s Stefano Morrone who spurned the opening period’s clearest goalscoring opportunity though; the experienced midfielder firing directly at Inter ‘keeper Julio Cesar when he suddenly found himself in possession just outside the six-yard box.
Andrea Manzo’s first, and probably last, selection since the youth team coach succeeded perennial failure Hector Cuper as Parma boss just last week, incorporated Croat forward Igor Budan at the expense of proven goal-getter Cristiano Lucarelli. Budan nodded narrowly over the Inter bar from Andrea Gasbarroni’s wicked cross, as the gialloblu briefly took the upper hand against a nervous-looking Inter side.
On the half-time whistle, Inter’s 17-year-old prodigy, ‘Super’ Mario Balotelli skinned a pair of dazzled Parma defenders and delivered an excellent cross which his forward partner Julio Cruz could not convert.
Still, Roma led. Inter’s title dreams were slipping agonisingly away in the Parma rain. The nerazurri had won just once in their last 17 visits to the Tardini, but to claim a hat-trick of scudetti they had 45 minutes remaining to defy that form and find the back of Nicola Pavarini’s net.
In the early stages of the second half, Mancini’s men were quite evidently lacking the grit of injured midfield energiser Esteban Cambiasso and, most importantly, the ingenuity offered by mercurial forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic. The Bosnian-born Swede proved willing to jeopardise his participation in Euro 2008 as he heeded Mancini’s desperate call from the bench, apparently no more than 50 per cent fit.
Within less than a minute, ‘Ibra’ had sprung clear of Parma’s defensive shackles, but skewed his low shot wide. Within ten, he had given his team a vital lead.
His powerful 51st minute strike, low and left of the despairing Pavarini, nestled neatly in the back of the net – sending Inter’s tiny travelling contingent and long-suffering club president Massimo Moratti wild with delight.
Once the Milanese giants had shattered the deadlock they flooded forward in search of a killer second, as puddles started to form on the sodden pitch. Both Ibrahimovic and Balotelli came close, before flying Brazilian full-back Maicon used all his searing pace to get to the goal-line and cut the ball back for Ibrahimovic to turn it in at the far-post. The scudetto was sealed in that moment, and so was Parma’s demotion to – in the words of their president – the ‘hell’ of Serie B.
Deflated Roma then conceded a late equaliser in Sicily, as little Catania prolonged their Serie A adventure for another year. Instead, it was Empoli that joined Parma and already relegated Livorno through the trapdoor to hell.
Milan’s 4-1 thumping of Udinese at San Siro came too late to rescue the Champions League qualification they’ve come to regard as their right. A late winner away to Torino saw Fiorentina cling onto fourth spot ahead of the rossoneri.
Carlo Ancelotti, Milan’s head coach – but for how long? – described his club’s ‘demotion’ to the UEFA Cup as “a year in purgatory”. Perhaps such a humbling experience will allow them to concentrate their energies fully on Serie A next time round, rather than continuing to cultivate an ageing squad designed merely to perform on the big occasion – much in the vein of the revitalised Bayern Munich this term. But, with Ronaldinho and Andrii Shevchenko among the rumoured summer arrivals at Milanello, perhaps not.
Fiorentina’s priority must be to hold onto their one genuine star, Adrian Mutu. Claudio Prandelli’s squad must be greatly improved if they are to compete effectively at Europe’s top table. Third-placed Juventus complete the Champions League quartet, and the Old Lady’s big-spending plans should give them a fighting chance of making a success of their return to continental competition.
As for the champions, their next stop is the Coppa Italia final in which they face, for the fourth successive year...Roma.
Next year, Il presidente Moratti will prioritise European success, which is why Mancini may be forced to give way for a coach versed in the arts of knockout football. Jose Mourinho lies in wait.
In finally claiming the title, Inter defied the critics at La Gazzetta with a show of character which had plainly been lacking since February’s catastrophic Champions League exit at Anfield. They may not have had the title safely wrapped up with 22 points in hand and five weeks to spare, as last year, but they did manage to clamber over the finishing line in the final half-hour of the season. Undoubtedly, Inter had been more than a little ‘scared’ at times, but crucially held their collective nerve when it mattered most.
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