Change in the air as Inter leave Juve empty-handed in spiky cup final

By the end of the night at the Stadio Olimpico, we had seen it all: six goals, two penalties, a red card given and another that probably should. A cup final edition of the Derby d’Italia, played out over 120 messy but captivating minutes and followed up with immediate breaking news. Giorgio Chiellini, Juventus’s captain, announced he was leaving the club. Ivan Perisic, the match-winner for Internazionale, suggested he could soon be moving on too.

The stakes had been clear before kick-off. For Juventus this was a last chance to salvage a disappointing season. The rehiring of Massimiliano Allegri as manager last summer was supposed to represent a return to the club’s core ethos, the famous Giampiero Boniperti line that “winning isn’t important, it’s the only thing that counts”. Instead they were in danger of finishing without any trophies for the first time in 11 years.

Inter have had a more positive campaign, but still the sense of progress under Simone Inzaghi felt precarious. They had beaten Juventus to win the Supercoppa in January but let leadership of Serie A slip through their fingers, provoking unfavourable comparison with the side that ground their way ruthlessly to the Scudetto under Antonio Conte last season.

Inzaghi stood accused of allowing his team to slide back into their previous identity as “Pazza Inter” – Crazy Inter – a reference to a line in the club’s anthem. Conte had made it his mission to end those days, saying his team would be “regular and strong”.

Whether the comparison is even fair is open for debate. Conte had Romelu Lukaku and Achraf Hakimi as pillars of his Inter side, both of whom followed him out the exit door. It is also true that Inter can still win this season’s title, sitting two points