Milan and Juventus in the Champions League, Naples in the Europa League, Rome in the Conference League. These are the verdicts of an incredible last day in Serie A
NAPLES-VERONA 1-1 Napoli did not go beyond the 1-1 draw on the last day of Serie A against Verona and did not enter the next Champions League. With the results of Milan and Juventus (both qualified), it needed a victory for Gattuso’s team to get a place in the top four. Juric condemns De Laurentiis to the Europa League and closes the championship in tenth position in the standings. With their eyes on the pitch and an ear to the results of Bergamo and Bologna, the hosts start with the handbrake on. A pace that is far from irresistible that undertaken by Osimhen and his teammates who in the first half are at times impalpable in the offensive area. For its part, Verona – despite the 8 defeats in the last 12 matches and a long-established salvation – leaves no room, defending with order and restarting with danger. At 33 ‘Insigne shows up, who frees himself with a footwork and touches the post with his left-handed. Napoli tries to increase the laps with Fabian Ruiz who recovers the ball serving Lozano, but from a good position the Mexican kicks high over the crossbar. For the Venetians there are two significant chances in a first goalless fraction: the first with Dimarco (wide conclusion at 36 ‘) and close to the double whistle with Kalinic, blocked by Rrahmani at the time of the shot in the area. In the meantime, Milan took the lead against Atalanta and Juve dominated Bologna. In the second half the trend of the match did not change, but also thanks to a bit of luck the Neapolitans took the lead: in the 60th minute Rrahmani took advantage of a rebound in the area and scores a very heavy goal from the former. However, Verona does not disunite and is cynical to exploit a serious opponent’s inattention: Faraoni enters with a powerful ride in the 69th minute and beats Meret with a diagonal for 1-1. At 75 ‘a scenario similar to the first goal is repeated: Bakayoko, however, does not make the Rrahmani and hits a defender from two steps. As the minutes pass, Napoli becomes more and more hasty and blue hopes are broken on Chiffi’s three whistles.
ATALANTA-AC MILAN 0-2 Milan qualify for the Champions League and close in second place in the standings. At the Gewiss Stadium, Pioli’s team does the feat and beats Atalanta 2-0 with two penalties from Kessie, which is worth the most precious Europe and the absolute record of away victories (16) in a Serie A season In the first part of the game, Milan played with courage but still managed to close spaces to Gasperini’s men who never kicked towards the goal defended by Donnarumma in the opening 45 ‘. Atalanta is limited to controlling the ball of the game with almost 60% of ball possession but without being able to undermine the Rossoneri rearguard. Even Milan, without Rebic and Ibrahimovic, are struggling to look out over Gollini’s parts. But when he does, the 1-0 comes. At 40 ‘Theo Hernandez breaks through on the left, Maehle is late and knocks him out, the referee Mariani has no doubts and concedes the penalty: from eleven meters Kessie makes no mistake and signs the twelfth goal of the season in the league, the tenth on penalty as it did not happen since the 2011-12 season with Ibrahimovic. In the second half the script does not change, Atalanta play the game and dribble in the half of Milan. With two differences: there is an extra Muriel on the pitch (outside Pessina) and a more inspired Zapata. At 56 ‘there is the first scoring opportunity of the Bergamo players: ball inside for the Colombian who controls in the area and diagonally touches the post against Donnarumma beaten. At 68 ‘Milan almost doubled: Meite’ uproots a ball from Freuler and throws Leao in depth who tries a shot below on Gollini who prints himself on the post. Pioli’s tendency seems to be to favor physicality in the final: therefore Saelemaekers and Leao outside, Dalot and Mandzukic inside. And at 92 ‘Milan doubles: Gosens touches her with his arm, Mariani concedes the second penalty and Kessie makes no mistake. Pioli’s team returns to the Champions League after seven years.
BOLOGNA 1-4 JUVENTUS Mission accomplished for Juventus. The bianconeri clearly win in Bologna and take advantage of Napoli’s contemporary and sensational misstep at home against Verona to overtake him in fourth place, thus gaining the much desired qualification for the next Champions League. At Dall’Ara it ends 1-4 and the goals that allow Pirlo’s team to at least reach the minimum goal are signed by Chiesa, Rabiot and Morata with a brace. The season, however troubled, ends with a smile and a sigh of relief, given that the Old Lady was not in charge of her own destiny and is helped by Verona who stops Napoli and relegates them to fifth place which means Europa League. Arrembante start of the bianconeri who surprisingly renounce Cristiano Ronaldo from 1 ‘but are not affected by his absence. After five minutes, in fact, the guests took the lead with a goal from Chiesa, who was able to reiterate on the net after a shot by Rabiot that hit the crossbar. The Bolognese are unable to regroup and are still punished at half an hour. Amazing play by Dybala in the strait and assist in the kiss for Morata who can’t go wrong with an empty net. Mihajlovic’s team seems already on vacation and the attention threshold drops again just before the break, when Kulusevski catches Rabiot who is face to face with Skorupski. In the second half there is also room for poker, which has arrived at the ready-to-go with Morata being launched directly by Szczesny and surprising the goalkeeper who misses the intervention. The assistant signals an offside that is not there and the Var settles things. Once the Dall’Ara result has been established, the Bianconeri’s head goes to the other fields where their rivals play. Milan make no mistake against Atalanta, while Napoli incredibly equalized against Verona and allows Pirlo’s team to overtake that is worth an unexpected qualification for the Champions League. In the final the goal of Orsolini’s flag, but they are smiles in Emilia for Juventus after the apprehension in the final minutes lived on the sidelines listening to the news from Maradona.
