The 23rd round of the Italian league kicked off on Friday with Napoli’s victory over Sassuolo, and continued on Saturday with matches between the two Milanese teams. Champion Milan will visit Silvio Berlusconi’s Monza, while second-placed Inter will host Udinese and try to reduce the gap from the top to 15 points.
Monza – Milan (Saturday, 19:00)
The team owned by Silvio Berlusconi will host the champion, the one previously held by the retired Italian Prime Minister. In the first round they defeated the Rossoneri 1:4. Stefano Pioli’s side beat Torino 1-0 on Friday in Serie A, and Tottenham on Tuesday by the same score in the Champions League, but before that they went seven games without a win, including a four-game losing streak. Monza, on the other hand, is in a pretty good momentum and has not lost for seven rounds, during which they recorded a draw against Inter and a victory over Juventus.
Inter – Udinese (Saturday at 21:45, Sport1)
Last Monday, Sampdoria stopped the Nerazzurri, who were on a three-game winning streak in all competitions, while Udinese has only one point in the last three rounds and its 1:3 win over Inter, somewhere in September when it was still running at the top, feels like distant history today. The outstanding bright spot in Inter is the ability of Lautro Martins, who has already left far behind his mediocre performance in the World Cup and has scored all of Inter’s last five goals in the Italian league. If he is also responsible for the next goal, he will be the first to do so for the Nerazzurri since Alessandro Altobelli in 1983.
On Sunday there will be five more matches in Italy, including the meetings between Spezia and Juventus and between Rome and Verona.