Act VIII: The One Against Alex
Three days before the Coppa Italia final, we had Inter at home in the league. Ordinarily that would have been one of the biggest games of the season, but the circumstances made the decision fairly straightforward. Fifth place was almost certain to be enough for Champions League qualification and Milan now needed to win every remaining match while we required only one more victory. After the physical and emotional battering we’d taken at Anfield, and with Alex waiting for us in a cup final three days later, I wasn’t risking anyone important. The second team went out against Inter, lost 1-0, and I was perfectly happy with it. For once, Inter beating Lazio barely registered.
Wednesday 13th May was different. Lazio against Fiorentina at the Olimpico, a trophy on the line, and after three seasons of playing this save together Alex and I were finally meeting in a proper final. There had been the 3-3 draw the previous season, the suspiciously well-timed laptop battery incident, the 3-0 defeat earlier this year, the Supercoppa loss, transfer battles and enough accusations flying in both directions to sustain several Italian parliamentary inquiries. None of that mattered now. This was the one I wanted.
The start could hardly have gone better. Thirteen minutes in, Ilias Akhomach delivered and Aleksandar Stanković scored. Stanković’s story this season has been one of my favourites: a midfielder gradually converted into the central defender at the heart of my back three, becoming so dependable that I’d almost forgotten he wasn’t supposed to play there. Now he’d scored in a cup final against Alex. Eight minutes later Giovanni Fabbian made it 2-0, Josh Doig providing the assist, and suddenly we had one hand on the trophy before the match was even a quarter old.
What pleased me most was what happened afterwards. There was no collapse, no ridiculous sequence of events and, mercifully, no need for Urbig to save another penalty in the 108th minute. Fiorentina never really got back into the game. Alex’s side had six shots, three on target and generated only 0.67 xG; we had 11 shots, five on target and more than twice their xG. Stanković was immense in the middle of the defence, Boselli and Bamba were excellent either side of him, and Urbig dealt with everything that did make it through. After going 2-0 ahead we simply controlled the final.
Lazio 2, Fiorentina 0. Coppa Italia winners.
There was something particularly satisfying about the players who decided it. Not Osimhen, the expensive striker I’d originally expected to build the team around. Not Hakan, one of the biggest names in the squad. It was Stanković, the midfielder I’d turned into a centre-back, and Fabbian, the player I’d recently admitted deserved more minutes. Akhomach and Doig supplied the assists, while the Boselli-Stanković-Bamba defence that had become the foundation of our season kept Alex out. It felt like a trophy won by the team we’d actually become rather than the one I’d imagined building at the start of the season.
And after losing the Scudetto by one point the previous year, watching Inter disappear over the horizon this time around and then coming within half an hour of a Champions League final, we finally had something tangible to show for it. The Coppa Italia was ours.
More importantly, Alex wasn’t going to be allowed to forget who beat him in the final.