Ibra-Lukaku, here we go again: but this time it’s worth half a championship | News

Not even a month has passed and it seems like a century. Ibra against Lukaku, again, after that crazy fight, after so many words and in a challenge that this time tastes like a championship and can change everything. On the one hand, the Nerazzurri, fresh from two goals and assists for overtaking at the top. On the other, the Swede, the undisputed leader of a locker room where there are fewer smiles and the crack of fatigue and who knows what is slowly widening. There is no room for seconds: if Inter should win the derby would probably give the decisive breakthrough to racing scudetto. Should he win the Milaninstead, he would once again demonstrate the great ability to immerse himself in the matches that matter and to get up after defeats. It will be seven long days, that’s for sure, emptied of commitments for Conte, interspersed with the cup match with the Red Star for Pioli. Until the derby. Indeed, the DERBY, all in capital letters, because this is after years of semi-anonymity in the shadow of the impregnable Juventus.

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Ibra e Lukaku, therefore, but not only. This time everyone will be there, Theo Hakimi, Barella and Bennacer, Eriksen and Calhanoglu. Inter managed to overcome the obstacle Lazio avoiding those dangerous warnings that would have led to disqualifications, from Stretcher, in fact, a Sticks up to Brozovic. Milan are slowly recovering all the pieces. Rebic, the only one absent in La Spezia, is given a recovery and, in the words of Pioli, should be available. It will therefore be for the first time this season a face to face without alibi. Conte arrived in the first leg with important absences. Pioli, in the Italian Cup, was forced to an abundant half hour outnumbered. In short, you can see it as you want, but the race of truth will be that of Sunday. No excuses and very little margin for error. Whoever loses, this time, pays.

How then the two teams will arrive at derby it is impossible to know. Today Inter are better off, it’s obvious. He has just returned from an important success, he has finally completed the run-up after months of pursuit and could even allow himself a draw with the (favorable) calendar that then awaits him. The Milan, on the other hand, has two matches – Inter and Rome – who will measure his ambitions and will act as a watershed for his season. Pioli’s team is not doing very well, they have some important players in physical trouble, but they also have an extra week to raise their level of form.

The two seasonal derbies have so far told us that Inter and Milan they know, in a different way, to stay inside the game and play it equally. Milan maneuver better, are more fluid, in certain faster movements. Inter have a devastating physical strength and when they corner you, they never let you out. The details will decide. Or again them: Ibra against Lukaku, not even a month later, again face to face. They will not greet each other as friends – they have never been – but we hope that they will respect each other as enemies. Because it’s football, gentlemen, and some nights are worth a whole year.

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