The match between the two Serie A leaders ends in a draw. Gasperini and Chivu put on a great show, with important indications for the rest of the season.
If one clue is a clue, two are a coincidence and three are evidence, the super match at the Olimpico between Roma and Inter gave important answers to the championship, as well as providing another Champions League-level Saturday show after the one at San Siro between the Nerazzurri and Napoli. A point for one, for once, is not only the correct snapshot of the progress of the match but also a fair verdict that rewards (and not mortifies) neither of the two teams. No one between Gasperini and Chivu would have deserved to go to the break ruminating on bad thoughts after a defeat and so it was.
The three clues that are now proof concern Inter’s madness at the start of the season, for the third time (fourth also considering the trip to Madrid) down by two goals and for the third time capable of not losing. It can be a source of pride, looking at the glass half full of the response in the second half marked by Lautaro Martinez’s brace, but also and above all a reason for reflection. The Nerazzurri refuse to defend in some moments, the goals conceded to Koné (devastating) were a photocopy: two numerical superiorities granted inside the penalty area.
On the double blow of his French raider, the best until the forces supported him, Gasperini built an absolute masterpiece. The pace of his Roma crushed Inter, dried up their dribbling, forced them to lose almost all the duels around the pitch so much so that the double deficit at half-time almost seemed like a gift for the Italian champions. Roma are in for the Scudetto, if proof was needed the Olimpico provided it.
Inter are an almost perfect war machine, capable of overturning any negative situation and driven by Lautaro Martinez whose performance, on the day of farewell to Sandro Mazzola, almost had the significance of the tradition of great captains that multiplies over time. The defensive phase, however, must alarm Chivu because it is not always possible to survive shocks like this and the Nerazzurri have not yet absorbed the farewell of Acerbi who was the technical and emotional leader of the back unit.
The good news for Italian football is that Roma and Inter are traveling at a European pace, what is needed to compete with the greats of the Old Continent. The Giallorossi impressed until they dropped, the Nerazzurri overall reacted with admirable intensity. Coach Mancini in the stands will also have been happy: if this is the present, rebuilding the national team will be a little less difficult.
