Inter’s victory over Fiorentina arrived with the tension of a season already asking questions of its leaders. At San Siro, Cristian Chivu did not watch Piotr Zielinski take the decisive penalty; he waited instead for the sound from the stands. When it came, the coach had his answer: Inter had beaten Fiorentina 2-1 and returned level with Gennaro Gattuso’s Lazio at the top of Serie A after eight rounds.
The coach and the club
For Chivu, who will celebrate his 46th birthday the following day, the result spared what might have been a difficult occasion. Inter had fallen behind, but found the calm and persistence to turn the match around, completing a comeback that reflected the coach’s demand for composure under pressure.
“When the penalty was taken, I thought about everything we had done in the match and about how seriously the team had played,” Chivu said. “We were rewarded in the end. Even after going behind, we kept the clarity needed to pursue our objective, which was to win.”
He admitted that, as Zielinski stepped forward, he was hoping the specialist would convert. Chivu felt his side had earned the chance to take the three points through the work they had put into the game.
Inter had identified the wide areas as the route through Fiorentina, with the intention of delivering into a crowded penalty area. Chivu said his players maintained their belief in that plan until the final stages, and the eventual success was one they had pursued throughout.
A familiar response
The Fiorentina match added another chapter to Inter’s early habit of recovering from losing positions. Chivu’s team have now collected 13 points after going behind this season, a figure that has helped sustain their place alongside Lazio before the midweek Serie A programme.
The coach did not present those recoveries as a reason for complacency. Instead, he described them as evidence of a squad unwilling to retreat into disappointment when the match turns against them.
“Football is like that,” Chivu said. “You must not lose heart; you have to find something extra each time. I do not want players feeling sorry for themselves. I want people who respond when difficulties arrive.”
He also accepted that a team cannot rely indefinitely on late rescues. There will be matches in which Inter fail to come back, he said, and others in which opponents overturn an Inter lead. For Chivu, the essential point is not the pattern of the scoreline but the conviction his players show when the afternoon becomes complicated.
At San Siro, that conviction was enough. Inter reached the summit again, and their coach could finally listen to the stadium rather than watch the decisive moment himself.
