With Inter Milan seven points clear at the top of Serie A there
is a real danger that this season's race for the Italian title
could turn into a procession.
Inter's lead following their 3-0 win over Empoli at the weekend
is not the biggest recorded in the division after 15 rounds.
That honour goes to the Juventus team who held a 10-point lead
over Inter and Fiorentina at the same stage 12 months ago.
Milan managed to close the gap to three points by the end of the
season before both sides were punished in a match-fixing
scandal.
Several differences suggest that Inter will be harder to reel in
than Juventus last season.
Then Milan and Inter had the squads and resources to challenge
them over the course of a season.
This time, Inter are a class apart both on the pitch and in
potential spending power. Their reserves are more than a match for
most of the first-choice sides in Serie A.
When Zlatan Ibrahimovic comes off, Adriano comes on. If Ivan
Cordoba is injured, Walter Samuel takes his place. When Esteban
Cambiasso needs a rest, Luis Figo steps up.
Neither second-placed Roma nor Palermo in third can boast that
kind of strength in depth, and as the season continues the
disparities between the clubs could become increasingly clear.
STRETCHED
Roma, for example, rightly celebrated their qualification for
the knockout stage of the Champions League. But now they have
progressed to the quarter-finals of the Italian Cup their squad
will be stretched across three fronts in the New Year.
Palermo's success, meanwhile, is founded on the fitness of
players such as striker David Di Michele and playmaker Eugenio
Corini. Without them, the team struggles.
The differences between Inter and their challengers were marked
at Empoli on Sunday, when two of the team's second-stringers,
Nicolas Burdisso and Alvaro Recoba, gave fine performances to set
up all three of Inter's goals.
"No one wants to give up on their dreams, but at a certain point
it's important that one wakes up to reality," Palermo president
Maurizio Zamparini told radio station Radio Anch'io Sport on
Monday.
"At Empoli we saw Inter was like an armada that you can't stop.
In my opinion, they will win the title by 15 to 18 points."
His sentiments were echoed by Inter coach Roberto Mancini who,
after watching his men dispose of Empoli, denied there was any such
thing as an Inter second team.
"Our greatest strength is the quality that runs throughout the
entire group of players," he said.
"Here at Empoli the players that won the match for us are
players like (defender Nicolas) Burdisso, Samuel, and (midfielder
Santiago) Solari.
"They are players that are unjustly referred to as reserves. But
all of them deserve respect".
(China Daily via Reuters December 12, 2006)