The Champions League Push: Round 23 Review

With Inter looking to push for a top-three Serie A finish—and an all-important Champions League spot—in the second half of the season, let’s check-in on how the Nerazzurri’s rivals fared this weekend.

Author’s note: Apologies for this being a much more condensed version of the weekly recap. I’ve been traveling for work, but wanted to update the community on the table in a timely manner.

Round 23

Inter’s Champions League push took a bit of a hit this weekend after the frustrating, albeit expected, loss to Juventus. Elsewhere, Roma and Napoli asserted their dominance and extended the gap between the Nerazzurri and third place.

At this point, it seems like it would take a major winning-streak, and a little help from the rest of the league, for Inter to qualify for Europe’s preeminent competition, but you never know. The team did win seven straight league matched before the loss to Juve, so now’s not the time to give up all hope.

AC Milan

Results: Sunday, February 5th: 0-1 loss to Sampdoria. Wednesday, February 8^th: 0-1 win over Bologna

Points behind Inter: 2

Next up in the league: Lazio away on Monday

Atalanta

Result: Sunday February 5^th: 2-0 win over Cagliari

Level with Inter on points

Next up in the league: Palermo away on Sunday

Lazio

Result: Sunday, February 5th: 2-6 win over Pescara

Points ahead of Inter: 1

Next up in the league: Milan at home on Monday

Napoli

Result: Saturday, February 4^th: 1-7 (not a typo) win over Bologna

Points ahead of Inter: 6

Next up in the league: Genoa at home on Friday

AS Roma

Result: Tuesday February 7^th: 4-0 win over Fiorentina

Points ahead of Inter: 8

Next up in the league: Crotone away on Sunday

Juventus

Results: Sunday, February 5th: 1-0 win over Inter (sigh). Wednesday, February 8^th: 0-2 win over Crotone

Points ahead of Inter: 15 (Juve is now also 7 points clear of second place Roma)

Next up in the league: Cagliari away on Sunday

Table

Here’s how the table looks entering Round 24:

Let’s hope for an Inter win over Empoli on Sunday, and a few surprising results elsewhere.