There's little to say, just read this article and you will know what I'm talking about:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog ... er-serie-a
The goal that may just have sealed Internazionale's fifth consecutive scudetto arrived in the 82nd minute. Of a game between the teams sitting 17th and 18th. Atalanta, five points adrift in the relegation places, were leading Bologna, the team immediately above them, 1-0 at their Atleti Azzurri d'Italia home when Henry Giménez wriggled free in the area to unleash their first shot on target. Andrea Consigli palmed the effort away, then watched in horror as his team-mate Federico Peluso miscontrolled the loose ball, sidefooting it back into his own net.
The moment was legitimately gut-wrenching for both a defender and a team who up to that point had rarely looked ruffled, but Atalanta were not the only ones cursing this cruellest turn of events. Roma, back on top of the league after beating Parma 2-1 a day earlier, were also flattened. Victory would have taken Atalanta to within two points of Bologna but also to within three of Lazio. Instead, the 1-1 draw meant Lazio faced Inter on Sunday evening knowing defeat would do far more damage to Roma's title hopes than their own prospects of staying in the division.
"If you win we'll beat you up," bellowed the Lazio fans a few hours later at the Stadio Olimpico, and their words were not aimed at the opposition. Before kick-off each name on the Inter team-sheet had been greeted with a huge "Ole" from the home support, and the banners decorating the Curva Nord implored Lazio's players to "Get out of their way". When Inter did eventually take the lead, through a Walter Samuel header in first-half added time, the same fans cheered enthusiastically while unfurling another sign that simply, and sarcastically, read: "Oh nooo".
If Liverpool fans felt mixed emotions about losing to Chelsea yesterday, knowing that defeat would end any lingering hope of a fourth-placed finish but might help deprive Manchester United of their 19th title, then there was no such soul-searching in Rome as Lazio went on to lose 2-0. The Biancocelesti's ultras have a long-standing relationship with those of Inter, a "twinning" that has prompted displays of mutual admiration in the past. The rare circumstance of both wanting the same result yesterday allowed for a fully fledged love-in.
But what the fans want is not necessarily what the players want, and many of the latter had spent a good part of the past week speaking of the "professionalism" that would prevent them from rolling over. Sadly their performances on the pitch were rather less convincing. It would have been naive for anyone to assume that a team sitting so far down the table, and who have not scored in a league game against Inter since February 2008, could overturn José Mourinho's side, but this was one of the weakest displays of Lazio's miserable season.
Only Mauro Zárate, who continued to harry the Inter defence despite a total absence of support from team-mates, and the goalkeeper Fernando Muslera, who made a handful of goal-saving interventions, offered any real resistance. Such was the futility of Muslera's defiance that Gazzetta dello Sport's Luigi Garlando likened him this morning to "the Japanese man in the forest who doesn't realise the war is over".
"After what we have seen, calling our championship the most beautiful in the world is absurd," the Roma president, Rosella Sensi, railed late last night, and reports this morning suggest the only thing preventing her from pursuing an official complaint is the desire not to disrupt her team's preparations for the Coppa Italia final against Inter on Wednesday. "I believe that even Inter now will embarrassed," the Roma director Gian Paolo Montali said. "The Nerazzuri are not to blame, but this time it was not just Lazio who lost but [Italian] football."
The frustration is intensified for Roma, of course, by the knowledge that a title that was briefly theirs to lose is now slipping away. Inter will be expected to win both their remaining league fixtures – against Chievo at home, then Siena away – comfortably. The former have little left to play for as they contemplate a lower mid-table finish, while the latter are 19th and already relegated.
But if there is a warning to be made it is that Siena twice led Inter at San Siro this season and only lost 4-3 after Samuel struck deep into added time. Roma will just have to hope that Inter's remaining opponents come out of that forest with all guns blazing.
Embarrassing display from their fans, really, they even cheered the goals Inter scored...I believe that is something unheard of in world football, and I know that there's a fierce rivality between Roma and Lazio, of course there is, so I could understand if, after having lost, they consoled themselves with thinking that at least their defeat would stop Roma fom winning the title, but what they did is way over the top of decency.
Sadly, no punishment will be issued but I think a point deduction for purposefully not playing to their best would suit them just fine. And I know that chances of them being relegated are almost non-existent now, but as some pundits said last night after the game, "they deserve nothing better than rotting in Serie B".
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