With Juventus having been relegated to Serie B for the first time in their history, the Nerazzurri strengthened their side with two of the Bianconeri’s best players, Patrick Vieira and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, while Milan failed to mount a Serie A title challenge because of an eight-point deduction and the sale of Andriy Shevchenko to Chelsea.
Luciano Spalletti’s rapidly improving Roma side put up a valiant fight, delaying Inter’s title triumph with a win at San Siro before denying the Nerazzurri a double with victory in Coppa Italia final. However, there was no stopping Inter in the league and Roberto Mancini’s men won the Scudetto with five rounds to spare.
Marco Materazzi proved hugely influential at both ends of the field, with the uncompromising defender contributing 10 goals, Dejan Stankovic and Vieira formed a formidable midfield pairing, while Hernan Crespo and Ibrahimovic combined well up front.
CHANGES
As well as prising both Vieira and Ibrahimovic away from Juve, Inter also bolstered their defence with Brazilian duo Maxwell and Maicon, as well as bringing Crespo back to San Siro on a two-year loan from Chelsea.
Milan tried to offset the loss of star striker Shevchenko with the arrival of Ricardo Oliveira from Real Betis but the Brazilian flopped spectacularly at San Siro, as did the exciting young French trequartista Yoann Gourcuff, who had arrived from Rennes.
Elsewhere, Roma picked up Mirko Vucinic from Lecce, while Lazio signed a strong forward of their own in the shape of Goran Pandev.
SEASON SUMMARY
Milan opened with three successive victories but they then went into free-fall, winning one of their next nine games to leave their Scudetto challenge dead in the water.
Indeed, after drawing three of their first seven games, Inter embarked on a record-breaking run of 17 consecutive victories to leave everyone trailing in their wake.
The Nerazzurri had a slight wobble with the finishing line in sight, drawing with Reggina and Palermo before conceding two…
Source link : https://www.footballcritic.com/season-reviews/inter-take-advantage-of-calciopoli-to-storm-to-serie-a-title-serie-a-in-2006-07/105
Author : editors@footballcritic.com (Martin Macdonald)
Publish date : 2024-07-29 12:00:00
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