What was striking in the Derby d’Italia was how both teams are already reflecting their new managers’ personalitiesAfter four-and-a-half months, the wait was finally over. From the moment Antonio Conte agreed to replace Luciano Spalletti at Inter, anticipation had been building for his first encounter with Juventus: the club with which he made his name as both a player and manager. The club he restored to glory after taking charge there in 2011. The club that has dominated Italian football ever since.Inter approached Conte this spring in the hope he could help them to tear down the juggernaut he built. After consecutive Champions League qualifications under Spalletti, it was time to take another step forward, to compete for the title...
The capture of Ribéry on a free was the most unlikely move of the Italian window. Already, it looks one of the bestThis time Fiorentina did not blow it. You could forgive supporters at the Stadio Artemio Franchi for thinking they were about to, when Sampdoria’s Federico Bonazzoli forced the ball into their net in the 79th minute of Wednesday’s game. Fiorentina had been 2-0 up and cruising: exactly as they were at the corresponding point of what became a 2-2 draw against Atalanta three days before.The Viola were established experts in finding ways not to win. They had not tasted victory in Serie A for 220 days – since beating Spal on 17 February. Not since 2018 had they...
Antonio Conte’s side won the Milan derby and while he still has much to work on at Inter the San Siro worry lines belong to his Milan counterpart Marco GiampaoloAntonio Conte never went home on Tuesday night. He was too angry – too “seriously pissed off”, in his own words – to imagine that he could get a good night’s sleep after Inter’s Champions League draw with Slavia Prague, so he went directly from San Siro back to his club’s training ground instead. The only way to work through his frustrations, was to work.“Head down and keep pedalling.” That was the mantra Conte gave at his introductory Inter press conference in July, and which he has returned to several times...
Arsenal and Manchester United have offloaded players whose 2018 swap deal conspicuously failed to live up to expectationsThe Liverpool teenager Bobby Duncan appears to have bucked a growing trend by leaving to join Fiorentina in Italy. Whatever the rights and wrongs of a dispute with the European champions that led to the player’s exit, Fiorentina are at least getting a promising young talent at the right age.Most of the recent Italian imports from the Premier League have been just the opposite, with Henrikh Mkhitaryan joining Alexis Sánchez in Serie A after failing to convince he was worth a regular place at Arsenal. Related: Arsenal’s Henrikh Mkhitaryan joins Roma in loan with option to buy Related: Alexis Sánchez says he ‘didn’t...
There was a shoot-out between Fiorentina and Napoli, while Bologna’s manager made the bench from hospitalThe opening day of the Serie A season felt more like a recap sequence: that 30-second montage deployed at the start of a returning TV series to reacquaint viewers with key protagonists and story arcs.First came the champions, Juventus, totally in control and totally underwhelming as they plodded to a one-goal victory over opponents who lacked the tools to hurt them. The Bianconeri barely even bothered to introduce us to new cast members: only Adrien Rabiot making a 27-minute cameo. Instead there was an unexpected revival for the Gonzalo Higuaín character, thought to have been written out after he was packed off to London. Related:...