This was a weekend when Jannik Sinner’s steel nerves held a nation in thrall. People who had never previously cared for tennis were glued to their screens as the 22-year-old recovered from two sets down to defeat Daniil Medvedev in the final of the Australian Open, becoming the first Italian man to win a grand slam title in 48 years.
Even before the final, he had taken over the national discourse. As Juventus prepared to face Empoli on Saturday, Massimiliano Allegri was asked whether his team or Internazionale were the Sinner of Italian football. “We are a younger squad, so we must be Sinner and they must be [Novak] Djokovic,” he replied, casting the Nerazzurri as the once all-conquering but now defeated Australian Open semi-finalist. “But I don’t know, they might take that badly. They’re very touchy.”
Allegri has been enjoying his press conferences lately, applying little digs just like this one to put pressure on Inter before next Sunday’s Derby d’Italia. Earlier this month he compared the title chase to a game of cops and robbers, a knowingly provocative framing given the two clubs’ history through the 2006 Calciopoli scandal, which led to Juventus being stripped of two league titles and one of those being awarded to Inter. Simone Inzaghi did not take the bait, calling it “normal football dialectics” and describing the title race as a “beautiful duel”. His Inter team were too busy winning the Supercoppa to worry what other people were saying. After that, they had a tricky league game away to fourth-placed Fiorentina to hold their attention.
If Juventus really wanted to test Inter’s nerve, the best thing they could do would be to beat Empoli. A win would temporarily have moved Allegri’s team four points clear at the top of Serie A – albeit with two more games played than Inter. On paper it looked straightforward: Empoli were second-bottom in the table. True enough, they had just appointed renowned relegation escape artist Davide Nicola as their new manager and won his first game in charge 3-0 at home to Monza. But Juventus were on a run of seven straight victories across all competitions, scoring 21 goals along the way.
An 18th-minute red card to Arkadiusz Milik complicated things. His studs-up challenge on Alberto Cerri initially earned him a booking but that punishment was upgraded after consultation with the VAR booth. Some fans might have wondered why Milik was in the starting XI to begin with, replacing the 18-year-old Kenan Yildiz who has been so impressive since making his first-team breakthrough at the turn of the year.
Juventus took the lead anyway, Dusan Vlahovic hooking the ball home from a corner to extend the brilliant run of form that has seen him find the net seven times, with a further two assists, in his last six league games. Yet the advantage did not hold, Tommaso Baldanzi equalising with a low drive from the edge of the D in the 70th minute. The game finished 1-1, with Empoli coming closest to a late winner.
Inter took advantage, beating Fiorentina 1-0 on Sunday night to reclaim top spot with a game in hand. It could easily have been a different outcome. M’Bala Nzola went clean through twice for the Viola in the opening 15 minutes, but both times was narrowly offside. Lautaro Martínez’s near-post header to put Inter in front from a corner was brilliantly taken, but a different official might have chalked it off for a possible shove of Fabiano Parisi.
That was a borderline decision, with the defender off-balance before the contact and some jostling inevitable at a set-piece. Fiorentina could feel more aggrieved over the non-award of a penalty when Alessandro Bastoni appeared to impede Luca Ranieri at a corner later in the first half. But they would eventually be awarded a contentious penalty when Yann Sommer came to punch out a delivery into the area in the 72nd minute. The keeper’s fist made a clean contact with the ball before catching Nzola in the face. Did this constitute dangerous play all the same? On Dazn’s broadcast of the game, even the former referee Luca Marelli seemed conflicted, saying: “The keeper has every right to go for the ball, but they must pay attention. This is a punch in the face.”
Fiorentina 0-1 Inter, Lazio 0-0 Napoli, Monza 1-0 Sassuolo, Verona 1-1 Frosinone, Genoa 2-1 Lecce, Milan 2-2 Bologna, Juventus 1-1 Empoli, Atalanta 2-0 Udinese, Cagliari 1-2 Torino. Monday night: Salernitana v Roma
Sommer, in any case, made amends by saving Nico González’s spot-kick. “We studied [Fiorentina’s penalty takers] before,” confirmed the keeper during his post-game interview. Reviewing González’s recent back catalogue, one might conclude that this was not the trickiest homework.
But this was a weekend packed with penalty misses. There were five in total across Serie A – the most in a single round of games since 1960. Milan were responsible for two of them, Olivier Giroud seeing his attempt saved and Théo Hernández crashing his against a post during a 2-2 draw at home to Bologna. Adding insult to injury, Riccardo Orsolini’s injury-time equaliser against them was a successful conversion from the penalty spot.
Milan’s manager, Stefano Pioli, put it down to bad luck, describing the situation as: “something that happens every 10 years, and which unfortunately happened to us”. An understandable lament, though plenty of studies have shown that penalties are anything but a lottery. Like most other aspects of sport, players improve their chances with good practice and steady nerves.
Just ask Sinner, who kept playing his own game even when down by two sets against an opponent who had previously won 50 out of 51 hard-court grand slam matches when taking the first. A contrived comparison? Perhaps, but this was a week when all of Serie A had to accept second billing. Even Inzaghi, after Inter’s win at Fiorentina, was asked whether his team’s orange shirts were a tribute to Sinner. “No,” came the laughing reply. “We wear them often away from home. But well done to Sinner, he was brilliant.”
Inzaghi swatted away questions about Allegri’s tennis player comparisons, dismissing the suggestion that his opposite number had got under his skin. “I don’t think he has been rude,” said the Inter manager. “Up till now I have been thinking about Fiorentina. From Tuesday we will think about Juve.”
Their head-to-head this Sunday already feels like a pivotal moment in this season’s title race. Inter have set an astonishing pace, with 54 points and a plus-40 goal difference from 21 games. Yet Juventus, notwithstanding Saturday’s setback, have stayed in the fight – their only loss of this campaign dating back to September. League seasons are even more an endurance test than grand slam finals. Neither team can win the Scudetto at San Siro on Sunday. All the same, there will be pressure on Inter to hold serve.
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Inter Milan | 21 | 40 | 54 |
| 2 | Juventus | 22 | 23 | 53 |
| 3 | AC Milan | 22 | 18 | 46 |
| 4 | Atalanta | 21 | 16 | 36 |
| 5 | Fiorentina | 21 | 7 | 34 |
| 6 | Lazio | 21 | 4 | 34 |
| 7 | Bologna | 21 | 5 | 33 |
| 8 | Roma | 21 | 9 | 32 |
| 9 | Napoli | 21 | 5 | 32 |
| 10 | Torino | 21 | 1 | 31 |
| 11 | Genoa | 22 | -2 | 28 |
| 12 | Monza | 22 | -7 | 28 |
| 13 | Frosinone | 22 | -12 | 23 |
| 14 | Lecce | 22 | -10 | 21 |
| 15 | Sassuolo | 21 | -11 | 19 |
| 16 | Verona | 22 | -10 | 18 |
| 17 | Udinese | 22 | -14 | 18 |
| 18 | Cagliari | 22 | -17 | 18 |
| 19 | Empoli | 22 | -21 | 17 |
| 20 | Salernitana | 21 | -24 | 12 |
