[translated by MANUELA]
IF INZAGHI PLAYS IT’S ANOTHER MILAN
With him only 2 defeats and Galliani exalts him: "He is our Vieri"
MILANELLO – And he doesn’t stop anymore. Adriano
Galliani, keen of American sports and interested in statistics, finds normal to
do compliments to Filippo Inzaghi. "When I buy a player I do it after having leafing through Panini almanac
and I have noticed that Inzaghi was a forward who scored much." In fact he has begun to do it again as soon
as he has come back from the injury, and the regrets of Milan’s vice president
increase match after match. If there had been Inzaghi we would have fought for
scudetto, if there had been Inzaghi many 0-0 wouldn’t have remained so, if
there had been Inzaghi the forwards line would have been more profitable. "History isn’t made with “if” and
“but” –
Galliani says – but Inzaghi is to Milan as Vieri is to
Inter. Inter without Vieri can’t be, it has difficulty in scoring." Instead Milan had to be without Inzaghi by
force, because of a knee that broke up with the ambitions of the team. "The Milan seen in January and February,
if it has had Inzaghi it would have been some more matches. Inzaghi isn’t the
whole Milan: matches are played 11 against 11, but he is important. Each team
has players that can be replaced with difficulty and he and Shevchenko are so
for us." As
managing director, Galliani is accustomed to doing the accounts, and Inzaghi is
a forward that can be explained easily with numbers: in this season he has
scored 15 goals in 25 matches, 9 in 16 matches in championship, 4 in Uefa Cup
and 2 in Italy Cup. In the European cups he scored 33 goals in 23 matches, while
the total balance in Serie A is of 92 goals. But Inzaghi’s numbers are also
others: he is the Italian forward who runs more in Serie A, he is fundamental,
according to Ancelotti, for the quantity and quality of his movements, and, last
but not less important for the depressed supporters, with him on the field Milan
lost only 2 matches, one in championship against Torino and one in Uefa Cup
against Borussia Dortmund. In short, Inzaghi is a talisman, and this isn’t a
scientific concept but it can weigh so much with those great numbers.
Inzaghi
is a talisman and Juve-Milan is Inzaghi’s match, even if he doesn’t see it
so and he wouldn’t want even that the others thought it. It’s the match he
couldn’t play in December (his knee broke a week before), it’s the match
lived in the summer evenings, but the friendly matches are called so just
because they count little. Tomorrow Inzaghi will play in Turin and he will do it
not to have revenge but to win something. The 4th place is worth the
whole season, so for Milan is like a scudetto; and the 4th place
passes through Juve. "But
this match mustn’t weighed down with too many meanings. Juve fights for
scudetto, we for Champions League; Juve needs points, we too; but we will need
points also against Roman, Verona, Lecce. This a championship undecided till the
end, and if you observe well the placings you will find out there is really much
that must be decided, at all the levels."
Inzaghi
thinks about Champions League, he thinks about good Milan seen in San Siro in
the other night, he thinks about Ancelotti’s regrets ("we could play so many
other times"), he thinks above all about that short time that remains in this
season and he doesn’t want to waste it looking back. "I don’t think great aims can be
achieved without having a positive approach to the things. Our season has gone
bad because we had a really unbelievable number of injuries, but we can still
arrive to the 4th place. The other night against Borussia we
succeeded in giving emotions to our supporters, and even if the night in
Dortmund is unforgivable we mustn’t pass to much time making analysis that now
are useless. We still have the championship, we still have the 4th
place. We still have some absent players, but meanwhile also Shevchenko has come
back. And if we had the strength to believe in a recovery that in Europe has
never happened, I don’t see why we shouldn’t believe in the overtaking to
Bologna."
An
overtaking that can be done only scoring some goals. "But I hope Pippo doesn’t
score too much
goals, keeping them for the national team and for World Cup", says his brother Simone from Formello. "Also Lazio can hope to reach the 4th
place."
Juve-Milan is a match for scudetto, a match for Champions League, a match
everyone waits because it can create deep effects on the placings, and Inzaghi
is in this global game. But he wants to play it in silence, only for himself and
for Milan. Even if Galliani has just compared him to Vieri, another one of those
ones who watches Inzaghi’s feet, and hopes.
