ROME – Defending champions Inter Milan will not entertain wild hopes of catching Serie A leaders AC Milan despite starting their new era under coach Leonardo with a 3-1 win over fellow title hopefuls Napoli.
On Sunday they face a tricky trip to Sicily to tackle Catania, knowing that they must put a run of wins together to have any chance of hauling in their bitter city rivals.
Milan went five points clear on Thursday following a late 1-0 win at Cagliari thanks to Lazio being held at Genoa and Napoli’s defeat.
Both clubs had begun the day just three points back.
Inter are 13 points off the pace but do have two games in hand on all their title rivals, which include fourth placed Roma and fifth placed Juventus, although Palermo in sixth may feel they still have an outside chance as well.
They may be down in seventh but Inter could go fourth if they won the two games that were postponed due to their particiaption at the Club World Cup in Abu Dhabi in December.
Their success in that tournament came at the end of a torrid six-month tenure for former boss Rafael Benitez who also saw his team have to settle for second place in their Champions League group behind Tottenham following a 3-0 defeat at Werder Bremen in their final game.
But having had a breather from domestic matters, some warm weather in the Middle East, a trophy and a new coach, striker Diego Milito believes they can kick on.
“The Club World Cup has given us a special boost, as has the change of coach,” he said after the Napoli game.
“It was important to win, the three points were important and now we want to keep on winning.”
Inter need to do exactly that if they are to close the gap to Milan, who have been boosted by the signing of errant but talented Italy forward Antonio Cassano.
But Inter centre-back Ivan Cordoba doesn’t want to look too far ahead.
“We’ll take each game as it comes and then we’ll add up the points. We know what our strengths are and we want to continue in this way,” he said.
“The win was also important for Leonardo because he understands what we want to do – to win. He has the right manner, the right way, he’s made to coach.”
Inter will not expect Milan to slip up at home to Udinese so cannot afford to lose any more ground.
Milan will also be boosted by the return of Zlatan Ibrahimovic but then either Robinho or Pato may have to make way for the big Swede’s return, unless coach Massimiliano Allegri drops Robinho into a deeper position off the front two.
Behind them, Lazio have what on paper looks like the easiest task of the challengers as they host Lecce, who sit second from bottom. Napoli host Juventus in a crucial game that could see the losers’ hopes go up in smoke.
Juve suffered a humiliating 4-1 loss at home to Parma on Thursday and also lost Fabio Quagliarella for the season to a cruciate knee ligament injury.
Coach Luigi Delneri complained that he needed more bodies, despite signing 10 players in the summer. His employers reacted quickly in recruiting veteran Italy forward Luca Toni from Roma.
Fixtures (1400 GMT unless stated):
Sunday: Sampdoria v Roma (1130), AC Milan v Udinese, Bari v Bologna, Catania v Inter Milan, Cesena v Genoa, Chievo v Palermo, Fiorentina v Brescia, Lazio v Lecce, Parma v Cagliari, Napoli v Juventus (1945)
