There is no escape. THE’Inter responds to Napoli and keeps pace with Antonio Conte, who dreamed of leaving even without the asterisk. Not without suffering, the Nerazzurri of Simone Inzaghi – who reach 51 goals in 20 days, in the football played only Inzaghi has managed this and in three different seasons – they regulate Empoli and virtually bring themselves back to equal points, specifically -3 from the Azzurri who are first in the standings.
The faces on the cover are those of the three scorers: Lautaro who is back, Thuram and Dumfries who have gone nowhere. The renewal has cheered up the Dutchman, Nerazzurri striker at the start of 2025. And the Argentine seems definitively back: second consecutive goal at San Siro, a useful reminder for the anticipated verdicts.
It’s not just them, though. Because against Empoli the first test was about Kristjan Asllani. Highly criticized for the latest releases and for the gap with Calhanoglu, who remains intact, the Albanian responded with a good performance. He also provided an assist from a corner, and more generally he withstood the blow: the whistles against Bologna, in truth, didn’t involve the whole stadium, but it certainly wasn’t easy to return to San Siro and not pay the price. A big question remains: could it really be the post Calha? More no than yes, to date, but he will still have games to try to answer.
The faces of those who expected something from were longer Piotr Zielinski And Mehdi Taremi. The Pole is the one they remember in Naples: a good game and three in slippers. It is not a secondary issue, because it does not have the alibi of young age and perhaps it disappoints even more: it was expected that it would undermine Mkhitaryan, but today it is very far away. The Iranian, however, still sees the goal a long way off. And in the last few outings he hasn’t even worked on the game, or worked dirty, as is recognized by Inzaghi’s staff: “Too much criticism”, said Farris after the match. In the exciting goal machine built in Appiano Gentile, however, his signature is starting to be missing a little too much.