José Mourinho lets Wesley Sneijder subplot overshadow Inter's dominance

Posted Wednesday, January 27, 2010 by theguardian.com

José Mourinho lets Wesley Sneijder subplot overshadow Inter's dominance
Wesley Sneijder, centre, makes his feelings known to the referee, Gianluca Rocchi.

When the dust has settled on this latest Milan derby, Wesley Sneijder may be inclined to have a quiet word with Marco Materazzi. Not about football, per se, nor Milan, nor even his team-mate's peculiar choice of Silvio Berlusconi-themed facewear in which to celebrate Internazionale's 2-0 victory.

Instead Sneijder might want to seek some advice about good publishers. After all, there is clearly a story to be told following his 27th-minute dismissal. With one acclaimed literary oeuvre – What I Really Said to Zidane (a compilation of 249 phrases that might have prompted that World Cup final headbutt) – already under his belt, Marco might just be the man to help tell it.

In the meantime we'll just have to rely on the referee Gianluca Rocchi's version of events. Everyone saw Sneijder sarcastically applaud the official for booking Lucio after an apparent dive – replays suggest the defender was caught by Massimo Ambrosini – but television footage didn't show the Inter player uttering anything more cutting than "Bravo, bravo". Funnily enough, that was all Rocchi could remember him saying, too.

"At half-time Rocchi said to me, 'Sneijder applauded me in an ironic way, wouldn't you be angry if a player applauded your decisions like this'," said José Mourinho at full-time. "I told him that no, I wouldn't." The Special One, unsurprisingly, had his own theories. "We understood as time went on that it was not a coincidence that referee Rocchi gave Sneijder that red card. I have already understood that they won't let us tie up the title quickly. Today they did everything to stop us from winning."

Citing Roberto Rosetti's decision not to send off Bari's Leonardo Bonucci during Inter's 2-2 draw at Stadio San Nicola a week ago as further evidence, Mourinho went on to suggest that Milan, conversely, were always getting soft penalties. He also claimed that the match would have been extended by at least eight minutes had Ronaldinho put away a spot-kick in the second minute of injury time.

"I leave here with a strange taste in my mouth," he continued. "But this is your country, your championship. I will move on sooner or later, and the problem will remain yours. I believe we will succeed in winning this title one way or another. Now everyone can shut their mouths. This match was an embarrassment."

Mourinho's words, as always, must be taken with a grain of salt, even if Inter's owner Massimo Moratti also referred to "nasty signs" and "a very strong wind blowing against us" after the game. It has been a very long time, sadly, since referees could simply have a bad game – which Rocchi undoubtedly did yesterday – in Italy without being accused of involvement in some form of greater conspiracy.

Rather less open to debate was Mourinho's assertion that Inter had "proved everything" with this win. With 11 men they totally dominated the opening exchanges, taking the lead through Diego Milito, and even with 10 they were only rarely ruffled, eventually increasing their advantage through a Goran Pandev free-kick with 25 minutes to go. Inter hit the post in both halves and despite finishing with nine men, with Lúcio shown a second yellow for the handball that led to the late penalty, kept their first clean sheet at home to Milan in Serie A since 1989.

Sneijder himself was magnificent during his brief stint, teeing himself up to crash a volley off the post from more than 20 yards in the second minute before demanding a fantastic reaction save from Dida as he tried to hook a loose ball home inside the area six minutes later. Taking up residence just behind Milan's midfield, he also effectively took Andrea Pirlo out of the game, ensuring that his focus was purely on trying to restrict and track the Dutchman instead of helping his own team going forward.

Rather than try to protect Inter's advantage once Sneijder had been sent off, Mourinho continued with his existing players in a 4-3-2, with Pandev dropping slightly deeper than he had previously. Although Pirlo did find more space as a result, a tireless midfield three of Javier Zanetti, Esteban Cambiasso and Sulley Muntari still managed to close down the supply lines to Milan's attack, while Lúcio and Walter Samuel were impassable at the heart of Inter's defence.

Even Pandev's eventual withdrawal was perfectly timed. Thiago Motta was ready to replace the striker, with his number already entered into the fourth official's board, when Inter won a free-kick a few yards outside the Milan area, but Mourinho decided to let Pandev take the set piece before coming off. He promptly dispatched it past Dida, who really ought to have done better. Or at least made some attempt to move in the direction of the ball.

Milan, for their part, were a huge disappointment. Much was made of the decision to postpone their Coppa Italia quarter-final, which had been due to take place last Wednesday, to this Wednesday, giving them a full week to prepare for this game, but despite the extra time off they were totally flat. Ronaldinho saw less of the ball than he has in recent games, and when he did have it showed little of his usual creativity. David Beckham was restricted to a small handful of crosses, and Marco Borriello mistimed his leap when a decent delivery finally found him unmarked in the middle.

With Alessandro Nesta missing because of a thigh injury, the defence looked similarly out-of-sorts. The right-back, Ignazio Abate, gifted Milito possession for the first goal while trying to head the ball back to his keeper, and the 38-year-old Giuseppe Favalli was never going to be able to cover adequately for Nesta in the centre.

