Sunday, 18th May 2008
The longest day
Sunday, 18th May 2008. Definitely one of the longest days in Italian football, and here is how fate rolled out the outcome.
07:42 AM
A quick review of the Italian newspapers confirms that today is not just another day. The football season is coming to an end. Thanks to Inter, this day has become 'D-Day’. Roma, Catania and Parma (together with Inter) will be the main participants in the games which should decide the scudetto. What’s exciting about this is that it’s not just 'D-Day’ for Roma and Inter. It is also ‘D-Day’ for Catania and Parma. Threatened by the Serie B abyss, both teams will have to play their hearts to make sure of staying in the top flight.
Apart from the thrill at the top and at the bottom of the table, much attention will also focus on whether Milan will make it to the Champions League. With 7 results out of possible 9, favouring Fiorentina, it might be that next year’s Champions League will be without Milan, who will have to play in the UEFA Cup. As we saw last Sunday nothing should be taken fore granted.
In the meantime, Juventus and Sampdoria have ended their campaign in a spectacular encounter. 3-3 was the final result. Sampdoria (together with Fiorentina) were the biggest surprises of the season. Mazarri proved to be a good manager, who besides steering his team to a European football berth, also managed to achieve what Capello didn’t and what other teams gave up on - controlling and getting the best of Cassano.
15.48
After a lovely lunch at Tracy and Brian’s, we sit down to watch the drama roll-out.
As of the end of the first half Roma are champions and AC Milan are out of the Champions League. Zapping through the channels, we can see that Inter are afraid of losing, while Roma have scored an early goal in their match against Catania.
16.57
Things have changed. Inter have finally won their 16th title. It was a close one, but thanks to two goals from Zlatan Ibrahimovic, they have won their match against Parma. In the meantime Catania levelled the score against Roma, Milan have won against Udinese and Fiorentina won against Torino.
The bottom line is that Inter didn’t manage to lose what was theirs for the past six months. Roma ended their season in second. Juventus are back in a major European Club competition. They will be joined by Fiorentina who had a fantastic league campaign.
In my view Fiorentina and Roma played the best football for most of the season. Sampdoria were the biggest surprise.
The biggest let-downs came from Milan and Lazio. Parma leave top-flight football after a long span in Serie A, which saw the team even becoming one of the best clubs in Europe.
18:58
Roma’s De Rossi believes that Inter were helped to win the title, while Spalletti, as usual stood up to his reputation of being a great manager. He said it was useless to regret the points which Roma left on their way.
Tomorrow
As from tomorrow if not from tonight, in Italy, we’ll be hearing about who should and who should not be part of the group Donadoni will call for the European Championships. Cassano and Del Piero will surely be part of the discussion…but until that happens, one can’t not think of the biggest appointment in European Club football which will take place this week... the UEFA Champions League final.
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Comments
i have to agree that ronaldo does sometimes 'freeze' in big games...but if you see his game against arsenal(one of the big 4) he scored so it think it is rather that he has a brilliant game as he had against wigan...but against Barcelona (nou camp) you saw a difference that penalty made to ronaldo's game that day as he hardly saw the ball...i just hope that the reports linking him away from Old Trafford won't effect his game....all i can say with 1 day to go to the final is that the best will win !!!!
Since my favourite team was affected, I scrutinised closely what Juve were found guilty of. Being interisti, I assume your interest was limited in getting Juve, Milan and the rest out of the way and didn't delve further. Mission accomplished by Guido Rossi and his merry band.
If you refer back to my original comment, I specifically said that no wrongdoing was found by Juve in 05-06. In 03-04 the investigators said a number of intercepted phone calls "might indicate irregularities".
For this, they were stripped of 2 league titles, sent to Serie B with a points reduction (they even wanted to send them to C2!!!) and some of its greatest talents scattered to the 4 winds. Some of them landing in Inter's lap. To put you in the picture, Reggina were found GUILTY OUTRIGHT of match fixing with cast iron evidence, were simply docked 11 points and stayed in Serie A.
But Reggina were no obstacle to winning a scudetto were they?
As for Inter running away with last year's league, they had all the time in the world to strengthen their squad, even at the expense of their rivals, while Milan, Lazio and Fiorentina had no transfer market activity to speak of in that summer because they didn't know where they would be, Serie A or Serie B.
