Milan was expected to be where the title would be decided at the start of the season as AC Milan lined up as European champions and Inter as last season’s runaway Scudetto winners.
Milan were no longer burdened by a points deduction for match fixing and in world player of the year Kaka they had a player expected to continue the sensational form that carried them to the previous season’s Champions League final.
Inter were off slowly with a couple of draws but quickly established themselves at the top and from week five onwards, they never left their perch. Fiorentina were their closest challengers at first but they hit a sticky patch in November and December, failing to win in six games and that put a stop to their title aspirations.
Juventus also started well but having just been promoted from Serie B and having been forced to sell many of their top players – including the likes of Patrick Vieira, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Fabio Cannavaro – when they were demoted, no-one took their challenge seriously.
That left it up to AS Roma to provide the main threat to Inter’s procession hopes.
Having suffered badly the previous season by failing to beat many of the so-called weaker sides in the league, Roma were determined to find the same clinical efficiency that Inter showed. They started well and a 4-1 home defeat to Inter was the only black cloud in their early season. In fact, after about three months, that result was the only one separating the sides.
However, Roma’s inability to put away the smaller teams was allowing Inter to edge clear, with draws at Empoli, Livorno and Torino in November and December costing the capital based club. They also had a bad February, losing 3-0 at Siena and 1-0 at Juventus and slipped to 11 points behind the champions.
With Inter preoccupied by their Champions League challenge and a tie with Liverpool, Roma did start to claw back some ground. They were hampered, though, by a harsh red card dished out to French centre-back Philippe Mexes when they were leading Inter 1-0 in a top of the table clash.
Inter equalised against the 10 men and it seemed as if Roma’s chase would be futile. However, Inter suffered in March, losing their unbeaten run in a 1-0 loss at Napoli and then losing 2-1 at home to Juventus at the end of the month. Inter won only twice in eight matches, allowing Roma to close in. The champions seemed to recover until the run-in when a 2-1 defeat to city rivals Milan followed by a 2-2 home draw against plucky Siena allowed Roma to take the title race down to the wire. At half-time it seemed as Inter might crack completely and allow Roma to snatch the Scudetto at the death but Zlatan Ibrahimovic changed all that.
Released from the bench after a month and a half out with a knee injury, he scored twice in the last game of the season, a 2-0 win at Parma, to ensure Inter held on. Roma’s charge ran out of steam against Catania, who were fighting for their Serie A lives, as they finished with a 1-1 draw.
That allowed the Sicilians to escape the drop, sending Parma and Empoli down with Livorno, who had dropped the week before.
And in one final twist, Fiorentina scored the only goal of the game 14 minutes from time at Torino to ensure they joined Inter, Roma and Juventus in the Champions League next season, and at the expense of AC Milan – ex European champions and playing UEFA Cup football next season.