Inter Milan one win away from title

Inter Milan entertain Siena at the San Siro in the first of three Serie A ‘finals’ which could see them wrap up the title.

Inter need one more win from their final three matches to ensure they are crowned scudetto champions for the fourth year in a row.

And while they have looked nailed-on certainties to win the title for two or three months now, to finally seal the deal will come as a relief to the players.

“I’m delighted because we’re just one step away from winning the title,” said Ghana midfielder Muntari Sulley.

“We’ll give it our all against Siena on Sunday and do everything we can to end the suspense.”

Inter play on Sunday night but if results go their way they could already be champions before they even kick-off.

Bitter city rivals AC Milan are the only team that can catch them but they play first on Saturday night, away to Sulley’s former team Udinese.

And the 24-year-old will not be complaining if his former team – where he spent five years before joining Portsmouth in 2007 – does his new team a favour.

“If it has to happen that way I’ll be even more delighted because Sunday night we’ll take to the field and celebrate with all our fans,” he said.

If Inter do wrap up the title it will be coach Jose Mourinho’s first crown in Italy in his first season in charge of the nerazzurri.

It would also be his fifth title in the last seven seasons with three different clubs in three different countries – he won two each with Porto in Portugal and Chelsea in England.

And while Mourinho can probably expect a warm reception from the Inter hierarchy and job certainty next season, the same cannot be said of the coaches of his two main rivals.

AC Milan and Juventus look likely to hold onto their respective second and third positions but that seems increasingly likely to cost both clubs’ coaches their jobs in the summer.

Speculation has been rife throughout the season that Claudio Ranieri’s tenure at Juventus will not last beyond the end of this campaign, but anything other than three points against Atlanta could see Ranieri fired immediately after a six-match winless run.

During the week club president Giovanni Cobolli Gigli refused to back his coach, claiming that any assessments would be made at the season’s end.

Slightly more surprising this week was the outburst that Milan president and Italy Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi launched against his coach Carlo Ancelotti.

Ancelotti has been linked with moves to Real Madrid and Chelsea all season but both he and the club had always insisted he would go nowhere.

But the mood changed markedly in mid-week when La Repubblica quoted Berlusconi as saying: “If this year we have not won the scudetto, the fault lies entirely with Ancelotti.

“With the players that we have at Milan we could easily have been above Inter. Many times this year we have got our tactics wrong.”

Vice-president Adriano Galliani has tried to smooth things over by claiming that Berlusconi was “surprised” and that it was nothing more than “a storm in a teacup”, but the president has given no suggestion that he wants to retract his comments.

A defeat at Udinese would do nothing to dampen the expectation in the Italian press that Ancelotti will be coaching Chelsea and not Milan next season.

At the other end of the table, Reggina could be the first club to be relegated if they lose at home to Cagliari and Torino win at Napoli.

Saturday

Roma v Catania, Udinese v AC Milan

Sunday

Bologna v Lecce, Fiorentina v Sampdoria, Genoa v Chievo, Inter Milan v Siena, Juventus v Atalanta, Napoli v Torino, Palermo v Lazio, Reggina v Cagliari