This year, Inter were 30 minutes away from repeating the 2002 fiasco all over again.
As for Europe, one semi-final in donkey's years doesn't constitute a success. A 43-year drought at the European Cup is hardly a success. At least I've seen my favourite team win twice in my lifetime and reach another 3 finals (one lost against Milan :-( ))
And the Milanisti can boast even better records than the Juventini. Perhaps it's time to infiltrate Guido Rossi in UEFA? ;-)
Mark, I said that the focus in Italy, will be on whom Donadoni will choose for the national team. However I agree 100% that for the rest of the world, the attention will be on next Wednesday's match.
I can't but agree with you with the sorry events that took place this weekend. It's wrong to blame football. I am afraid this is another sign in a series which is showing a level of disrespect towards authorities. Violence at schools, at the stadiums and anywhere else should be condemned. There should be some serious declaration and example to weed off violence from society.
I must admit that Chelsea are favourites to win the Champions League final, as the Blues have pride at stake. Only one thing can make the difference for Man Utd. Ronaldo. Undoubtedly, he's the best player on earth at the moment. However he tends to fail in the big games. He still needs an outstanding performance in a very crucial game to get this stain off his CV. The stage is set... he can make it his and Manchester United's day.
I don't know why Inter keep saying that they won 3 leagues in a row. The won 1 league, were given another one and were helped to get another one. However, this time round they did win the league, after almost losing it to Roma.
Comparing Inter's record in Europe to that of Milan is like comparing Italy's record in the World Cup with that of England. The last time Inter won the Champions Cup, man had not made it to the moon yet, there were two Germanies, there was a cold war, neither of the Bushes had been to the White House. In the last decade, Milan won the Champions Cup twice.... so any comparison doesn't make sense.
Milan's position this year is the result of a rather weak summer campaign and I just hope that this summer there will be enough investment to have a competitive squad. It will be a mistake for Inter if they allow their final victory obscure the needed changes at the Appiano Gentile, just like the victory against Liverpool last May camoflagued the need for upgrading of the squad.
You will agree that some statements deserve further comment.
Re the 'gifted' scudetto - Inter have suffered MUCH more than 1 lost scudetto to Juve's PROVEN antics. Juve got Serie B when they deserved at least Serie C as they had originally been doomed to. The cleaning up act of Calciopoli was well overdue and the culprits (maybe not all) were brought to book, definetly not Inter's fault.
Last year Inter rightfully ran away with the league because they were the better team by far, Milan were at -36, Firentina at -39 and Lazio at -35 if I am not mistaken the number of points deducted were 8.
This year Juve finished at -13 (not -17 as erroneously stated in my contributionof yesterday - I aplogise). So the fact that they were not there last year does not really hold any grounds or does it.
Regarding the European Competitions, its not quite as disastrous as mentioned. Inter went out to Liverpool in the Semi-Finals playing for most of the two games in ten men. Please remember that Milan hold one of the biggest negative upsets in the final having lost to Liverpool when they were 3-0 up at half-time.
One last thing, Inter were up against ALL of Italy this year and still managed to succeed NOT A MEAN FEAT AT ALL.
Cheers mate, have one on me!!!
who do you think will win the champions league on wednesday ?
i say 2-1 for manutd with giggs and ronaldo scoring for manutd and drogba for chelsea
Another black day in football at the centenary yesterday,this time apart of the Referee and his Assistant, the police were a target.What a shame.
Being Interista is a congenital condition :-))
I guess the Interisti had their day and they should rejoice long and hard because it looks like the party will soon be over. As this season has shown, the effects of Calciopoli are now wearing off.
Year 1 - Gifted the scudetto when no wrongdoing was proved against Juve in the 05-06 season.
Year 2 - Juve in Serie B, Milan, Fiorentina and Lazio docked points. The way was clear for the easiest win in history.
Year 3 - The unthinkable almost happened and Inter was 45 mins away from disaster, saved by Ibrahimovic, incidentally another beneficial side-effect of Calciopoli for Inter
As for European competitions, everything was business as usual with Inter failing miserably year in year out.
Am sorry your boys didn't make it Jes, at least they do a better job in Europe than these 'champions!' :-)