In this round of Serie A, Inter played a game with joys and worries, highlights and hidden dangers, and beat Verona by 2 goals.
Subsequently, Napoli lost to Fiorentina, and AC Milan was forced to draw by Turin, allowing Inter to regain the theoretical initiative in the title race.
With fewer and fewer league rounds, the re-ownership of the initiative at this time has an impact on the psychology of the teams and should not be underestimated.
For example, Napoli coach Spalletti has once again become a topic of conversation because of his strange speech.
After the defeat in this round, the bald coach regarded the loss as "a kind of judgment".
"There are fewer and fewer rounds left, and it will be very difficult to chase points," Spalletti points out: "We can only try to try to get as many points as possible..."
Under the premise that the ownership of the league championship is still unknown, and many Napoli players are desperate to wait for the manager to boost morale after the loss, It is not surprising that Spalletti himself first showed an attitude of "there is not much hope, do your best", which made the radical fans of the southern ancient city grit their teeth in hatred.
In Serie A, many experts and celebrities have pointed out that Napoli's hard power is actually the most advantageous of the top three.
But if the person who controls these resources is Spalletti, then the pressure on the Milan duo will be much less.
At the key moment of the championship race, the performance of Inter Milan, AC Milan, Napoli, Juventus and other teams was far lower than the expectations of the fans of each team, which made this season's "championship competition" drama into a "championship" drama.
In the process, there were many rare "Western scenery". For example, AC Milan discharged the so-called 235 formation, but did not widen the wing and hit the middle of the road in the attack, causing controversy. For example, Inter Milan's "first person to advance the ball" in this round is goalkeeper Handanovic, which makes many tacticians stunned, and so on.
It is no wonder that some fans see the peak showdown between Manchester City and Liverpool in the Premier League and regard the Serie A title competition as "rookie pecking at each other".
It turns out that Inzaghi Jr., Pioli and Spalletti, the managers who lack the experience of the five major league titles, are not "able to play new magic" than "whose stupid mistakes" are in the championship sprint. Mistakes due to excessive psychological pressure will not be small probability events.
Sky Terrace made a bold prediction that in the final stages of the league, the top three will continue to lose points and make mistakes, and this season's Serie A champions may only have 82 points. Is there any truth to such a judgment? We'll see.
At a critical moment when the league's fault tolerance rate is getting smaller and the mental pressure is increasing, a key change for Inter milan is worth paying attention to, that is, the team is paying more and more attention to defense, more and more "curling points" are played, and the Nerazzurri have conceded an average of less than 1/3 of the previous one after late February.
So far this season, Inter have played a total of 43 games (8 Champions League games, 3 Italian Cups, 31 league rounds, 1 Super Cup).
From the beginning of the season to mid-February, Inter scored 70 goals and conceded 32 goals in these 35 games, averaging 2 goals per game and conceding 0.914 goals per game. In the eight games since late February, Inter's attacking power has plummeted, with only 11 goals (the attack performance is even more dismal if you deduct a few of the less significant icing on the cake from the 5-0 win over Salernitana), but only 2 goals have been conceded in these 8 games, and 6 clean sheets have been kept, and the average goal conceded per game has dropped sharply to 0.25.
Considering that the opponents of these 8 games include Juventus, Liverpool and AC Milan, this still has gold content and reference value.
Recently, the Problem of the Nerazzurri's lack of attack has been exposed, and it is normal to stumble in the game, so criticism has continued.
But at the same time, Inter have become the team with the fewest goals conceded and the best defense in Serie A.
The Nerazzurri has also begun to gain more and more games, such as the previous Italian derby, and then the just-concluded showdown with Verona, inter were completely passive throughout the second half, but tried to keep the door open.
This style of play is certainly not a pain, but in the final moments of the season, when everything other than points is insignificant, it is not always a bad thing to have a solid defense to rely on.
Coincidentally, as Inter's biggest title rival, AC Milan also regards defense as the top priority in the championship sprint period, and even strengthens the defense at the expense of attack. In the last 6 league and cup matches, AC Milan have only scored 3 goals, but all of them have achieved zero sheets.
In Serie A, "offense wins reputation, defense produces results" is the iron law and heaven in the hearts of coaches.
Under the huge pressure of the championship, some coaches who are shaking their hearts are not afraid to assume the name of "conservative" and resolutely choose this football philosophy, which is also reasonable.
So the Italian media summed it up: if this season's league title belongs to a certain team in Milan City, then the people who should be praised the most may not only Berko Dzeko Da Olivier giroud, Leo Lautaro, Char Khan Oulu, Kathy, but also Shkriniar, Bastoni, Tomori, Mégnan and so on.