By Urban Newton
(@urban_newton)
It took a while to get out. It’s always awkward trying to bustle from your row onto the stairs. The stairs were steep. Really steep. But once you’re off them then it’s okay.
There’s no concourse like what we’re used to in this country. It’s all open when you get out of the stands. You then go down a winding ramp in those big towers, that make the stadium look like something out of an old Star Trek series, to get out.
Inter and Roma had just played-out a 1-1 draw at San Siro back in April. And, as me and my brother, made our twenty-minute walk back to the hotel, we spoke of how the draw suited the visitors from the capital more, Kwadwo Asamoah’s brilliant performance and that song.
Four times we heard it during the stadium.
“Amala! Pazza Inter Amala!,” it annoyingly goes. It’s catchy but so annoying. “Love it! Crazy Inter Love It!,” it also bizarrely translates to.
Last night however, Inter were not in action, it was the turn of the other two teams tipped for the Serie A title.
Juventus hosted Napoli in Turin. An insane fixture for the computer to throw out for Matchday Two.
And what an insane game it was.
Danilo opened the scoring for Juve, coming on for the injured Mattia De Sciglio on sixteen minutes, and scoring with his first touch. Gonzalo Higuain doubled the lead just two minutes later with a sensational, Bergkamp-esque turn-and-finish.
Of course, Cristiano Ronaldo got in on the act too. He finished well on his weaker left foot just after the hour mark after neat play from Douglas Costa.
Maurizio Sarri’s side seemed comfortable. They were rightly taking their time on the ball, happy with their lead, but Carlo Ancelotti’s side had other ideas.
Kostas Manolas, debutant Hirving Lozano and Giovanni Di Lorenzo, making just his second appearance, completed the comeback with nine minutes left out of nowhere.
Then, in the ninety-second minute, Kalidou Koulibaly sliced a deep freekick into the back of his own net. Juventus 4 Napoli 3.
It was a breathless goal-fest filled with horrendous defending and countless eyebrow movements of disbelieve and frustration, the likes of which would give Game of Thrones‘ Emilia Clarke and run for her money, from Ancelotti on the touchline.
Maurizio Sarri was absent from the opposing technical area last night. The sixty-year-old is suffering with pneumonia, though he still refuses to give up smoking.
Yet it’s fair to say that Juve looked far from the structured, efficient side of Max Allegri that we are all used to.
They looked fluid. Ronaldo and Blaise Matuidi combined well on the left, with one going wide when the other moved infield. It’s a role the Frenchman has become accustom to for his national side.
Miralem Pjanic is the metronome (the Jorginho) in this side, playing a bit deeper and safer than he usually does.
Higuain, who is adamant that he can recapture that 2015/16 thirty-six goal season under Sarri, started upfront and ran well. Though Il Bianconeri are still looking to offload both him and Mario Mandzukic before Tuesday’s European transfer deadline.
Maurizio Sarri’s sides are not particularly known for their defensive prowess, something completely unlike “the Juventus way” of old.
Giorgio Chiellini tore his ACL in training this week and the thirty-five-year-old was replaced by £67.5m-man Matthijs de Ligt, who made his debut. He really struggled alongside Leonardo Bonucci last night, being at fault for not simply tracking his man on two of the goals.
Though Sarri has not been on the sideline for either of Juve’s matches yet this season, the Sarrification of the Old Lady has well and truly begun.
For a team that favours substance over style however, it will be interesting so see how the Juventini faithful react to the style of play if things go south.
Napoli, meanwhile, will be devastated that they didn’t get anything out of last night.
Kostas Manolas was brought in from Roma this Summer and he and Koulibaly looked like, on paper anyway, they could form one of the best partnerships in world football.
So far, Napoli have conceded seven goals in two games.
They have however also scored seven, but Ancelotti’s desire to make the side a little less raw than that of Sarri seems a way off.
They still have the terrifying pace on the counter. With Lorenzo Insigne, Arkadiusz Milik, Jose Callejon, Dries Mertens, Hirving Lozano and the probable incoming of Fernando Llorente from Spurs, Napoli will once again be some watch this year.
Ancelotti faces a similar job to what Jurgen Klopp had at the start of last season at Liverpool however. No team can simply blitz teams to a league title.
Napoli have to become more astute and foundationally solid, and in Ancelotti they have a man-manager who could do just that in his second season.
Inter Milan face Cagliari tonight (19.45 KO, Premier Sports). The Nerazzurri beat Lecce 4-0 at San Siro last week, looking superb under new manager Antonio Conte.
Conte turned down the Roma job in the Summer, stating that he needed to be somewhere where he could win Serie A in the first year, and that well and truly could be here at Inter.
Romelu Lukaku and Alexis Sanchez have been added to the already impressive squad. English fans might think that those two are a gamble, though there is a sense in Europe that Manchester United themselves are the problem.
Think Daley Blind, Angel Di Maria and now potentially Chris Smalling, who has gone on loan to Roma, who have thrived after moving away from Old Trafford.
Of course, Conte is playing three-at-the-back. In Milan Skriniar, Stefan de Vrij and Diego Godin, Inter should be completely sound at the back. Ex-Hull man Andrea Ranocchia even came in last weekend and was superb.
Antonio Candreva could be set for a new lease of life too. He played right wingback immensely last time out, thriving in the amount of space created by the 3-5-2 system.
Lukaku was joined by the ever-unselfish, intelligent Lautaro Martinez against Lecce. The two played really well considering the awkward situation of Mauro Icardi still looms constantly in the background.
The Argentinian striker, who’s agent and wife, Wanda, criticised some of former manager Luciano Spalletti’s decision last year, has been left in the wilderness for months.
It’s believed that he does not want a move away however, unless it’s to Juventus. The latest is that he might even take Inter to court for their treatment of him.
The title race in Serie A this season looks set to be the best in Europe. And last night’s fixture between Juventus and Napoli just proved as further evidence to that claim.
The superstar-laden Juventus now have a coach with a progressive philosophy; the potential pretenders Napoli continue to blow teams away but have the ideal manager to make them champions; whilst Inter have a serial winner in charge of an ever-improving squad.
I’m not saying Inter will win the Serie A title this season, but that song, “Pazza Inter Amala!“, has been ousted by Antonio Conte as the club tries to move away from old traditions and mentalities of being second-best challengers to title winners.
And thank god that the song has gone…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWV-aiDvoYo&t=73s
By Urban Newton
(@urban_newton)
BehindClosedDoors 
Reblogged this on Urban Newton.
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