The Nerazzurri's streak of form had some talking about a push for title but the wheels came off at the Stadio Via del Mare
It had to end this way. Inter's startling revival under Claudio Ranieri had seen them win seven consecutive games in Serie A ? enough to close the gap to first place from 15 points to just six. They had overcome Champions League-chasing Lazio, put five past Parma and beaten Milan in the Derby della Madonnina. Three full months had passed since they even conceded a goal away from home in Serie A. And then they went to Lecce.
As footballing fortresses go, the Stadio Via del Mare has been not so much Helm's Deep to King Theoden as sofa cushions to an eight-year-old fending off parents at bedtime. Lecce had not won a single game there this season, and had drawn only twice in nine attempts. Their form had been marginally better away from home, but they still sat second-from-bottom with just 13 points at the season's midway point.
This, then, was a foregone conclusion ? a match that barely needed to be played at all. On the day of the game, Gazzetta dello Sport dedicated a page lead to the fact victory would place Ranieri alongside a select group of managers who had won eight consecutive league games with Inter ? Helenio Herrera, Giovanni Trapattoni, Roberto Mancini and Jos� Mourinho. Winning the Scudetto, they noted, "feels possible". Even the Lecce manager Serse Cosmi sounded like a man struggling to convince himself as he insisted: "we won't begin the match thinking we're already beaten".
Yet it is not for nothing that this team's anthem is entitled "Pazza Inter" ? Crazy Inter. This is the club where regular logic need not apply ? a club that in 2002 sat first for nine of the last 10 rounds going into the final weekend of the season, yet contrived to finish outside the top two; a place where a young Fabio Cannavaro could be traded away for a goalkeeper named Fabian Carini (total appearances for Inter: nine), and where Fabio Capello, Marcelo Bielsa and Andr� Villas-Boas can all find their way onto the same managerial shortlist.
"For one goal, I would give my life," goes the opening refrain of Pazza Inter ? and on Sunday the 1,500 travelling Nerazzurri fans might just have meant it that little bit more than normal. Only Novara had conceded more often than Lecce this season and yet after taking the lead late in the first half through Guillermo Giacomazzi, here they were defying an Inter team that had stuck four past them barely a month earlier.
The Lecce goalkeeper, Massimiliano Benassi, was in inspired form, showcasing startlingly sharp reflexes as he clawed away a string of goalbound efforts ? most notably a header from Walter Samuel and a pair of shots from Giampaolo Pazzini. Serie A's "goalkeeper 'Nano'", as Gazzetta dello Sport somewhat uncharitably called him (Benassi stands 5ft 10in), was eventually beaten twice in the space of 20 second-half minutes, but both efforts were correctly ruled out for offside.
For Benassi this was a timely lift after a month in which he has been forced to deny allegations of match-fixing ? threatening legal action after his name was linked to ongoing investigations by the Cremona legislature ? undergone surgery on a stomach problem and been forced to play in a protective mask after fracturing his septum. "And now I have damaged a tendon in the middle finger of my right hand," he told reporters after Sunday's win. "It's all fine if these are the results."
Having begun the season as a back-up to the on-loan J�lio S�rgio ? whose name curiously appeared in place of J�lio C�sar's on the teamsheets handed out to reporters ? the 30-year-old Benassi is enjoying this opportunity to play at the top level after a career spent in the lower leagues. He almost began on Sunday with a costly mistake, giving the ball away to Diego Milito only for the striker to miss the target from an acute angle ? but otherwise this was the sort of performance that could prove invaluable in Lecce's bid for safety.
So could the arrivals of new signings such as Manuele Blasi, Leonardo Migli�nico and Haris Seferovic ? all three signed within the last week. Migli�nico and Blasi each made solid debuts here ? as part of a back three and in central midfield respectively ? while Seferovic enjoyed a brief second-half cameo off the bench. Lecce are expected to further reinforce before the transfer window closes, with the forwards Valeri Bojinov and Emiliano Bonazzoli their top targets.
As for Inter, Ranieri has made it plain that he does not want to lose Thiago Motta ? injured this weekend but also linked in recent days with a ?10m move to Paris St-Germain ? and would prefer to add an extra midfielder rather than taking one away. Of greater concern, though, is not the likelihood of new arrivals but the challenge of integrating one of the most gifted players already on his team's books.
For Wesley Sneijder, Sunday's game represented a first league start in 2� months ? the Dutchman having only enjoyed substitute appearances since injuring his right quadriceps against Cagliari in November. Although Ranieri spoke of protecting the player, it was clear in recent weeks that this was now at least in part also a tactical decision. Sneijder had been used from the start in the Coppa Italia against Genoa on 19 January but not against Lazio in the league three days later.
