Italy Title Fight Pits Brother Against Brother
ROME, March 31 (Reuters)(DS) - At the age of 11, Filippo Inzaghi was the best striker in the tiny Italian village of San Nicolo. Then his little brother stole the show. Tall for his age and gifted with a left foot as good as his right, Simone banged in 67 goals in his first season for the village team. Strong, confident and just eight years old, he put Filippo in the shade.
Ever since then, Simone has proved that anything his big brother can do, he can do too. Filippo won a place in the youth team at Piacenza and Simone followed him. Filippo's goals saved Atalanta Bergamo from relegation in 1997 and Simone's did the same for Piacenza in 1999. Filippo earned himself a move to Serie A giants Juventus and Simone matched him by signing for Lazio.
Last weekend Simone joined his brother in Dino Zoff's Italy squad for Wednesday's friendly against Spain. He made his debut as a substitute for Stefano Fiore after an hour but will have to wait to play alongside big brother as Filippo went off at halftime.
On Saturday the two brothers, best of friends off the pitch, might get the chance to lock horns in what could prove the decisive match in this season's Serie A title race. Juventus lead the first division by six points from Lazio. Filippo is certain to start for Juventus in the head-to-head in Turin and, on the basis of his recent form, Simone should at least make an appearance as a substitute for the Rome side.
"Yes, It's a match in wich the title is at stake," Filippo Inzaghi told Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper this week. "If we win we go nine points clear with seven matches to play. Losing the title from there would be the stuff of science fiction." "Either way," added a more cautious Simone, "the league title is staying in the family."
INSTINCT FOR GOAL
Filippo Inzaghi's instinct for goal is well documented. "Pippo", as he is more often known, has scored 72 times in 133 league matches since he made his Serie A debut in 1995 and has found the back of the net 26 times in all competitions for Juventus this season. He is now a regular not only in Juve's side but in Zoff's Italy team, for whom he has scored six times in 20 matches.
Simone, in contrast, has only recently made his name. On March 14 he scored four of Lazio's goals in a 5-1 rout of Olympique Marseille in the Champions League -- the first time since 1962 that an Italian had scored four times in a European Cup match. He followed that up with Lazio's opening goal in their triumphant 2-1 victory at Chelsea in their final group D match to take his tally for the season to 16.
"Simone is more technically adept than Pippo. He was more touches in his repertoire but he struggles to keep up the intensity for a full 90 minutes," says Gigi Cagni, who coached both players at Piacenza. "Simone is better with his head but Pippo always beats defenders to the ball and is unbeatable in a one-on-one situation with a goalkeeper.
"Pippo has an incredible instinct for goal. In the box he has the intuition of a real striker. Simone is more predictable in the area. He's more of a team player and he's useful outside the box."
HARD FIGHT
Simone has fought hard to secure a place in the Lazio first team since his arrival last year, a point he underlined after the Marseille match when he dedicated his goals to Lazio's unsung squad players Guerino Gottardi, Fernando Couto and Attilio Lombardo.
"I have a lot of respect for them because they, like me, give everything every day even though they know they won't always find a place in the team," he said. Simone was brought to Lazio on the advice of veteran striker Roberto Mancini, one of the few players who believed he had the goalscoring talent of his brother.
He made an immediate impact, scoring against Cagliari in the first Serie A match of the season but has spent a lot of time on the bench since then and has still to play a full 90 minutes in the league for Lazio. Saturday's match will not be the first in which the Inzaghi brothers have been on opposing sides -- they met when Juventus played Piacenza last season.
But on that occasion the stakes were lower and if they do play against each other again, parents Marina and Giancarlo Inzaghi will be torn between supporting one son or the other. "When Piacenza played Juventus I hoped Simone's side would win," said Marina Inzaghi, perhaps hinting at where her sympathies will lie this weekend. "But that's only because he's the youngest."
