Kenan Yildiz of Juventus celebrates scoring his team’s fourth goal during the Serie A match between FC Internazionale and Juventus at Stadio Giuseppe Meazza on October 27, 2024 in Milan, Italy. (Photo by Marco Luzzani/Getty Images)

A sense of incredulity and disappointment pervaded the Stadio San Siro at the end of Inter’s 2-2 draw against Lazio, with the home fans left even more disheartened upon learning that Napoli had also failed to beat Parma at the Stadio Tardini.

For more than 20 minutes (excluding the break) after Yann Bisseck’s opener, and during a brief interval between Denzel Dumfries’ goal and Pedro’s late equaliser, the Nerazzurri had regained the Serie A top spot—putting them just 90 minutes away from back-to-back league titles.

While it’s natural to focus on their failure to preserve the lead twice at home with the Scudetto seemingly within reach, a closer look reveals how points dropped earlier in the season were just as damaging—if not more avoidable.

In fact, it’s easier to understand how a team exhausted by a relentless schedule—playing every three days for months and with a Coppa Campioni final on the horizon—might lose focus now, than to justify the reigning champions dropping points earlier in the campaign, when legs were still fresh and experience should have made the difference.

From Genoa to Lazio: the dropped points that ended up derailing Inter’s title hopes

Looking back at the opening month of the season, it’s now painfully clear how winning just two of their first five Serie A matches is proving costly for Inter.

All the more so when one considers the 95th-minute equaliser conceded to Genoa on the opening day, the 1-1 draw against a Monza side that remained bottom of the table all season, and the 2-1 defeat in the Derby della Madonnina to city rivals Milan, who sacked their coach just three months later.

It could have been a warning—an early lesson Inter should have learned—but instead, they continued to squander points in crucial matches, where lapses in concentration or lack of cutting edge undermined long spells of dominance.

That was the case when they allowed Juventus to come back from 4-2 to 4-4 in the final 20 minutes in October, or when they failed to finish off Napoli in a 1-1 draw at San Siro.

A lifeless 1-0 defeat to Juventus at the Allianz Stadium in February added to their regrets—just like another cursed clash with Milan, in which they hit the woodwork three times, or the late winner conceded to Bologna in stoppage time.

This isn’t to suggest that recent points dropped—especially against Parma and Roma—were less significant, but rather to highlight how Simone Inzaghi’s men have backed themselves into the worst possible corner, needing wins when their energy reserves are naturally depleted after a gruelling season.

Missed opportunities that could have made the difference are scattered all along their path—something they should have been acutely aware of, given past experience, having already paid the price for wasted chances in 2022, when Milan snatched the title by just one point.

Instead, history looks set to repeat itself three years later—likely adding even more pressure ahead of the Coppa Campioni final, the only remaining path to salvage a season that may well be remembered with lasting regret.