The Serie A title run-in between Inter and AS Roma is heating up with just two games left amid accusations and legal threats providing an intriguing back-drop.
Reigning champions Inter entertain mid-table Chievo today, while Roma host Cagliari, who have nothing left to play for.
Then next weekend Inter travel to already relegated Siena, while Roma will be at Chievo.
And as if the tension was not already stoked to breaking point during Wednesday’s fractious and ill-tempered Italian Cup final between the two scudetto protagonists — which Inter won 1-0 — comments from the champions’ coach Jose Mourinho following that match have done nothing to calm the situation.
Mourinho was commenting on a rumor that Siena president Massimo Mezzaroma will give his players the bonus they would have got for escaping relegation if they beat Inter.
“We have two difficult matches left, Chievo and Siena who don’t deserve the position they are in,” he said. “If it’s true that Siena’s president will be happy if they beat us and has promised them the same bonus they would have had for staying up, they would have an extra motivation.”
“And who knows, given that Roma haven’t paid out bonuses for [winning] the Coppa Italia maybe they’ll be available to offer some extra cash,” he said.
Roma responded by saying they would be looking into possible legal ramifications, although Mezzaroma saw the funny side but suggested he had been motivating his players by other means.
“I like that kind of joke because given the cunning person who said it, that’s the only way you can take it,” he said. “But I’m convinced that in sport more than finance, which is a pitch on which no-one can compete with Inter, the group’s cohesion, their pride and their attachment to the shirt are fundamental motivations.”
“And maybe even the Inter coach, at the beginning of his career before he was operating with big budgets, used the same argument to construct his numerous victories,” he said.
Coming on the back of the fall-out from Roma club captain Francesco Totti’s violent kick at Inter teenage forward Mario Balotelli — for which he earned a red card during the Cup final — it is clear there will still be much noise made before the season is up.
Totti came out and accused Balotelli of having insulted and provoked him, while the Italian of Ghanaian origin reported that the veteran had racially abused him.
Roma darling Totti also seemingly criticized his own club for not backing him, saying that he was wrong but had been abandoned since the incident on Wednesday night.
On the pitch both Inter and Roma could be feeling the effects of a bruising encounter with Inter’s playmaker Wesley Sneijder a doubt for the weekend and both teams likely to be feeling fatigued.
Their’s are not the only crucial encounters on Sunday though as there is a huge game being played in Sicily with mammoth financial implications.
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