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In the Italian "Serie A" championship, all matches of the 17th round were played on Wednesday evening. The title of the so-called winter champions was secured by the league leader Milano "Inter" after winning their tenth consecutive victory by defeating the local team "Lazio" in Rome after a long break. Meanwhile, other favorites such as "Palermo," "Roma," "Milan," "Fiorentina," "Sampdoria" celebrated convincing victories, while "Chievo," "Udinese," and "Empoli" also added three points to their tally with dramatic wins, and the only match ended in a draw. In the most interesting match of the round, the confidently leading "Inter" traveled to play against "Lazio" in the capital, where they had not won since March 1996. The visitors, missing injured players Walter Samuel, Ivan Cordoba, Fabio Grosso, Olivier Dacourt, and Julio Cruz, while the hosts were without the suspended Massimo Mutarelli and Tommaso Rocchi. The match started at a fast pace and "Lazio" gradually took the initiative, with a missed opportunity for "Inter" defender Marco Materazzi, saved by Julio Cesar from Stephen Makinwa's penalty shot. The visitors also had chances to score, but both Hernan Crespo and Esteban Cambiasso missed their shots from promising positions. In the middle of the half, Roma's striker S.Makinwa had a good opportunity - after a quick pass from Massimo Oddo, he broke away from one-on-one with the goalkeeper, but was slightly pushed from behind and lost balance, failing to capitalize on the chance, and the referee did not award a penalty kick. "Inter" built their attacks with short quick passes, and just as Zlatan Ibrahimovic played a one-two with E.Cambiasso, the latter was hindered by a defender in the final moment. In the 37th minute, "Inter" forward H.Crespo missed a hundred percent chance after a chest pass from Z.Ibrahimovic, finding himself one-on-one with the goalkeeper Angelo Peruzzi and inaccurately passing the ball past him. However, a few minutes of pressure from "Inter" paid off - H.Crespo managed to slip past the defender in the penalty area and feed the ball to E.Cambiasso, whose shot from 8 meters found the net despite the efforts of the goalkeeper A.Peruzzi and defender Luciano Zauri. Nevertheless, "Inter" complicated things towards the end of the first half, as Z.Ibrahimovic, with one yellow card for rough play, intentionally kicked the ball after the referee's whistle for an offside, earning his second and being sent off the field. After the break, "Lazio" began to take advantage of their numerical superiority and dominate the field, but they were unable to create anything more dangerous in the final phase of the offense and usually settled for inaccurate shots from outside the penalty area - captain M.Oddo and former "Inter" player Goran Pandev missed the target from distance, some attempts were stopped by Milan's defenders. The hosts came closest to scoring with 8-9 minutes left on the clock when M.Oddo's shot was saved by J.Cesar, and after a corner kick, a powerful long-range shot by a "Lazio" defender was also parried well by the goalkeeper. These were crucial moments of the match, as in the 85th minute, after coming on as a substitute, Luis Figo earned a penalty kick on the field and passed the ball into the penalty area, where M.Materazzi rose above everyone to head in the second goal for "Inter." Despite the late attempts from their opponents, the Milano team maintained a comfortable two-goal lead and secured its tenth consecutive victory, triumphing over "Lazio" at the Rome Olympic Stadium after a ten-year hiatus. However, "Inter's" lead over the chasing pack did not increase to 10 points, as the second-placed "Roma" also secured a victory. The capital's footballers defeated the "Torino" club away with two goals from the Brazilian Mancini, who also finished the match with one player less and only managed to score a consolation goal in the final minute. After the crushing defeat against "Roma," the third-placed "Palermo" regrouped - the Sicilian team had no trouble at home against "Ascoli" and crushed their opponents 4-0. After a rare easy victory following recent poor performances, the "Milan" club also reached the victory, beating the "Catania" team 3-0 at home. Brazilian Kaka scored two goals for the winners, while Alberto Gilardino added one. Genua's "Sampdoria" and "Udinese" teams share 4th and 6th places with "Catania," each securing three points in different ways. "Sampdoria" were trailing at home against "Livorno" after Luca Vigiani's goal, but goals from Daniele Franceschini and Francesco Flachi in the first half turned the game in favor of the Genua club, who further confirmed their victory in the second half with two goals from Fabio Quagliarella. Meanwhile, "Udinese" also fell behind away against "Atalanta," but quickly equalized and, despite being reduced to ten men, scored the winning goal in the fifth minute of added time through Antonio Di Natale. A real thriller took place in Verona, where the bottom-dwelling Veronese teams, "Chievo" and "Reggina," met. The visitors took the lead when Nicola Amoruso scored in the 17th minute, but nine minutes later, Paolo Sammarco equalized, and Federico Cossato put "Chievo" ahead just before the end of the first half. After the break, "Chievo" failed to take advantage of opportunities to increase their lead, and in the 78th minute, they were punished by "Reggina" player Francesco Modesto. However, this was not the end, and in the dying moments of the match, the hosts' striker Simone Tiribocchi scored the third goal for "Chievo," sealing the victory for the team. Following the defeats of "Atalanta," "Torino," and "Livorno," "Empoli" climbed into the top ten by defeating their neighbors in the league table, the former "Siena" team, with a narrow margin. Meanwhile, "Messina" and "Parma" exchanged goals in the second half and ended their match in a draw. The last round of this "Serie A" will take place on Saturday afternoon.