SASSUOLO-LAZIO 2-0 Sassuolo ended the championship with a victory, beating Lazio 2-0 at the Mapei Stadium, but lost the qualification in the Conference League due to the goal difference to the detriment of Roma. The neroverdi greet coach De Zerbi with Kyriakopulos’ eurogol in the 10 ‘and Berardi’s doubling on a penalty in the 78’. For the Emilians, the 38th of Serie A still had value, in the long-distance challenge with the Giallorossi for the last place in Europe. Instead Inzaghi, with an uncertain but certain future in the Europa League and sixth place, closes with the absences of the big names: Milinkovic-Savic, Luis Alberto and Immobile. Before the starting whistle, a minute of silence for the Mottarone tragedy. The Emilians took home the first half, sealed by the 1-0 goal by Kyriakopulos, the Greek’s first goal in Italy with a long-range left-hander in the 10th minute. The biancocelesti lose in the 18 ‘Correa due to injury, Fares enters his place and changes gear to the team: Inzaghi switches to the back four, covers the spaces better and starts ball and chain again, in spite of a Sassuolo who had initially imposed his game . Considering the many absences and the few reasons, Lazio play a good first fraction while the neroverdi, even if close to doubling again with Kyriakopulos, think more about defending the result. In the second half, Muriqi sensationally devours two equalization chances, sending an easy shot very high and a header out. The Greek, on the other hand, wastes his performance with two yellow cards in the space of ten minutes, leaving his team in ten men in the 61st minute. At 78 ‘Berardi closes the accounts by scoring the double penalty, awarded by the referee Prontera for Parolo’s foul on Caputo. In the final two great saves by Strakosha and the miracle of Parolo deny Caputo the goal three times. Victory is not enough for Sassuolo to gain access to the next Conference League.
SPEZIA-ROME 2-2 Paulo Fonseca’s adventure on the Roma bench ends with a 2-2 on the pitch of Spezia that allows the Giallorossi to access the Conference League. The hosts start immediately strong and after a couple of occasions they hit after just six minutes with the ex of the day Daniele Verde good at taking advantage of the assist of Nzola that puts him only in front of Fuzato. The Giallorossi do not shake and suffer, giving so many balls to Spezia with errors in the setting phase. This is how the opportunities for a potential 2-0 against Pobega and green arise on which Fuzato is good. The first chance the first shot on goal comes on the 25th, when El Shaarawy lets go of the left from inside the area that Rafael is good at. But the Roma attacks are quite confused and Spezia is ready to respond taking advantage of the defensive uncertainties of the Giallorossi. And so the doubling arrives, on the development of a corner kick: Nzola acts as a tower for Pobega who all alone in front of Fuzato makes it 2-0, deserved. In the second half, Roma started well and immediately shortened the distance with El Shaarawy who found himself with the ball on the spot and from there he made no mistake for the 2-1 and his first goal in the league. The Giallorossi shake and immediately touch the equal, this time with Mkhitaryan who engages Rafael. A calm phase of the match follows with a couple of potential chances on both sides and with many substitutions. At 75 ‘another opportunity for the Roma equal, but Rafael still says no, this time on Cristante who had entered well on Dzeko’s assist. In the end, the good attempt is that of Mkhitaryan five minutes from the end: the Armenian midfielder takes advantage of Dzeko’s tower and in front of Rafael scores 2-2. A few minutes later, Roma could also win it, but Mkhitaryan is wrong. It ends 2-2: Roma are seventh and enter the Conference League
TURIN-BENEVENTO 1-1 The championship of Turin and Benevento ends with a 1-1 draw. The grenades already saved close at 37 points, the Giallorossi relegated to Serie B for a couple of days end the tournament with 33 points. Nicola chooses Ujkani between the posts in place of Sirigu and launches Buongiorno in the three-way defense with Izzo and Bremer, bench forward for Belotti, Zaza and Sanabria from 1 ‘; on the other side Inzaghi leaves Lapadula out and sets up the attacking pair Di Serio-Gaich. Ready to go and Benevento is keeping the ball in the game, but without ever becoming actually dangerous. At 8 ‘it is Glik who tries not framing the door mirror. The Samnites play well, with the pace of the races that are still quite low. At 15 ‘Hetemaj serves Gaich who controls and kicks, able to defend the bull to reject. The match is released in the 29th minute with Torino passing: Verdi’s corner falling in the penalty area, Manfredini comes out empty and Bremer bags with a precise header. The game becomes slightly more lively and two minutes later Verdi tries freeing his left-handed but the ball goes off only the crossbar. Nicola’s line-up grows with the passing of the minutes and at 38 ‘goes close to doubling: Sanabria broadens for Zaza who controls and kicks diagonally, Manfredini says no with his feet. In the second half still dangerous hosts with Rincon first and then Sanabria, but the latter, who scored, was in an irregular position. Benevento, however, did not give up and at 72 ‘catches the same: Letizia takes the ball to the right and crosses to the far post for Tello who dominates Ansaldi and finds parity with a precise header. At minute 74, last real chance for Toro, but Manfredini says no to Belotti. Few rings in the final minutes: Turin-Benevento 1-1.