Chivu’s Inter take on Gasperini’s Roma in a match that will decide the top spot

The young man and the old man, the up-and-coming coach versus a seasoned master. But also the champion versus the challenger. How many times in football have we seen matches like this? This time, the protagonists in question are Christian Chivu and Gian Piero Gasperini. At the helm of Inter and Roma respectively, the pair will face off at the Olimpico in a clash that threatens to set the league alight and ignite the title race from now until late May, when the season draws to a close. Who would have thought it on the eve of the 2026–27 Serie A season? Of course, a year ago Roma pulled off a remarkable feat, earning the right to hear once more that familiar Champions League theme tune – a sound that had been missing from the Olimpico since the 2018–19 season. Despite this achievement, only the most die-hard Giallorossi supporters could have imagined that, after four league matches – 360 minutes of football – Gasperini’s side would emerge as the Nerazzurri’s most credible competitor (as Galliani would say) in the title race, not to mention the third party in the mix: Cesc Fàbregas’s Como.

And yet that is exactly the case. This is partly down to a shrewd transfer campaign which, although it did not quite manage to satisfy the ever-discontented Gasp, has nonetheless provided the Grugliasco-based manager with a deeper squad than last year’s, one that is therefore capable of both competing in the league and performing well in the Champions League (where the minimum objective is to progress from the large group stage). Between Chivu and Gasperini, despite the age difference (the Romanian is forty-five, the Italian sixty-eight), there are more similarities than might appear at first glance. For a start, they are both former footballers, although Chivu’s playing career was more successful in terms of titles won (he even won the Champions League as part of the Treble) than Gasperini’s. The latter, in fact, has only two Serie A seasons to his name, both spent playing for Pescara under Giovanni Galeone.

In particular, however, what brings the two together is the fact that they have both played for each other’s clubs. Chivu, in fact, wore the Roma shirt before that of Inter, in a career that did not even come to a halt following a head injury, which required surgery. For his part, Gasperini boasts a spell on the Nerazzurri bench, albeit one best forgotten. An episode that is now lost in the mists of time, dating back to 2011. It lasted just a few weeks – barely enough time to lead the team in just three league matches, one Champions League fixture and the Super Cup final, which they lost to Milan. Those were different times, when a three-man defence was not yet a must. And indeed, that dressing room – still largely a product of the Mourinho era – took a dim view of both the tactical approach and the level of physical effort that ‘Gasp’ always demands of his teams.

The setback in Milan did not prevent Gasperini from picking himself up and rebuilding a brilliant career, which began in the Juventus youth teams and then took him to Crotone, Genoa (the ‘Rossoblù’), and – after Inter – to Palermo and back to the Ligurian capital, before culminating in nine successful years with Atalanta. From Bergamo to Rome, then, to try and restore the ‘Magica’ to its former glory. Chivu’s rise through the ranks was shorter. He started out in Inter’s youth teams and, straight afterwards, received a call from Parma, who were desperately seeking survival. Thirteen matches later, having secured the result, another phone call came from Appiano Gentile, this time to take charge of the first team. The story is well known, as are all recent ones: Beppe Marotta wanted Fàbregas but, after the Spaniard turned him down, there was a decisive shift towards Chivu. An opportunity that the Romanian made the most of, winning the Scudetto at the first attempt.

And it was by no means a foregone conclusion, given that the former defender found himself having to take on the heavy legacy left by Simone Inzaghi: a Serie A title and two Champions League finals. Today, Chivu faces the difficult task of repeating that success in the league and the perhaps even more challenging task of going far in Europe’s top club competition. Indeed, with the squad bolstered by the English signings Stones, Jones and Spence, the fans and the club’s owners expect Inter to do better than last season, when they were knocked out by Bodø/Glimt in the first round, immediately after the group stage.

Both Chivu and Gasperini start with a back three, albeit implemented in different ways. Chivu’s approach is more patient in build-up play, methodical and fluid, favouring an all-encompassing style of play. Gasperini’s, on the other hand, is more direct and vertical, more geometric in its lateral quadrilaterals, through which the Giallorossi’s attacks often progress. In defence, however, both prefer to press high up the pitch, practising a form of man-to-man marking that is nothing more than a modern reinterpretation – with the necessary adjustments (there is no longer a sweeper, for example) – of the football of yesteryear, which was all about individual duels.

Gasperini was not only the master of this defensive approach in Italy, but also its foremost proponent beyond national borders, earning the admiration of many. Even Guardiola, who, on the eve of a match between Atalanta and his Manchester City side, compared facing Gasp’s style of play to a visit to the dentist. Chivu and Gasp are like two boxers, then: the former more elegant, the latter more powerful. The outcome of this fixture – which may already offer some indication of how this league season will unfold – will depend in part (if not primarily) on their duel on the touchline.