THE SCENARIO: It is July 2016. Inter Milan have appointed Italian coach Dino Livorno to replace Roberto Mancini following last season’s disappointing fourth placed finish. The poor league campaign means the club misses out on Champions League football for a fifth consecutive season. With Juventus having won the last five Serie A titles and Roma and Napoli established as their main competitors, can Livorno reinvigorate the Nerazzurri and get them back into the elite of Italian football or will they fall even further behind?

Previous episodes: Episode 1, Episode 2

Prefer a different European league? Read our other series here: England – Premier League, France – Ligue 1, Germany – Bundesliga, Italy – Serie A, Spain – La Liga

1 September 2016

The Serie A season continues with a match against Pescara before we commence our European campaign against Denmark’s FC Midtjylland. Then comes the big one: at home to defending champions Juventus in the league before a visit to Empoli. Another home league match follows that one with Bologna visiting the San Siro, before we end the month with a Europa League match away to Norway’s Stromsgodset. Barring any surprises, we should qualify from this group quite easily along with English side Southampton.

11 September 2016

Pescara vs Inter Milan

We visit newly promoted Pescara looking to add to our two wins in the league so far. New signing Belhanda starts in place of Candreva, but otherwise it’s the same team that beat Palermo last time out.

A nice and easy, straight forward 2-0 win with Joao Mario opening the scoring with his first goal for the club. He’s looked a bit overwhelmed so far, but hopefully the goal gives him the platform to start delivering better performances. Perisic scores his first of the season late in the second half to seal victory. That’s three wins out of three, but the next league match against champions Juventus will be a true test of our title aspirations.

15 September 2016

Inter Milan vs FC Midtjylland

Before the big match however, there’s the small matter of a Europa League tie against Midtjylland. I don’t know many of their players, but they do have veteran Dutch midfielder Rafael van der Vaart on their books. The ex-Real Madrid man starts on the bench, while I make some changes to my lineup as well. Icardi is rested to ensure he is ready for the Juventus match, which means a start for Gabriel.

Joao Mario continues where he left off in the last match, scoring his second goal in as many games to give us the lead. Gabriel doubles the lead from the penalty spot before halftime and the job is pretty much done. Joao Mario has a goal disallowed in the second half due to the ball hitting Eder who is sitting on his arse in an offside position. Midtjylland set up a nervy finish with Bruninho pulling one back from the spot in the 89th minute, but we manage to hold on for the win.

After the match I discover that Candreva has suffered an injury that will keep him out for three weeks. It’s a blow, but we should have enough in reserve to cope.

18 September 2016

Inter Milan vs Juventus

This is it. The big one. Nerazzurri vs Bianconeri. Juventus have won the league for five years running despite the efforts of Roma and Napoli. This past summer they’ve simultaneously strengthened themselves and weakened their closest rivals by signing Gonzalo Higuain from Napoli and Miralem Pjanic from Roma. It’s kind of similar to what Bayern Munich have been doing in Germany for years.

What they probably didn’t expect was for us to be challenging for the title. With both teams having won all their league matches thus far, someone’s perfect record will be ended today. Goals from Kondogbia and Icardi ensure that our winning streak continues as we open up a six point lead over our opponents in the process. They have a game in hand, but I think this performance shows that we can challenge for the title this season.

21 September 2016

Empoli vs Inter Milan

After an impressive win over Juventus, we need to make sure we don’t take things for granted against Empoli. There’s not much point beating a big team only to then drop points against a small team is there?

Thankfully that doesn’t happen to us as we win 3-1. Icardi converts a cross from Santon in the 29th minute to give us the lead, but Empoli equalise on the stroke of halftime through Pucciarelli. That’s the first goal we’ve conceded in the league this season. It was going to happen eventually, but it’s annoying to concede so close to halftime. The players respond positively in the second half and we deservedly reclaim the lead through Belhanda’s first goal for the club. Banega then comes off the bench to seal the win in the 78th minute, tapping in a low cross by Santon, who had an impressive game.

25 September 2016

Inter Milan vs Bologna

Our next opponents are Bologna, who have gone off the boil lately after starting the season with three straight wins. They’ve lost their last two, and with home advantage we should really win this one.

Obviously that’s what the players thought too as they start the match like zombies and Bologna take full advantage. Crap defending allows Krejci to give them the lead after eight minutes, and more crap defending lets Verdi double the lead with only 22 minutes gone. Disgusted, I haul off Belhanda and Banega at half time and replace them with Perisic and Gabriel in a 4-4-2. We create chances and finally get one back through Icardi in the 78th minute. Sensing the comeback is on, we pile forward and equalise five minutes later as Perisic diverts Nagatomo’s pullback into the goal. At this point I’m happy with a draw from 2-0 down, but Nagatomo has other ideas. Deep into injury time, he scampers down the right flank and puts in a perfect cross for Icardi to head in the winner with the last action of the match. WHAT. A. COMEBACK.

29 September 2016

Stromsgodset IF vs Inter Milan

After nearly suffering a heart attack from screaming at Icardi’s last minute winner, I hope our next match has less drama. The comeback took its toll on some of the players, so I decide to rotate the team. Eder, Sainsbury, and Gagliardini make their first starts of the season.

After riding our luck and seeing Stromsgodset go close to taking the lead, we take control and lead through Eder’s composed finish in the first half. In the second half, Meyer makes it 2-0 with his first goal for the club before Gabriel finishes things off with a third goal. Two wins from two sets us up nicely for our next Europa League match against Southampton, who’ve also won their first two matches.

30 September 2016

After making his first start of the season, Sainsbury tells me he’s pleased with the amount of game time he’s getting. I’m not quite sure how to react – should I be pleased that he isn’t demanding to play every game? Or should I question his desire since he’s content to appear in one game out of the eight we’ve played so far this season? #Confused

Screenshots and videos taken from FIFA 17 by EA Sports