The player's return represented a clear conundrum for the manager. In Sneijder's absence Inter had won eight games out of nine in Serie A using a 4-4-2 which had allowed Ricky Alvarez to flourish whilst also improving Inter's width generally ? Pazzini in particular revelling in the increased number of crosses coming over from the flanks. But this was a formation with no obvious role for Sneijder to slot into. Restoring the Dutchman meant going back to a 4-3-1-2. The evidence of Sunday, as well as the cup defeat to Napoli on Wednesday, would suggest this is no longer the team's most effective strategy.
Nor is this purely a tactical matter. It is in Sneijder's personality to demand the ball and when a player is deemed so fundamental that entire formations must be drawn up around him, such exhortations can be hard to resist. In the first half against Lecce there was a distinct sense that Inter's players were trying to work the ball through the Dutchman every time they had it. He and Pazzini exchanged heated words after the striker failed to deliver an expected pass.
Such considerations led Ranieri to withdraw Sneijder at half-time ? without achieving any great improvement, it must be said ? and the player could barely disguise his displeasure at the move. "It was the manager's decision," said Sneijder. "We speak about it tomorrow, him and me."
To the uninitiated it might sound like lunacy to suggest that the availability of a world class player such as Sneijder would prove less of a help than a hindrance. But at Crazy Inter, it is pretty much par for the course.
Talking points
? Inter's fans aren't the only ones who have been left confused and frustrated by some of their team's play this season. As well as ousting Manchester City from the Champions League, Napoli have beaten Milan, Inter and Udinese this season ? while drawing with Juventus and Lazio ? yet their five league defeats include losses to Parma (11th), Chievo (12th) and Catania (15th), while their last two results coming into this weekend were draws against Bologna (16th) and Siena (17th). On Sunday they lost 3-2 to Genoa, who were 10th before this weekend. "We are paying the price for being in the Champions League," said the manager Walter Mazzari afterwards. Given that their last fixture in that competition came almost two months ago, it feels like a very shabby excuse indeed.
? Juventus, by contrast, just keep rolling on ? beating Udinese 2-1 on Saturday night in a highly entertaining game played out under heavy snow in Turin. Almost as enjoyable as the action on the pitch was the relentlessly high-energy performance of the Juve manager Antonio Conte off it. "Now that they have invented the microchip in players' boots that measures how many kilometres they have run during the course of a match, it would be great to know how far the Juve manager travels in 90 minutes," notes GB Olivero in Gazzetta dello Sport.
? Milan moved back to within a point of the league leaders on Sunday with a suitably comprehensive 3-0 win over Cagliari. Two days earlier they had finally given up hope of landing the transfer coup we had all been waiting for and instead opted for the one that had been waiting for them. Catania's Maxi L�pez had been stuck in limbo for days ? compared by the newspapers to Tom Hanks's character in The Terminal ? with the terms of a move to Milan agreed but the paperwork left unsigned as they pursued their preferred option in Carlos Tevez. Only after a last-ditch negotiation with Manchester City failed did they finally complete the move to take L�pez on loan until the end of the season, with a right to buy for ?8m at the end of the campaign. Given that the player, who did not get off the bench on Sunday, has scored just 11 league goals in his last season and a half at Catania, it is certainly no foregone conclusion that they will exercise it.
? The Rossoneri weren't the only ones to win 3-0 this weekend, with Lazio matching that scoreline as they triumphed away to Chievo for the fifth season running. With both Udinese and Inter losing, the Biancocelesti were able to move back to fourth and within two points of the Champions League places.
? Amauri finally got his move away from Juventus, joining Fiorentina for just ?500,000 and making an immediate impact despite failing to score on his debut against Siena. The forward actually did claim his team's second in what would turn out to be a 2-1 victory, but replays would show that Cesare Natali got the final touch. More important to Fiorentina will have been the fact that for the first time since the departure of Alberto Gilardino, they had a true prima punta on the pitch, Amauri doing a solid job leading the line and bringing his team-mates into play.
Results: Catania 1-1 Parma, Cesena 0-1 Atalanta, Chievo 0-3 Lazio, Fiorentina 2-1 Siena, Genoa 3-2 Napoli, Juventus 2-1 Udinese, Lecce 1-0 Inter, Milan 3-0 Cagliari, Palermo 2-0 Novara, Roma 1-1 Bologna.
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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2012/jan/30/inter-serie-a-italian-football
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