Category: Italy Serie A

Murals of McTominay in Naples? Don’t rule that out with the volatile manager who never stays long despite serial success

There’s always a Tottenham exception. Since leaving Siena in 2011, since he got his first break with a club that had a realistic chance of winning trophies, Antonio Conte has won league titles with Juventus, Chelsea and Inter. Going into Sunday’s matches, with three games remaining, his Napoli lead Inter by three points. In a decade and a half he has won a trophy with every club he has managed, apart from Tottenham.

Maybe Tottenham simply aren’t a club that had a realistic chance of winning trophies. Certainly it’s not as familiar to them as it is to Juventus, Chelsea and Inter. Napoli were Serie A title winners the season before last. Conte led Tottenham for 17 months and although he has the fifth-best win record of any Spurs manager, although he took them to fourth in his first season, having replaced Nuno Espírito Santo in the November, and although they were fourth when he left in March 2023, by the end the situation was so toxic as to be unsustainable.

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Simone Inzaghi dreamed of a quadruple but European success is now the Nerazzurri’s best chance of silverware

The Inter team that lined up to face Verona on Saturday was so heavily rotated it even included a backup manager. OK, their first-choice boss Simone Inzaghi was technically suspended, but seeing his assistant Massimiliano Farris trot out for the pre-game interview only reinforced a feeling that we were not about to watch the real thing.

For months, Inter had tried to compete at full focus on every front, Inzaghi speaking of the ambition to win a quadruple. Then they lost three games in a week, falling behind Napoli at the top of Serie A and suffering elimination from the Coppa Italia by neighbours Milan. Suddenly their most ambitious target, the Champions League, looked like it might be their most realistic shot at claiming any silverware.

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• Real beat Celta Viga to move four points behind leaders
• Solskjær’s Besiktas win against Mourinho’s Fenerbahce

Kylian Mbappé scored twice as Real Madrid fought off a late comeback attempt from Celta Vigo to secure a 3-2 win on Sunday and stay within four points of the La Liga leaders Barcelona, whom they visit in next weekend’s Clásico.

Real’s fourth win in succession kept their title dream alive with four matches to go in the Spanish top flight, while Celta Vigo remained seventh after their third loss in four league games. “The most important thing was the win. We played a good first half, but then we fell apart … they are a great team and they put us in trouble,” midfielder Federico Valverde told Real Madrid TV.

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• Male in his late teens arrested over incident, say police
• Violence ‘must never happen again’, says Gasperini

A 26-year-old fan of Serie A side Atalanta was stabbed to death during clashes between Atalanta and Inter supporters in the northern city of Bergamo, Italy’s police said.

The groups of supporters clashed in a pub in Bergamo on Saturday night after one of the Inter supporters chanted provocatively, the head of the carabinieri office in Bergamo, Carmelo Beringheli, said.

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• RB Leipzig’s Poulsen strikes in injury time to seal 3-3 draw
• Bayern can still be crowned champions on Sunday

RB Leipzig’s Yussuf Poulsen scored a stoppage-time goal to snatch a 3-3 draw against Bayern Munich on Saturday and delay the Bundesliga leaders’ title celebrations by at least a day. Poulsen struck seconds before the end to leave Bayern on 76 points, nine ahead of Leverkusen, who travel to Freiburg on Sunday. Bayern, with two games left to play, will secure their 34th league crown should Leverkusen fail to win.

It was supposed to be triumphant afternoon for Bayern, but they found themselves on the back foot from the start with the hosts piling on early pressure. Leipzig had two big chances before Benjamin Sesko completed a quick break with a superbly curled shot past Jonas Urbig in the 11th minute.

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Midfielder keeps collecting nicknames – and goals – as he drives his side towards a title that would be his own

Scott McTominay could have said anything and a whole city still would have loved him: the man who fired Napoli clear at the top of Serie A with four rounds of games left to go. His first-half strikes delivered a 2-0 win over Torino on Sunday. He had scored the only goal as Napoli won away to Monza in their previous fixture, and two out of three in a rout of Empoli before that.

Carrying his team towards the finish line, in other words, though McTominay has been decisive from the start. He scored within 28 seconds of coming off the bench for his home debut in September and his goals have broken seven 0-0 deadlocks since then. No player in Serie A has done this more.

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• Napoli beat Torino 2-0 in Sunday’s late game
• Title rivals Inter lose 1-0 at home to Roma

Two first-half goals from Scott McTominay helped Napoli to a 2-0 home win against Torino in Serie A on Sunday as the hosts reclaimed the sole lead in the standings with four games left to play.

Napoli are three points above the defending champions, Inter, who were handed a 1-0 home defeat by Roma earlier in the day. Napoli raced to a seventh-minute lead through McTominay, who bundled the ball in from close range before doubling the advantage just before half-time from a neat lofted cross by Matteo Politano.

