Maybe Serie A isn’t exciting, but it has launched a great deal of talent

The results of the 23rd day of Serie A

Turin-Cremonese 2-2 41′ pen. Sanabria, 54′ Tsadjout (C), 75′ Valeri (C), 79′ Single

Sassuolo-Naples 0-2 12′ Kvaratskhelia, 33′ Osimhen
Sampdoria-Bologna 1-2 27′ Soriano, 68′ pen. Sabiri (S), 90′ Orsolini
Monza-Milan 0-1 31′ Messias
Inter-Udinese 3-1 20′ pen. Lukaku, 43′ Lovrić (U), 73′ Mkhitaryan, 89′ Lautaro Martínez
Atalanta 1-2 Lecce 4′ Ceesay, 74′ Blin, 87′ Højlund (A)
Fiorentina-Empoli 1-1 29′ Cambiaghi (E), 85′ Cabral
Salernitana-Lazio 0-2 60′, 69′ pen. Still
Spezia-Juventus 0-2 32′ Kean, 66′ Di María
Rome-Verona 1-0 45′ Solbakken

The Serie A standings after 23 days

Naples 62; Inter 47; Rome and Milan 44; Lazio 42; Atalanta 41; Juventus (-15) and Bologna 32; Turin 31; Udinese 30; Monza 29; Empoli 28; Lecce 27; Fiorentina 25; Sassuolo 24; Salerno 21; spice 19; Verona 17; Sampdoria 11; Cremona 9.

Because the many talents that unexpectedly exploded allow us to rejoice in a championship like this

The months go by, the children grow up, the mothers whiten. Napoli is already organizing the celebrations for the third scudetto and is projecting itself towards the ambitions of the Champions League, almost half of the table has little to ask for in the tournament, two teams have lost hope of remaining in Serie A, the others are playing for Europe and salvation. From here to the first weekend of June, conclusion extra large of an anomalous championship between the World Cup and twenty teams, there would be enough to get bored. Instead great calm, this Serie A 2022-2023 will go down in history for the many talents who unexpectedly exploded in the same months: there is enough to constitute a selection capable of placing on the upper floors. In goal Vicario – who was already good – and Falcone, in defense Baschirotto, Schuurs, Posch, Bijol, wanting Thiaw and Hien; along the Doig, Carlos Augusto, Sernicola, Valeri bands. In midfield the lot is smaller, but the sumptuous Hjulmand, the other Scotsman Ferguson and also Lovrić give guarantees, perhaps withdrawing Baldanzi who also shows ringworm in addition to his class. And Ciurria is where you put him, especially if Cambiaghi and Iling jr are also playing on the wing. Ahead, spoiled for choice between Højlund, Lookman, Laurienté, Colombo, Ngonge and above all Kvaratskhelia, probably the best of the lot. Reread like this, and with an eye to the future, this championship will also remain in the memory for the emotions these gentlemen made us feel. Before perhaps taking off for other shores, let’s enjoy a decade of decadence.

Because Milan, with the change of formation, is back… that of Allegri

After the hangover of goals conceded in January, no less than 18 in seven games, Stefano Pioli had nothing left but to turn Milan upside down, equipping it with the three-man defense that hasn’t been seen since the days of Alberto Zaccheroni (by the way, best wishes for recovery) and rethinking the way to deploy the attack with Brahim Diaz and Rafael Leão in different positions from the past. Moral? Three victories for one to zero, Massimiliano Allegri would say with a short face, running little risk from one moment to the next. Has the night passed? Great calm, the situation is still fluid and above all it will depend on the surplus of adrenaline and “European DNA” that the eleven will be able to instill in the new White Hart Lane in London on 8 March. Because there is no doubt that at the root of the change of pace, which is still being consolidated, there is not only the coach’s radical and courageous tactical alternative, but also the recovery of a mentality that historically Milan has always shown more in the stadiums on the continent compared to those in the provinces: where even the stellar team of Arrigo Sacchi and Fabio Capello often lost.

Because a season contributes to decreeing a destiny, but everything can be summed up in a single game

“Sliding doors”, the film, is now twenty-five years old. But the concept remains unsurpassed when you want to describe the fatality that, from one moment to the next, changes the course of a story without appeal: in football, and especially in this year’s Italian championship, nothing is more pregnant than sliding doors in the London Underground to describe, for example, what happened during Sampdoria-Bologna. Roberto Soriano who scores for the Rossoblu from outside the box in 2015, the same one in reversed jersey who scores for his former team in the same way eight years later is “only” a historical appeal. But aren’t Thiago Motta’s men, without nominal strikers, who score in the 90th minute after Abdelhamid Sabiri misses the second of the two – generous? – penalties beaten in two minutes: with the three points Sampdoria would have breathed and found momentum to try to save themselves, so instead the descent is practically certain, as is the inverse effect of the lift for Genoa. Great calm, and if Sabiri had scored the 2-1, then the final result? A paradox would have opened in the continuum space-time (cit.) that would bring Soriano back to Marassi, and also Siniša Mihajlović who trained him that day. And maybe Gianluca Vialli, the protector always awaited by all those “us”, watching over from above like the angel Clarence Oddbody… visions aside, how bad is the relegation of Sampdoria and Cremonese just this year? (Any forced accompaniment by Juventus, post disqualification, would add further and lysergic salt to the paranormal).

Because the derby between game players and results players will never end, and how it’s going now

Precisely the Grigiorossi from the Po valley, this week, are the symbol of the now eternal dispute that is tearing apart the passion for football between those who prefer points to everything, and those who try to obtain them through a game system and a recognizable mentality. Having said that the dichotomy doesn’t make all this sense, even among the fans (who doesn’t want to score points? Who is happy to get them by chance?), in Cremona they went from playing well in a few weeks, even very well with Massimiliano Alvini on the bench , to a certain greyness of resignation under the aegis of Davide Ballardini. In the first case, the poor results nailed the coach until his exemption on 15 January: the great calm leadership had reached its climax. In the second, however, two away successes in the Italian Cup arrived – and what successes, Naples and Rome – with the visa for a not impossible semi-final against Fiorentina, and two equally away points against healthy teams such as Bologna and Turin. The gambler says: at least give me the game back, since I’m going backwards. The scorer replies: I bet that by taking points I will continue to recede, but at least you will cheer like Emanuele Valeri clinging to the balustrade of the Olympic stadium in Turin!

Because the succession of days proves that Great calm it is the right attitude to face them

Small self-celebratory moment. Taking into consideration only the matches played in 2023, there are at least four arguments that have already proved the chill out compared to forecasts that are too easy and linked to the reality of the moment: after the defeat at San Siro at the beginning of the year, we said that nothing would be put back into play for Napoli. And we were right. After the Epiphany, the semi-automatic offside would have begun to reap the first unwitting victims: widely expected. In mid-January the capital gains bomb fell on Juve, but – it was written – not so much as to prevent them from being able to catch up in extremis at least the Conference League (now there are 9 points to recover for Atalanta, in 15 games). With the return of the Champions League, Inter and Milan have found new stimuli to counter the pressure from the Romans and Gianpiero Gasperini: even this in black and white, when the momentum it seemed reverse. We’ll see if the inputs launched in the week of the Sanremo Festival and in the fat one of Carnival will soon find confirmation, or instead – great calm – punctual denial: the latter too, of course, is part of the rules of the game.