Inter’s latest double was never a given despite Coppa Italia final mismatch

This time Cristian Chivu allowed himself to occupy the stage for a moment, to acknowledge his part in Inter’s success. When the Nerazzurri sealed their 21st league title at the start of this month, their head coach did his best to get out of the limelight, thanking supporters then retiring to the changing rooms for a cigarette. At his scheduled post-game press conference, he appeared only long enough to introduce his coaching staff and say it was their turn to take the applause.

A selfless gesture, if perhaps also a reflection of the fact that he did not feel ready to celebrate. In a brief interview for TV, Chivu expressed happiness for his players then added: “I don’t want to be a hypocrite, but I’m thinking about the Coppa Italia final.”

That mental energy was clearly not wasted. Inter made short work of Lazio to complete their third domestic double on Wednesday night, with a 2-0 win that was done and dusted by the 35th minute.

The opening goal came after less than a quarter of an hour, Adam Marusic heading into his own goal from Federico Dimarco’s corner. Next Denzel Dumfries jumped on a moment of inattention by the Lazio left-back Nuno Tavares, stealing possession and squaring for Lautaro Martínez to make a simple finish at the back post.

There was no real threat of a fightback. Gustav Isaksen fired a half-chance wide just before the interval and Tijjani Noslin did the same from a better position close to the penalty spot as the game neared the hour mark. Lazio’s best opportunity arrived when the substitute Boulaye Dia got goalside of Manuel Akanji in the 75th minute, but the ball bounced awkwardly and his shot pinged up into the face of goalkeeper Josep Martínez.

In the end, this was simply a mismatch: the best team in Italy swatting aside opponents who lacked the tools to compete. This final was taking place in Lazio’s home venue, the Stadio Olimpico, but Inter had already thumped them 3-0 here in a league game four days earlier. Sure, the lineups were a little different, Maurizio Sarri swapping five names in his starting XI, but the gulf in quality was largely the same.

Even Lazio’s sporting director, Angelo Fabiani, confessed before kick-off that: “We didn’t expect to reach this final, to tell the truth.” The Biancocelesti’s campaign has been chaos from the start, Sarri returning to the club in the summer only to find out after signing a three-year contract that they would be operating under a transfer embargo – a fact the owner Claudio Lotito had known and chosen not to tell him.

In January, Lazio sold two key veterans, Taty Castellanos and Mateo Guéndouzi. That did allow them at last to do some purchasing, and the 23-year-old midfielder Kenneth Taylor, signed from Ajax, looks to have a bright future. But Sarri’s team have still only scored 39 goals in 36 league games. Inter have 85.

The champions simply have better players. Martínez is Serie A’s top scorer on 17 goals, despite injuries limiting him to 25 starts, and Marcus Thuram, whose pressure helped to force Marusic’s own goal, is joint-second on 13. Dimarco, who delivered the corner, has 18 assists and is a strong contender to be named as Serie A’s MVP. Dumfries, who set up Martínez’s goal, was out for three months but has excelled again since his return.

None of which ought to minimise their success. In the big picture, Inter have earned their place as Italy’s dominant side with a more coherent long-term plan and better recruitment than their rivals. And in the smaller one, nothing about this double was a given. The team Chivu inherited from Simone Inzaghi had chased a quadruple and won nothing instead.

Asked on Wednesday if there had been any key moments in the journey, Chivu’s mind went to a meeting with his players after Inter were eliminated from the Club World Cup by Fluminense last June. The squad was exhausted and appeared to be coming apart at the seams, Martínez taking thinly veiled public shots at teammates including Hakan Calhanoglu who left their training base in the US early to have injuries treated back home.

“We laid things out clearly to one another [that day],” said Chivu. “I found a group of lads who were ready to put themselves at the team’s disposal.”

He said that every member of his squad deserved a player rating of “dieci e lode” – 10 out of 10, with honours, and evoked Nadia Comaneci, the Romanian gymnast who became the first ever in her sport to receive a perfect score at an Olympic Games, in Montreal 50 years ago.

But what score does Chivu deserve? He joins Roberto Mancini and José Mourinho as the only managers to lead Inter to a domestic double. Neither of them did it during their first season in charge.

Chivu’s place in Inter’s history books was long ago secured. He was part of that treble-winning side under Mourinho in 2010. But he is now also the manager who delivered their 10th Coppa Italia win, putting them alongside Juventus – who have 15 victories – as the only teams in double figures.

Explaining his choice to stay out of the limelight after the Scudetto win, Chivu said he had “lost my ego” after confronting a “matter of life and death”, a reference to the skull fracture he suffered while playing for Inter in that same 2009-10 campaign.

Even on Wednesday, his thoughts were frequently of others. Asked to recall any moments of difficulty, he said he had been upset about his children having to read nasty comments about him in the press during a rocky start to the season.

But he allowed himself to reminisce, too, about his own journey. Before taking his first senior management role at Parma last season, he had worked for six years as a coach to different age groups in Inter’s academy.

“It’s been a lifetime that I have been out on football pitches, in changing rooms, and trying to understand the world. I worked in the youth sector for a long time, there needed to be a journey … I started from the bottom, and I learned a thousand things that have served me along the way.”

His greatest lesson might have been the most obvious. “Winning two trophies is never something to take for granted,” said Chivu. “It’s never simple.” Not even when you make it look that way.

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