The true concern is that Antonio Conte and CEO Beppe Marotta may not share a vision for how to proceedIf Romelu Lukaku had been a little more selfish, then perhaps there would be life in the Serie A title race yet. He stepped up in a high-pressure situation on Sunday night, burying an 88th-minute penalty to bring Inter to 2-2 at Roma. It was the sixth he had taken this season, and the sixth he had converted.A penalty he chose not to take, however, continues to linger in the memory. Inter were already a goal and a man up at home to Bologna on 5 July when they won a spot-kick in the 61st minute. Lukaku handed the ball to...
A team that plays relentlessly attacking football under Roberto De Zerbi has been piling up some extraordinary resultsThey were playing Chumbawamba on repeat in Reggio Emilia again on Wednesday night. Sassuolo have used the late-90s anthem Tubthumping as their goal music ever since they moved into the Mapei Stadium in 2013. The song, with its “I get knocked down, but I get up again” chorus, was intended by the English band as a celebration of “the resilience of ordinary people”. This week, even more than usual, it felt like a fitting choice. Tubthumping played over and over as Sassuolo came from 2-0 down to lead 3-2 against Juventus in the second half.Resilient? Yes, you could say that of a team...
The Spanish playmaker got the winner against Fiorentina, but Lazio needed a fortunate bounce and a questionable penalty call to keep Juventus in their sights“It’s alive!” The front page of Sunday’s Corriere dello Sport shrieked out like Doctor Frankenstein at the awakening of his Creature. As late as 10pm the previous evening, it had seemed that one of the most compelling Serie A title races in years was coming to a premature end. And then, with a jolt, it wasn’t.The newspaper gave credit to a Spanish sorcerer. Luis Alberto – Il Mago, as they know him in Rome – had scored the winning goal as Lazio came from behind to beat Fiorentina, dragging his team back to within four points...
Inter keep playing good football but are unable to stop throwing away matches from winning positionsSix goals, a red card, two penalties and an early contender for miss of the century. Not bad for the warm-up act. Wednesday’s main event in Serie A was Atalanta-Lazio, a meeting of two teams that have produced some of the finest footballing symphonies on the peninsula. But first on stage, in the ‘early’ 7.30pm slot, were the chaotic chords of Inter-Sassuolo.It was the sort of tune that Antonio Conte never wanted to hear at San Siro. After becoming the Inter manager last summer, one of his first acts was to stop the club’s anthem, Amala, from being played before home games. The song is...
The striker’s return to the town where he grew up has become a battle between him and the local club’s owner, Massimo CellinoMario Balotelli’s stomach ache returned over the weekend. The Brescia striker had only been allowed back into his club’s training base last Wednesday after six days off with gastroenteritis. He was scheduled for a pair of individual workouts on Saturday but left the facility after completing the first, having suffered an apparent relapse. A post on his Instagram Stories simply said: “Sick.”Hours earlier, he had shared a video of himself on the same platform, still sweating from the morning practice session. “Stop asking if I’m going to training or not,” he said. “I’m going to training guys. I...