Napoli on the brink of Serie A title Giacomo Raspadori’s injury-time winner gave Napoli a 1-0 victory at Juventus on Sunday, putting them on the verge of winning their first Serie A championship in more than three decades.
In the 93rd minute of a thrilling match in Turin, Italy international Raspadori was entirely unmarked and fired home a volley from Eljif Elmas’s cross, putting Napoli 17 points clear of second-placed Lazio, who dropped a home match against Torino on Saturday.
Napoli, who were eliminated from the Champions League by AC Milan on Tuesday, may win Serie A for the first time since 1990 if they defeat Salernitana and Lazio lose at Inter Milan thanks to Raspadori’s late winner.
Although that was a crucial goal, we still had games to win. Today was a massive help to us as we recovered from our Champions League defeat, said Raspadori.
We have one goal: to defeat Salernitana by three points.
After suffering their third straight league loss, Juventus maintained their position in third place, which they had risen to on Thursday after the decision to reverse their 15-point penalty for illegal transfer activity.
Napoli is on the brink of the Serie A title
They are awaiting a new judgment from the Italian Football Federation’s (FIGC) appeals court, which will significantly impact Serie A’s fight for the Champions League. They are waiting to know if they will receive a new points penalty.
Juve coach Massimiliano Allegri remarked, “We played well but gave up a foolish goal.
“You need to get bodies into the box to defend in the 93rd minute.”
Eight minutes later, Juve felt they had secured the victory when substitute Angel Di Maria scored a spectacular solo goal. However, referee Michael Fabbri disallowed it because of a foul on Stanislav Lobotka, which Juve believed to be a good tackle.
Victor Osimhen missed three good opportunities midway through the second half, and by the time he did, Napoli ought to have taken the lead.
Following some excellent work by Elmas, he first touched the outside of the post in the 70th minute before heading an excellent chance straight at Wojciech Szczesny from the next corner.
Three minutes later, Osimhen was superbly fed by Giovanni Di Lorenzo but could not finish from close range, leaving the away supporters with their heads in their hands.
Raspadori sprang up to put Napoli potentially one match away from realizing the dream of a generation of supporters after Di Maria had another goal waved off for the ball going out of play and Osimhen mishandled when clear through on plan.
Days after setting up a derby Champions League semifinal, the Milan giants defeated Lecce and Empoli easily thanks to goals from Rafael Leao and Romelu Lukaku.
Leao, who had just eliminated Napoli from the competition on Tuesday, scored his first goal at home since November in fifth-placed Milan’s 2-0 victory over lowly Lecce. He gave Milan the lead at the San Siro with a header in the 40th minute before sneaking up the field and putting the second one in with 15 minutes left.
Leao, who increased his league total to 12, said, “I thought about that before the match, that I needed to score because it was such a long time since I had here.”
On goal differential, Stefano Pioli’s team behind Roma, who are playing at Atalanta on Monday night, is currently outside the Champions League spots.
Following their 3-0 victory at Empoli, Milan is two points ahead of Inter. Lukaku scored both goals in the second half, his first league goal from open play since the season’s first day.
Lukaku was then praised as a “step forward for Italian football” The FIGC overturned his one-match suspension for being sent off in the first leg of their Italian Cup semifinal with Juve after he was racially harassed before being removed. Lukaku also assisted Lautaro Martinez’s late goal.
