Article 48 — Italian Football Is Back!
Italian football will make its return today in Italy, early Saturday morning in South East Asia with the Coppa Italia semi-final, 2nd leg between two of Italy’s superpower, historically big teams, Juventus and AC Milan.
I remember when I started following Serie A in the 90s, Milan was the dominant force in the early to mid-90s and then Juventus took over. Milan had periods of success thereafter but have been on a steady decline since winning the Scudetto in 2010–11 and the Supercoppa Italiana in 2011–12.
Since winning the Scudetto in 2011–12, it has been all Juventus in Serie A with the odd exceptions in the Coppa Italia. The first leg played at San Siro was drawn 1–1 with a late Cristiano Ronaldo penalty salvaging the draw for the away side, a creditable draw for Milan.
Due to the Corona Virus regulations, there will be no fans in attendance at Juventus’ Allianz Stadium so there will be no atmosphere in the crowd giving it a closed-door training match feel. It will be interesting to see which set of players will rise up above the lack of atmosphere, after all, there is a place to play for in the final of the Coppa Italia even though it might not feel like that when they play.
Milan will be without some key players. Zlatan Ibrahimovic who has given the team a boost and quality upgrade is suspended and injured. A player that has been Milan’s best player this season, Theo Hernandez is also missing through suspension. The onus will fall on Ante Rebic who has been revitalised since Ibrahimovic’s arrival to lead the line. Other key players will be Gianluigi Donnarumma in goal, captain Alessio Romagnoli, Hakan Calhanoglu, Ismael Bennacer and Rafael Leao. They would need every single one of them to play well and the sum of parts to pull the team through if they have ambitions to get into the final.
Juventus are favourites to win this and qualify for the final. They are only missing Gonzalo Higuain and have a deep squad. The only hope neutrals have of an upset is that mentally and physically, Juventus is rusty and Milan is sharper. This match as would others right at the start of the re-start for the season would hinge on which team is the most ready for action and can adapt best to playing without fans.
In the other semi-final, my favourite Inter would be playing away to Napoli. Napoli has a slender 1–0 lead from the first leg. The form of both teams before the lockdown couldn’t be more contrasting. Napoli had won 7 out of 9 matches in all competition while Inter were in their now traditional second half of the season slump of winning 3 out of the last 9 matches.
There aren’t any major injury concerns for either team so both teams should have as close as their best squad available for this match. One would struggle to pick out a favourite between these two teams for this match. Again as I mentioned earlier, it will all depend on either team’s readiness and adaptability to the present circumstances to decide a winner.
As an Inter fan, the form and matches before the lockdown didn’t leave a good taste in my mouth. I always felt the second half of the season would be Inter and Antonio Conte’s real test because many managers before him have faced a struggle dealing with the second half of the season slump. There have been many days since our last match. We hope that this re-start brings us new luck, renewed vigour and energy in the team for a short season within a season.
Good luck to the teams and hopefully there would be no major discrepancies and controversies to mire the return to action in Italy.
