In the cold of San Siro there will be a nice share of the Scudetto up for grabs between Inter and Napoli. The Italian match prepared between refereeing poisons and with two teams arriving in opposite physical and calendar conditions…
Towards the championship duel on the thread of nerves that are giving way. To the entire system, considering the high rate of toxicity that now permeates the debate on any episode that happens on the pitch: often inappropriately and in an instrumental manner, sometimes with full reason such as that which Lazio can claim for the confused and not entirely balanced direction of the Sozza-Pezzuto cup, the latter at the Var.
On Sunday 11 January 2026 in the cold of San Siro there will be a fair share of the tricolor up for grabs. It’s true, there is also the Milan in the upper areas of the table and we must not discard a priori the idea that Allegri will race to the end for the big objective, but there is no doubt that the battleships designated at the beginning of the season as the best equipped are those of Inter and Napoli and the circumstances have made the direct clash a sort of early sentence.
The calendar’s quirks placed him on the first day back, with still half the championship to fight for. Can he decide the sprint? No. He can direct it heavily if some trends of the last two months will be confirmed by the result achieved at the final whistle of the unfortunate man that Rocchi will send to referee.
The different pace of Inter and Napoli: Chivu +7 from the Maradona match
From the evening at Maradona, with the associated controversy over the whistle and varist decisions, Inter moved much faster than Napoli: 27 points against 20 in the following ten days. It is no coincidence, because despite the slip-ups against the big teams, Chivu’s team was the one that more than any other confirmed that it had the continuity of a winning series in its pocket that would tear up the league table and the season. If it were to happen again at San Siro, the streak would start to become important.
Inter and Napoli arrive at the Scudetto match with opposite moods and conditions. The Nerazzurri are doing well, the Neapolitans are clearly in difficulty and the draw with Verona must ring an alarm bell. It’s true that it was preceded by a series of clear victories, but as soon as Conte had to put his hands on his starters, the usual problems resurfaced and the January and February calendar will force him to repeat the rotations several times.
And after San Siro a calendar that can favor an escape for Inter…
The feeling is of being at a crucial juncture of the season. After the San Siro d-day the destinies of Inter and Napoli will be divided. Chivu will have a month on which to build another breakthrough (Lecce and Pisa at home, Udinese-Cremonese-Sassuolo away) while Napoli will have inserted the trip to the Stadium against Juventus between the two decisive Champions League matches in Copenhagen and against Chelsea. The Nerazzurri will also have to squeeze between Arsenal and Borussia Dortmund, but with more certainties than the Neapolitans. In the same space of time, one month, Milan will have Como twice and away games with Fiorentina, Roma and Bologna. How will the ranking be drawn in mid-February?
That the moment is topical is also demonstrated by the unrestrained debate on the arbitration issue. Concentrating only on the championship challenge, purified by the shouting at will, there wouldn’t be much left: the penalty given to Verona is controversial but there have been other similar episodes and in any case it is part of the accounting that every team has during a season (remember Napoli-Pisa?). Yet every whistle is accompanied by screams and shouts, environmental conditioning that will extend to San Siro and beyond. Nothing that hasn’t already happened in the past.
