Catenaccio is dead but the ghosts of Italian football are starting to sing – and it is brilliant, breathless Inter leading its revival.
Simone Inzaghi’s Champions League finalists do not park the autobus, they drive it straight through the middle of your defence. Just ask Barcelona, who were caught under its wheels seven times over two legs of their chaotic semi-final.
Was there a better stadium in the world to house such drama? The San Siro – La Scala del Calcio – provided a theatrical backdrop and a soundtrack of rampant insanity. If you weren’t mad already, you were by the end of Tuesday’s punch-up.
And this on the day that UEFA President, Aleksander Ceferin, degraded Italian football’s infrastructure as ‘terrible’ and the ‘worst’ of Europe’s top leagues. He, too, had a fat lip come full-time.
UEFA, you see, want tunnel clubs. They want tourists drinking Heineken. They want a press box three times the size of the penalty box. I was sat among Inter’s fans because the media facilities weren’t big enough. My wi-fi was as disconnected as the defending, but I waved my blue foil out of respect and covered my laptop when Moretti rained down – four times, in fact.
It was wonderful. It was football at its most fantastical. Ceferin may think this place is a relic, but you can’t sponsor romance.
He has a more practical point, of course. Italy grossly overspent on Italia 90 and bankrupted themselves whilst giving the world some of its richest, footballing memories. Many of its stadiums, the San Siro included, remain instantly recognisable from a World Cup that is 35 years old. Investment and improvements are needed, but not at the expense of charm and allure.
Inter sealed their place in the Champions League final, beating Barcelona 7-6 on aggregate
Francesco Acerbi scored a stoppage time equaliser for Inter to take the game to extra time
Simone Inzaghi’s side reached their second Champions League final in just three seasons
It helps that now they have a team and a league kicking Europe’s wider disrespect into touch, the same way Lautaro Martinez does balls into nets. La Gazzetta dello Sport called it the ‘mistreatment’ of their football yesterday. For Italian clubs have reached six European finals in the last three seasons, and that could be eight in four if Fiorentina make the Conference League final this week. Atalanta won last season’s Europa League, don’t forget.
But it is undoubtedly Inter carrying the torch, a flame that could yet burn brightest in Munich’s final this month. From the brutality, at times, of wing-back Federico Dimarco – Lamine Yamal left here with bruises for souvenirs – to the beauty of midfielder Nicola Barella, Inzaghi’s team blend flair, ferocity and functionality. They deserved to beat Barcelona.
That Inter are not leading Serie A speaks to the league’s renewed strength. They are vying for the title with Napoli, spearheaded by 11-goal Scott McTominay, the gladiator of the San Paolo. On the evidence of his form and happiness, it was he who cast off Manchester United, not the other way round.
But there are others here who are routinely tagged as Premier League rejects. Ademola Lookman, once of Everton, scored a hat-trick in Atalanta’s Europa League final win over Bayer Leverkusen last year. He is Serie A’s third top scorer.
One place ahead of him is Fiorentina’s Moise Kean, another who found the going tough at Everton. Maybe they wilt because it’s not so sunny in the darker corners of the Premier League after all. And Goodison Park has been in the shade for quite some time.
Even Inter have Henrik Mkhitaryan, formerly of mistrust at Manchester United and Arsenal. He took responsibility in midfield against Barcelona.
There is a temptation to look at Serie A through this lens as a haven of redemption, but perhaps these players weren’t so broken in the first place. Mkhitaryan will be playing in his third European final since leaving the Premier League five years ago.
The Ballon d’Or winner will come from Spain, no doubt. But the ultimate team prize could well reside in Italy. It would not be a victory for the underdog, either. The longer they are patted down as such, the more their rivals will be bitten. That goes for Ceferin, too.
There were pandemonic scenes at the San Siro as Inter Milan pipped Barcelona to the final
Henrikh Mkhitaryan will be playing in his third European final since leaving the Premier League
Ceferin degraded Italian football’s infrastructure as the ‘worst’ of Europe’s top leagues
Many stadiums, the San Siro included, remain instantly recognisable from Italy’s World Cup
The UEFA chief should recognise that not all jewels in his federation’s crown are shiny. Italy is due some bureaucratic love. They have the Euros to come in 2032, co-hosted with Turkey, and that should focus minds at home and abroad as to smoothing and improving some of the rough edges.
But do not make this country of Baggio, Pavarotti and the Fiat 500 conform. Let us embrace the opera of their stadiums, cigarette smoke and all. Because if we look through the haze of nicotine and flares, what lies beneath is hotter than it has been since the glory days of the 80s and 90s.
The catenaccio that defined that era has gone – thank goodness, really – and the chess pieces have made way for action men such as Martinez, Dimarco and Denzel Dumfries.
For while the traditions and character remain, this is not a museum – the new silver in the cabinet could soon prove as much.
