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The 2-0 victory on Como’s field was not enough. At the end of the last 90 minutes of the 2024/25 Serie A, Simone Inzaghi’s Inter is forced to surrender and hand over the scepter of Italian Champion to Napoli, led by a great former nerazzurro, Antonio Conte.

The expectations at the beginning of the season had the nerazzurri as big favorites, destined to dominate the championship, but reality has highlighted the difficulties of an Inter that has never been more than +3 over Napoli.

With the Scudetto, Coppa Italia and Supercoppa objectives faded, the nerazzurra chase for a season of multiple trophies risks closing with a handful of nothing.

If Inter fails to beat PSG in the Munich final, then the “zero titles” nightmare would materialize.

The question arises spontaneously: what was missing from Inzaghi’s team this season?

Inter started the season feeling like the big favorite, thanks to the technical continuity and the personnel under Simone Inzaghi and a squad that seemed to have expanded, without recording significant losses.

The fight on all fronts turned out to be perhaps a sin of pride, in hindsight, since not all the additions proved as useful to the cause as it seemed.

A summer transfer market of expanding the squad and not of raising quality proved insufficient, especially when the time came for the substitutes to show off: Dumfries, Calhanoglu and the attacking pair formed by Lautaro and Thuram are currently irreplaceable.

In light of this, Inter may regret not having given up on some fronts, of having been hypnotized by the Treble dream and not having allocated resources more effectively (read: turnover) to bring at least one goal home safely.

The presumption of not having to raise the quality of the squad on the market then also reverberated on the winter window, in which the only immediate addition recorded was Zalewski, at a time when the need for a striker who could give breath to Lautaro and Thuram given the difficulties of Arnautovic, Correa and Taremi was already proclaimed.

Last year Inter had confidently dominated the championship: 19 points ahead of Milan, only 22 goals conceded, only two defeats and the ability to manage the result without being recovered.

Result? A championship led from the ninth day onwards, with the exception of a very brief Juventus overtaking, and brought home without worries.

This year’s Inter is a pale copy of what was seen last year, especially in terms of solidity and hold: the goals conceded were 35, the defeats five, Napoli was never detached and Inter was first only from the 26th to the 32nd day.

And how many games and how many points faded in the end: 15 points greeted in the last half hour of the games, starting from the draw of Messias at 95′ in the first day against Genoa, passing to the goal of Gabbia that decided the first leg derby at 89′, for the double of Yildiz in the final of the 4-4 with Juventus.

A list that is not over and that includes three crucial goals of the last period: the draw of Napoli signed by Billing at 87′ that denied the stretch to Inter, the overhead kick of Orsolini at 94′ that made the nerazzurri lose the lead of the standings and the penalty of Pedro at 90′ that perhaps cost the last chance to overtake.

In short, do we have to say goodbye to the cannibal Inter, capable of putting the games – and entire championships – on ice?

We’ve already said it: one of the sore points of the nerazzurra team was the quality of the offensive substitutes. Correa, Taremi and Arnautović were among the most negative aspects of the season.

An aspect never so clear when in the days when Marcus Thuram was missing due to injury. Not by chance an absence that coincided with the two defeats without goals with Bologna and Roma in which Inter lost the top of the championship, as well as in the Coppa Italia derby lost (always without unlocking the scoreboard) for 3-0 against Milan.

The starters also have a very negative balance compared to last year: Lautaro had scored 24 goals in the championship, a figure halved this year and only partially redeemed by the 9 goals scored in the Champions.

Marcus Thuram has maintained similar levels (14 goals against the 13 of last year and a better haul in the Champions), while the set pieces of Calhanoglu were missing: last season he was the “third attacker” of Inter, scoring 13 goals, as many as Thuram, while this year he stopped at 5.

Inter ended the season with just 21 points in 16 games played against the top nine in the standings, a figure that highlights the difficulties encountered by the nerazzurri when it came to facing the most important challenges.

At home, they managed to impose themselves only against Atalanta and Fiorentina, collecting only 10 points out of 24 available.

The title race, as is well known, also requires the ability to be consistent and solid against more modest opponents.

But it is precisely in these matches that Inter showed unexpected vulnerability: draws away against Monza and Genoa, for example, weighed like a boulder on the path of the team coached by Inzaghi.

During the championship, Inter suffered as many as six comebacks, leaving 12 precious points on the road due to sudden drops in concentration and quality in crucial moments.

Games like the one against Juventus, where they went from 4-2 to 4-4, or the comeback of Bologna and the draw with Lazio exposed the team’s mental fragility when the pressure rises. Even in other challenges, like the draws with Parma and Genoa, the nerazzurri were not able to maintain the lead.

These mistakes have significantly affected the standings, compromising the chase to Napoli, which, despite having had some stumbles, has been able to maintain greater mental solidity in crucial moments.

📸 Marco Luzzani – 2025 Getty Images