It was ‘Everyone Against Everyone’, as Gazzetta had billed it, but after a Juve shock and Mauro Icardi’s decisive hat-trick, Napoli remained out in frontSooner or later, the wheels had to come off. Napoli set an impossible pace through the first seven games of this Serie A season: taking maximum points while scoring at least three against every opponent.That came to an end on Saturday, as they ran into a Roma side who had conceded only four in total: second-fewest in the division. A team who finished runners-up to Juventus last season, and whose manager, Eusebio Di Francesco, riffed during his pre-game press conference on the old American sporting maxim that defence wins championships. Related: Last-minute penalty by Internazionale’s Mauro...
Milan, now owned by a China-backed holding company, need to qualify for next year’s Champions League to pay back huge debts, some at 11.5% interest, to a US private equity fundWhen Marco Fassone was contacted last summer by someone claiming to represent the latest Chinese businessman looking to invest in one of Europe’s most successful clubs, the likable 53-year-old, who has held senior posts at Juventus, Napoli and Internazionale, was unsure what to make of the approach. “I came into the project with some doubts at the beginning because I wanted to understand exactly what their vision was and why they wanted to make such a huge investment,” Milan’s chief executive explains to the Observer. “It was important for me...
Sixth place is just about all that Inter or Milan can aspire to after the Nerazzurri went down 5-4 at Fiorentina and the Rossoneri lost at home to EmpoliFor Serie A’s 20 clubs, the finish line is in sight. The two representing the city of Milan, however, might be starting to wonder what race they have even been running. They had presumed for many months to be part of that elite group chasing after a Champions League berth. Instead, at the end of this gruelling marathon, they find themselves contesting a prize that hardly seems worth winning.Sixth place is just about all that Inter or Milan can aspire to, after a weekend in which they each hit new depths of...
The dramatic end to the Milan 2-2 derby should not hide the fact that the now Chinese-owned clubs should be fighting over a greater prize than sixth place“Closing.” That English word has dominated the Italian sports pages for more than two years now: seven letters that became a shorthand for the day when Silvio Berlusconi would sell Milan. A good many people doubted it would ever arrive. The man they call Il Cavaliere was thought too proud to relinquish his favourite plaything: a football club that not so long ago billed itself as “the most titled in the world”.Owning Milan had granted Berlusconi not only the chance to demonstrate his self-touted sporting acumen but important social and political capital as...
Juventus’s last-gasp win over Milan all-but settled the title but the race is on for a top-three spot and Inter’s 7-1 destruction of Atalanta gives them reason to believeA stool smashed, a lamp shattered, graffiti scrawled across the walls. The only thing more dramatic than Juventus’s last-gasp win over Milan at J-Stadium were the reports of what came afterwards, with claims that members of the losing side had gone on a rampage in the changing rooms. Displays celebrating the Old Lady’s 2004-05 and 2005-06 title wins – officially revoked following the Calciopoli scandal – were said to have been daubed with the word “THIEVES”.Such actions cannot be condoned, but it was easy to understand how Milan might have felt robbed...