Inter Milan Vs Roma – Italy Defender Must Put Bosnia Disaster Behind Him In Must-Win Clash

Alessandro Bastoni steps into San Siro tonight carrying more than any other player on the pitch: the weight of a turbulent spell that has shadowed him since mid-February and peaked with a red card in Zenica. Tuttosport urge the Inter Milan defender to treat Sunday’s Easter showdown with Roma as the moment he finally draws a line under the most turbulent period of his career.

“In the post-apocalypse days, the silence of Alessandro Bastoni shines,” Tuttosport write, via FCInterNews, describing the dismissal in Bosnia as the latest, and perhaps most damaging, chapter in a storm that has been raging since mid-February. He played the Bosnia game with an injured ankle and out of position. Mitigating factors, the outlet acknowledge, but not ones that excuse the red for a player of his experience. The silence that has followed has not gone unnoticed.

Tuttos stop short of demanding contrition but note pointedly: “In an era of social media where appearances also count, one might have expected, if not an act of contrition, at least a thought, a reflection, something other than silence.”

Bastoni, described as now a “promised husband of Barcelona,” can still win the Scudetto and the Coppa Italia this season. Two trophies that would make this a triumphant year in Italy, whatever the international heartbreak. Tonight he returns alongside Akanji in what Tuttos diplomatically describe as a back three that lacks the commanding leadership of Acerbi in his prime, “but the years pass even for the highlanders.”