"There's no point in my analysing this game from the technical or tactical viewpoint. We've just lost two important points for something that simply didn't exist, just like there was never a penalty each of the three times in the final minutes that the Parma players tried to win one by diving."
Marcello Lippi, coach to Serie A side Inter Milan, offered his thoughts after his side had drawn 1-1 with Parma on Sunday, a draw gained by a 94th-minute Parma equaliser scored from the penalty spot by Argentine striker Hernan Crespo.
In an outburst of barely controlled fury, Lippi pointed an angry finger at the Parma players who, according to him, had spent the last hectic minutes of the match "diving" in the Inter penalty area in an ultimately successful attempt to win a penalty.
In the end, match referee Pierluigi Collina pointed to the spot after Croat striker Mario Stanic had apparently been knocked over by Colombian defender Ivan Cordoba. Slow motion replays of the incident suggest that Lippi's anger was not entirely unjustified since Stanic appeared to dramatise a hard if legitimate shoulder charge from Cordoba.
Lippi's angry response was understandable, but cannot hide the fact that in terms of the overall game Parma had richly deserved their late equaliser. The home side dominated the match and were denied outright victory only by the brilliance of Inter goalkeeper Angelo Peruzzi.
Inter managed to score through a typical goal from $52 million striker Christian Vieri, with one of only three Inter shots on goal in the entire match. Lippi controversially chose to leave talisman Roberto Baggio on the bench. Yet again, however, the Little Prince of Italian soccer radically improved Inter's overall game when he came on in the 64th minute.
With 14 games still to play, the destination of the Serie A title remains very open, although the championship may now be beyond Inter who are six points behind in fifth place. The contestants in the title race have been narrowed down to four - Lazio (42 points), Juventus (41), AS Roma (38) and AC Milan (38). Lazio have the strongest squad and are potentially the most brilliant side. Yet, they clearly continue to be psychologically frail, as manifested by the elbow in the face dished out by Serb defender Sinisa Mihajlovic to Torino striker Marco Ferrante nine minutes from the end on Sunday, at a time when his side were cruising 3-0 up.
Juventus may have an less powerful squad, but they have Frenchman Zinedine Zidane playing out of his skin. Furthermore, their morale and commitment is huge - as evidenced by their fightback on Saturday night away to Udinese when Ciro Ferrara scored a late equaliser even though his side was a man down following the 68th-minute sending off of Croat defender Igor Tudor.
As for Roma and Milan, the former has Fabio Capello on the bench and Francesco Totti on the field, while the latter has unstoppable Ukraine star Andriy Shevchenko topping the goalscorer's chart on 15 goals. An interesting few months lie ahead.
