Inter-bound Stefan De Vrij was at the centre of a wild collapse as Lazio surrendered a Champions League place to InterStefan De Vrij folded himself up small and hid his face underneath a training top, but he could not stop the cameras from honing in on him as he sat for the final time in Lazio’s home dugout. The curtain was coming down on the 2017-18 Serie A season, and the team whose shirt he was still wearing had just lost its Champions League spot to the one he will play for next year.A messy situation under any circumstances, but even more so for how events unfolded. Lazio had led 2-1 with 12 minutes remaining against Inter, in a game...
The all-conquering Old Lady has no plans to abdicate her throne even with the inevitable summer changes aheadLast May, the commemorative T-shirts celebrated a “Le6end”. This year, Juventus went with “My7h”. Even as players popped champagne corks for the second time in four days at Rome’s Stadio Olimpico, it was tempting to imagine a marketing team somewhere planning the slogans and hashtags for the next round of celebrations in 12 months.Seven consecutive Scudetti. No club had even won six in a row before the Bianconeri embarked on their present run. Across Europe’s top five leagues, only Lyon, at the start of this century, have enjoyed such an uninterrupted spell of domestic dominance. Even then, they did not pair Ligue 1...
Goalkeepers are transferred for less and paid less. Is it time football finally valued them relative to outfield players?So arrivederci then, Gianluigi Buffon. Assuming there is no careering handbrake turn away from retirement, the match against Verona on Sunday will prove his last. It seems vaguely astonishing that he made his debut in 1995 – a teenage action hero clad in pink and black for Parma, fearlessly facing down George Weah, Roberto Baggio and the rest of Milan’s all-stars. Nearly 900 games later, he will hang up his Puma One Grips having averaged a trophy for each year of his career.And along with a World Cup, Uefa Cup, five Italian Cups, six Italian Super Cups, a European Under-21 title and...
The title will go to Juventus again after Napoli’s impressive season faded but the fight for Europe and to survive is set to go down to the wireFor the seventh season running, Juventus will be champions of Italy. The Scudetto is not officially theirs just yet, but we are into the realm of technicalities. A 3-1 win over Bologna, accompanied by a draw for Napoli, extended their lead to six points with two games left to play.The first tie-breaker, head-to-head results, would be split with the Partenopei, since each beat the other 1-0 away from home. Next is goal difference, where Juventus are ahead by 16. Realistically, it will not come to that anyway. The Bianconeri’s final game of the...
Chances were created, woodwork struck and forwards denied by extraordinary saves. And Juve were left celebratingWhat a weekend it promised to be. A Rome derby on Sunday night, with the capital clubs joint-third and fighting desperately to cling to their Champions League berths. Inter, one point behind, kicking off 24 hours earlier away to an Atalanta team with European ambitions of its own. In between those two games, Milan-Napoli at San Siro. Anything could happen. And so, inevitably, nothing did. All three of the aforementioned games, along with two others, finished without a goal being scored.Put your preconceptions about Italian football to one side. This is hardly the norm in a division that has averaged more goals per game than...