Roma had just done their thing. A 2-0 win on the Torino pitch with goals from the usual Malen and Pisilli, the fourth match of the championship and the fourth win, 12 points out of 12. Then, during coach Gian Piero Gasperini's press conference, someone informs the coach about what is happening a few hundred kilometers away: Inter are losing 0-2 against Udinese.
Gasperini doesn't celebrate, he doesn't joke about the standings or even comment on the result. He just asks one question: "What time is it?" In retrospect it almost seems like a prophecy. In reality it was much simpler, the answer of a coach who knew very well how much football was still to be played.
Gasperini doesn't believe Inter's 0-2: "What time is it?"
Udinese had shocked San Siro in just 16 minutes: Abankwah in the 9th minute and Ekkelenkamp in the 16th had put Runjaic's team 0-2 up. It was at that moment that Gasperini was told the result of the match at the Meazza. The question of the time already contained the answer: it was too early.
And there was another reason not to trust him 0-2. Chivu's team, in 2026, had already shown several times that it knew how to get out of almost identical situations. In January it had been 0-2 down against Pisa, before destroying it 6-2; in April it had overturned the same double disadvantage against Como, winning 4-3 in the championship and then again 3-2 in the semi-finals of the Italian Cup. In May, in Bologna, it had even managed to recover from 1-3 to 3-3. And above all, just nine days before Udinese, it had already given a very clear message in this championship: 0-2 against Napoli in the 53rd minute, 3-2 in the 90th minute.
Against Udinese, the scenario was repeated once again. Inter actually needed only ten minutes from the Friulian team's second goal to start getting the game back on track. In the 26th minute Carlos Augusto scored 1-2, in the 35th Barella equalized. In the second half, Thuram, Pio Esposito and Bonny then came in for 5-2, before Udinese's last goal at the end fixed the score at 5-3.
So, Gasperini's simple question becomes even more significant at the end of the evening. Roma had temporarily taken sole possession of the Serie A lead, but Inter caught up with them a little later: both are on 12 points after four weeks. And the calendar has decided to make the scene even more interesting, because next week the two teams will face off directly at the Olimpico.
Gasperini, after all, had spoken a little earlier about Inter. He had called them “the reference team of our championship”, recalling that it was precisely from the heavy defeat suffered against the nigrechi last season that, according to him, “the real Roma” was born. Then they told him that the same Inter was losing 0-2. He looked at the clock, metaphorically and not only. It was still too early to do the calculations.