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• Jovic double gives Milan 3-0 win over rivals
• Juventus lose 1-0 at Parma in fresh setback

Milan ruined Inter’s push for a treble and advanced to the Coppa Italia final with a 3-0 derby win courtesy of two goals from Luka Jovic.

Inter pressed forward early on and Federico Dimarco struck the crossbar in the 23rd minute. But Jovic put Milan ahead 13 minutes later with a powerful header and then doubled the advantage from close range shortly after the break. Tijjani Reijnders added another for Milan in the 85th minute by finishing off an excellent team move, giving them a 4-1 aggregate triumph over two legs.

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• Serie A leaders Inter will now host Roma on Sunday
• Italy v Wales in Women’s Six Nations to be rescheduled

Serie A has postponed its three fixtures on Saturday because of Pope Francis’s funeral being held that day in Rome. Meanwhile, Italy’s Women’s Six Nations match against Wales is also expected to be rescheduled as the country prepares to pay its respects.

Earlier media reports in Italy had suggested that Serie A might make an exception for Inter’s clash with the visitors Roma to allow Simone Inzaghi’s side additional rest time before their midweek Champions League semi-final at Barcelona. However, the league has confirmed that the game at San Siro will now kick off at 2pm (all times BST) on Sunday.

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Champions looked leggy in defeat at Bologna but fatigue could lead to a rare and dramatic finale with Napoli

“The season does not end here,” repeated Simone Inzaghi at full time: to Sky Sport, to Dazn, to anyone who would listen. An undeniable truth, seeing as there are still five rounds to go, yet the more he said it the more you started to wonder who he was trying to convince. Himself? His players? Beppe Bergomi back in the studio?

Why should he even be troubled by this idea? His team were still top of the table. A 1-0 loss to Bologna meant Inter finished the weekend level on points with Napoli, but officially they remained ahead courtesy of Serie A’s second tie-breaker. Both head-to-head meetings ended in 1-1 draws, but the Nerazzurri’s goal difference is far superior.

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• Bologna shock leaders with stunning ultra-late winner
• Real Madrid score stoppage time winner against Bilbao

A stunning last-gasp goal by striker Riccardo Orsolini gave Bologna a 1-0 home win against Inter in Serie A on Sunday in a blow to the visitors’ hopes of retaining their title.

Treble-chasing Inter stayed top of the standings with 71 points after 33 games but second-placed Napoli are now level on points with the leaders after securing a late 1-0 win at relegation-threatened Monza on Saturday.

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• Napoli three points off top after beating Empoli 3-0
• Atlético overcome lowly Valladolid 4-2 in La Liga

Napoli cruised to a 3-0 home win over Empoli on Monday, with Scott McTominay striking twice and Romelu Lukaku also on target as the hosts kept pace with Inter. Antonio Conte’s side were feeling the pressure after Inter’s 3-1 home win against Cagliari on Saturday, but they cut the gap back to three points with six matches to go. Napoli are seven points clear of Atalanta in third as the Serie A title battle narrows to a two-horse race.

It took 18 minutes for Napoli to open the scoring as Lukaku battled free in midfield and passed to McTominay, whose low long-range shot bounced over Devis Vásquez’s outstretched hand and into the corner of the net.

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‘As a fan it’s beautiful to finish undefeated,’ said retiring Roma head coach after 1-1 draw with city rivals Lazio

Perhaps we ought not to believe Claudio Ranieri when he tells us that this the last time. He announced his retirement from club management last May, delivering what seemed like a perfect storybook ending, saving Cagliari from relegation. The club where he made his name three decades earlier, raising them from Serie C to the top-flight. An island, Sardinia, where the locals think him as one of their own.

Yet Ranieri’s first love has always been the city he grew up in and the team he supported, Roma. He had managed them twice before, but when they called for a third time in November he found himself unable to say no. The club was a mess, having already fired Daniele De Rossi and Ivan Juric 12 games into this Serie A season. They had won only three of those.

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• Forward dismissed for reckless first-half tackle
• Atalanta back in winning ways against Bologna

Kylian Mbappé’s reckless foul left Real Madrid with a nervy second half before they saw out a 1-0 win at relegation-threatened Alavés, who also finished the match with 10 men.

Eduardo Camavinga gave Real the lead in the 34th minute, scoring from outside the box with a brilliant curled shot, after an earlier goal by Raúl Asencio was ruled out following a video assistant referee check.

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• Arnautovic and Martínez on target in 3-1 victory
• Barcelona stretch La Liga lead with win at Leganés

Inter Milan cruised to a 3-1 win at home to Cagliari thanks to goals from Marko Arnautovic, Lautaro Martínez and Yann Aurel Bisseck to keep their grip on top spot in Serie A on Saturday.

Inter are six points clear of second-placed Napoli, who host lowly Empoli on Monday, with six rounds to go.

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