Derby d'Italia: Most hotly contested Serie A fixture
“Juventus is the present, Inter is the future”, this is what 2006 World Champion and Golden Ball winner Fabio Cannavaro stated on the eve of the so-called Derby of Italy. Meaning that, in his view, the new Chinese club management will help Inter catch up with the Bianconeri, who have been dominating the Serie A for five years.
However, the latest Derby d'Italia ended up with Inter’s manager and players protesting against the referee, Nicola Rizzoli; deja vu of a past event. Even if he had directed the proceedings of a Champions League’s or a World Cup’s final, this wasn’t easy for him, the pressure of the hottest game of the Italian League.
He seemed to be in trouble particularly during injury time when he ended up handing a red card to Perisic for protesting against a controversial free kick awarded to Juventus. The Croatian will now face a two games ban, like his teammate and captain Mauro Icardi.
The Bianconeri won the match with a final score of 1-0, thanks to a fantastic long-range shot by Colombian winger Cuadrado, reinforcing their leadership in the Serie A and extending their home record winning streak to 28 games.
The goal was scored at the end of the first half, the best moment to score a goal and definitely the worst time to concede one. Inter’s players and manager accused the referee of ignoring two ‘penalty-worthy’ fouls in the first half, something that could have altered the outcome of the entire match.
After the game, the Inter manager Pioli claimed that “Rizzoli penalised us, even if it was our fault to leave Cuadrado alone on the goal’s action”. In fact, there were more talking points in the game than just the “Rizzoli Affair”.
Quality is the key
Juventus manager, Max Allegri, has recently changed the system to a 4-2-3-1, in order to show off all the qualities of all his offensive players. Former Roma midfielder Miralem Pjanic, for whom Roma were paid a whopping €38m last summer, goalscorer Juan Cuadrado, the rising Argentinian star Paulo Dybala and the two strikers, Croatian bulldozer Mario Mandzukic and last Serie A’s top scorer, Gonzalo Higuain.
The manager believes in innovation and his team is now playing more openly and in a direct way. Since the change of system, they have won four out of four, scoring 7 goals and conceding only 1.
On the other hand, Inter have improved vastly since November as well. Ever since Stefano Pioli was hired to replace Dutch manager Frank de Boer, he has taken Inter closer to third place, giving them an opportunity to make it to the Champions League’s playoff.
However, in this match, Juventus broke down Inter’s seven games winning streak in the Serie A but the match was really balanced.
Inter made more passes and shot nine times from the penalty box. However, the execution of their players still isn't up to the mark as Joao Mario, Perisic and Eder underlined it, missing out on some crucial counter-attack chances.
Crash test passed
“It’s players that produce football, not numbers”, Allegri repeated again yesterday. He doesn’t like to talk about the change of playing style and prefers focusing on his players’ qualities. He knew that this was the hardest game for Juventus since he switched to “5 stars system”.
After beating Lazio, Sassuolo and AC Milan, they overcame Inter too. They are now confident enough to face Porto in the Champions League last sixteen, knowing that the mix of class, quality and devotion of their stars could be explosive on the European stage.
Go ahead, the past is over
What’s next for Inter? They are still angry about the defeat and their fans haven’t stopped protesting on social networks, where every frame of all the crucial episodes in Juve’s penalty box is revisited and harshly commented. However, Oasis’s “Don’t look back in anger” looks like the ideal song for them now.
The history of Juventus-Inter clashes is full of controversial moments, but a few years ago Inter were able to win 3-1 at the Juventus Stadium, even if an offside goal was conceded by their rivals after a few minutes.
Meaning that if a team is really strong, it can overshadow the referee’s mistakes. Inter need to knuckle down, focus on their mentality and improve certain technical aspects: if they can do this, the prophecy of Fabio Cannavaro will eventually turn out to be true.