Only the introduction of Clarence Seedorf at half-time managed briefly to galvanise Leonardo's side, the Dutchman forcing a fantastic save from Júlio César with a point-blank header almost immediately and briefly unsettling Inter's back-line, but even then his impact was short-lived. The gap at the top of the table might have been just six points before last night's game, but the gulf in class looked a lot wider.

"We're taking things one match at a time, I've always said this and I'll say it again now," said the Milan manager Leonardo when asked whether his team could still mount a title challenge after the game. "Clearly, this was an important test, but we're talking about one defeat and I maintain the same line as always. We are second in the table, two points clear of third and with a game in hand."

The gap between Milan and Inter, though, is up to nine points, and although the Rossoneri still have a game in hand, it is suddenly a lot harder to see them closing it. Mourinho might say this isn't his championship, but it certainly looks like he'll be taking home the trophy.

Ranieri's revenge

Of course, Inter could have a new rival for the Scudetto after Roma secured their first win away to Juventus in nine years, to extend their unbeaten run to 15 games in all competitions. Daniele De Rossi said during the week that Roma could still win the title if they just win every single one of their remaining games, and while that might be a touch ambitious, a 2-1 victory at Turin's Stadio Olimpico was certainly a good place to start.

Roma were not especially impressive and Juventus were the better side for much of the game but, one moment of old-school brilliance from Alessandro Del Piero aside, you still felt the attacking gameplan was to try to win set pieces in dangerous areas, then pump them towards the horribly out-of-sorts Amauri. Although Juve looked solid for most of the game in defence, they ultimately still managed to concede two goals to a Roma side that had lost Luca Toni to a calf injury in the second minute and whose replacement, Francesco Totti, was notably short of match fitness.

This was a third straight defeat for Juve in Serie A, and there were reports yesterday that Juventus's patron John Elkann was ready to intervene and demand the sacking of the manager Ciro Ferrara, but as yet no action has been taken and there is a growing feeling that the main reason for this is a lack of viable alternatives. Juventus were not prepared to spend the money required to lure Guus Hiddink and that may also rule out many other obvious candidates. Giovanni Trapattoni would be popular but has said he doesn't want the job, as has Gianluca Vialli – a close friend of Ferrara who said accepting the post would be tantamount to sleeping with the current manager's wife.

The lingering concern is that Juve only really want a bench-warmer who can sit in until the World Cup, after which many fans expect Marcello Lippi to return. The Italy manager did stop by the club's training ground this week, along with several others in the peninsula, to check up on a few players, but insisted he spoke about nothing more than the national side. Interestingly enough, the last time Juve lost three games in a row was under Lippi in 1998-99. Lippi, if you were wondering, was replaced by Carlo Ancelotti after the third of those.

As for Roma, they will simply be delighted to continue their run of fine form. Totti, who had never scored against Juventus in Turin, got the equaliser from the penalty spot – moving him up to joint-seventh alongside Giuseppe Signori in the all-time Serie A scoring charts on 188. Claudio Ranieri, meanwhile, who had never beaten Juventus in 12 attempts, got revenge on the team that sacked him, even if he did continue to insist afterwards that he didn't care about such a thing.

Talking points

• Serse Cosmi resigned as Livorno manager following his team's 2-0 defeat to Napoli, though nobody inside the dressing room was particularly surprised. Livorno are fifth from bottom and just two points clear of the relegation zone, but Cosmi's problem was with his team's owner, Aldo Spinelli, rather than their performances. Spinelli has been sticking his oar in repeatedly over team selection, and Cosmi had informed his players as early as Thursday that this would be his last game in charge.

• Napoli, meanwhile, are now three points clear in fourth place. Beating Livorno may not be anything to write home about, but given that Germán Denis was the only first-team striker available to the manager Walter Mazzarri – the rest all being either injured or suspended – the game did represent something of a statement. This team has still not lost in the league since Mazzarri took over – on 6 October.

• Palermo also demanded attention this weekend by thumping Fiorentina 3-0 to move ahead of Juventus and up to fifth. In the absence of the injured forward Edinson Cavani, 19-year-old Abel Hernández got the start and responded with a pair of goals that will give manager Delio Rossi food for thought. "If I look at the table, I don't even consider the Champions League places," insisted Rossi last night. "Tournaments are decided in May."

• Sampdoria finally got their first away win since September, recovering twice from a goal down to beat Udinese 3-2, but the result was perhaps less the talking point than manager Luigi Del Neri's decision to drop Antonio Cassano. The club were forced to deny reports on Friday that Cassano had been involved in an altercation with his manager, and Del Neri subsequently came out and said the decision was a strictly "technical" one, because the striker was out of form and he felt his team needed physical strikers who could press Udinese's defence. In the end, Samp's win suggests he may have been right.

Results Bologna 2-1 Bari; Catania 3-0 Parma; Genoa 2-0 Atalanta; Inter 2-0 Milan; Juventus 1-2 Roma; Lazio 1-1 Chievo; Livorno 0-2 Napoli; Palermo 3-0 Fiorentina; Siena 1-1 Cagliari; Udinese 2-3 Sampdoria