The race for fourth place in Serie A is becoming more and more uncertain: Milan, Lazio, Roma and Atalanta lost points, only Inter and Juventus won… it’s a total tussle for a place in next year’s Champions League. Let’s see what happened in Serie A over the last weekend:
PLAYER OF THE WEEK – ROMELU LUKAKU
The man of the moment for Inter, maybe in Serie A and who knows, maybe he could become the man of the moment in Europe as well. Big Rom is back to the incredible form seen under Antonio Conte, when he led Inter to their last Scudetto victory.
Right now he is leading the Nerazzurri team one goal after another. Unstoppable for any opponent, lethal both near and far from the opponent’s area, as he proved during the match against Sassuolo: a stop with his back to goal and a devastating shot finished directly under the bar.
In this delicate moment, Romelu is the player Inter are leaning on to finish the season in glory and it was the best possible decision by coach Simone Inzaghi. It will be difficult to see him back in Milan next year, he has a very high salary and in addition Inter would have to buy him, but there is no doubt that until the last moment of this loan from Chelsea, he will do everything to earn his stay, to return to wear the jersey he made such an effort to make happen last summer.
Against Sassuolo, he scored two goals, thus reaching 12 for the season, not bad considering the long period in which he has been stuck in the medical room due to muscle injuries. Perhaps it is wrong to award him only as player of the week, because objectively he has been making a difference for even longer. Right now it is hard to imagine keeping him on the bench, despite fierce competition from a champion like Edin Dzeko. In any case, Inzaghi will continue to enjoy him as long as he can.
TALKING POINT – PAUL POGBA’S MOMENT
It is indeed a bad moment for Paul. A rather long moment, about that there is no doubt, and it is objectively a great pity, because the talent of this player is as great as his body is fragile.
During Sunday night’s game against Cremonese, Paul stopped and left the field in tears, making every Juventus fan and soccer lover worried: fortunately it was “only” a muscle problem, yet another in his troubled season. He had not played as a starter since April 2022, but unfortunately his game lasted very little, definitely marking as negative the season of his return to Juventus.
A purchase that did not turn out well, to use an understatement, but it is still true that he is relatively young and still has many years of football ahead of him, provided of course that he resolves the many, too many, physical problems that are undermining what in theory was supposed to be the best part of his career.
Fortunately for Juventus, he can be a leader and an example even without taking the field, but he will have to work a lot on himself to return to the real Pogba, the one Juventus had brought back to chase ranking positions and goals worthy of this team’s name and tradition.
TEAM OF THE WEEK – SPEZIA
No one would have bet on the possible victory of Leonardo Semplici’s boys against AC Milan on Saturday afternoon, both because the standings were rather complicated for Spezia and AC Milan should have used several starters, having now compromised the Champions League return semifinal.
Instead thanks to goals from Przemysław Wisniewski and Salvatore Esposito the Bianconeri left the field with the three points in their pockets, joining Verona in the standings, who instead lost to Torino. The result is surprising, the performance as always happens with Spezia was not at all: Semplici’s boys know what to do, they know how to do it, they are a well-organised team, tidy, solid in defence and capable of being lethal on set-pieces, as happened on Saturday, with a masterful free kick scored by Esposito, who from Spal in Serie B has made the big leap to Serie A, proving himself definitely up to the task and the level of the Italian top-flight.
It is a bad moment for Milan, who was called to a face-to-face conversation by the fans in the stands, who had followed the team away. A far from uplifting and pleasant scene to witness, because never should footballers be taken head-on like this, as they are the first to put their faces on and always want to do well.
INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE OF THE WEEK – REMI OUDIN
Surprisingly, the Lecce player was among the stars of the 35th day of the Serie A championship. Marco Baroni’s team was called to an extremely complicated challenge against Maurizio Sarri’s Lazio to chase the dream of staying in Serie A and despite the initial disadvantage the Apulian team had even managed to take the lead thanks to the two goals scored by Oudin.
Rémi Oudin, a French striker born in 1996, on loan from Bordeaux: he was the m.v.p. of Lazio-Lecce, with the two goals that would have given Lecce three dream points in a game in which they were by no means favoured… that is if it wasn’t for Sergej Milinkovic-Savic’s late goal.
In this complicated final part of the season having a player capable of scoring two goals against Lazio will definitely come in handy for Lecce, as the coach of the Apulians himself said.
