SERIE A
Osimhen’s Napoli toppled as Inter secure Serie A title in heated win over Milan
Inter Milan won their 20th Serie A title on Monday after a 2-1 win at AC Milan gave Simone Inzaghi’s side an unassailable lead in the standings. Inter are therefore the successor to Victor Osimhen-inspired Napoli who won the title last year.
A goal from Francesco Acerbi and Marcus Thuram in each half proved sufficient to secure Inter’s victory, with Fikayo Tomori scoring a late goal to reduce the deficit.
The match also witnessed three red cards in stoppage time, with Milan being reduced to nine men as tensions flared, with Theo Hernandez and Davide Calabria getting their marching orders along with Inter’s Denzel Dumfries.
Inter, who have lost only once in the league this season, hold a 17-point advantage over second-placed Milan with five matches remaining.
For Inzaghi, this was the first Serie A title of his managerial career and sixth trophy with Inter.
“There are so many protagonists of this success, first and foremost the players, but also the directors and chairman Steven Zhang, as anything we needed during this journey was provided for us,” Inzaghi said to DAZN.
“It’s an incredible sensation, we did something incredible and it’s only right to share it with as many people as possible.”
The San Siro was packed with supporters from both clubs, with Inter fans displaying two stars to symbolise their impending 20th Scudetto, spelling out a message to their rivals: ‘Our destiny, your nightmare.’
HEATED MATCH
The match heated up in the opening minutes as both sides engaged in pushing and shouting following a late challenge on Inter’s Nicolo Barella. However, play resumed a few minutes later without any bookings.
After 18 minutes, the away fans erupted after Benjamin Pavard flicked a corner to a completely unmarked Acerbi, who had little trouble heading in the lead for Inter.
Just before the break Inter keeper Yann Sommer made a superb reflex save on a Calabria effort, while at the other end Milan keeper Mike Maignan blocked Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s shot moments later.
Four minutes after the break, Thuram doubled Inter’s lead by sending a low shot from the edge of the box into the bottom-left corner.
As the minutes ticked closer to the end, fans set off flares in the stands, casting a foggy veil over the pitch.
Milan reignited the match 10 minutes before the time when a save from Sommer rebounded off the post and fell into the path of Fikayo Tomori, who headed it home.
In stoppage time, tempers flared as a scuffle broke out between the players which resulted in Dumfries and Hernandez being shown red cards.
Yet another brawl ensued on the pitch minutes later, culminating in Milan’s Calabria receiving a red card for striking Inter’s Davide Frattesi.
“It was a good game, it’s a pity that it got so tense in the last five minutes, as it had been very fair until then. We played well, could’ve scored another goal in the first half, but we are very happy,” Inzaghi said.
As the referee sounded the final whistle, Inter players and staff began to celebrate the triumph.
Inter fans then moved the party out of the stadium and towards the Piazza Duomo, a well-known celebration spot in Milan, where thousands celebrated with fireworks and cheers, casting shades of blue and black against the backdrop of the Milan Cathedral.
-Reuters
Pope Leo XIV welcomed Italy’s newly crowned Serie A champions Napoli to the Vatican on Tuesday, joking about his own soccer allegiances.
Napoli won their fourth “Scudetto” on Friday with a 2-0 home victory over Cagliari, edging out Inter Milan by one point in a nail-biting end to the season.
The team, captained by Italian international Giovanni Di Lorenzo, arrived for their papal audience a day after a triumphant open-top bus parade through central Naples.
“The press says I am an AS Roma fan, but you are welcome! This is what the press says. Not everything you read in the press is true,” the pope said, according to a transcript.
Leo, the first pope to come from the U.S., follows and practices sports, including tennis. People who know him have described him to the media as an AS Roma supporter.
Napoli chairman Aurelio De Laurentiis gave him a blue Napoli jersey signed by players, bearing the number 10 and his name in Italian, “Papa Leone XIV”.
“You are a number 10, so you are a great striker”, De Laurentiis said. Leo replied with a chuckle and a simple “thank you”.
Coach Antonio Conte, whom De Laurentiis introduced as “deeply Catholic”, knelt down and kissed the pope’s hand, before Leo told him he had seen him many times on TV.
In a short speech, the pontiff stressed the importance of team spirit and collaboration, and sport’s educational value, especially for young people.
Winning comes “at the end of a long journey, where what matters the most is not a one-time exploit or the extraordinary performance of one champion”, he said.
“The championship is won by the team, and when I say ‘team’ I mean the players, the coach with the whole squad, and the club,” he added.
Leo ended his remarks giving his blessings to players and club officials, and offering congratulations, also on behalf of his personal cook.
“She is from Naples and she says: best wishes! She would like to be here too, Mrs Rosa, (she is) a big fan”, the pope said.
-Reuters
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A second-half goal by substitute Ibrahim Sulemana earned Atalanta a 2-1 home win over AS Roma in Serie A on Monday, securing Champions League qualification for Gian Piero Gasperini’s side.
Sulemana sealed the three points for Atalanta in the 76th minute, scoring with a low strike from just outside the area, after Roma midfielder Bryan Cristante cancelled out an early opener by Ademola Lookman.
Atalanta, who fell behind in the title race, sit third in the standings on 71 points and have a seven-point cushion over fourth-placed Juventus and Lazio in fifth with two games left to play.
Roma, who failed to capitalise on Lazio and Juventus dropping points in a 1-1 stalemate on Saturday, are sixth with 63 points.
Atalanta snapped the visitors’ impressive unbeaten league run of 19 games, with Claudio Ranieri’s side previously having been defeated mid-December at Como.
Things started off brightly for Atalanta as Lookman stroked in past Roma goalkeeper Mile Svilar to put them in front after nine minutes.
Charles De Ketelaere dribbled past the Roma defence to set the Nigerian up with a precise low cross inside the box and the striker controlled the ball to score inside the right post.
It was Atalanta’s 100th goal this season across all competitions.
De Ketelaere had two good chances to double the advantage but Roma midfielder Cristante levelled for the visitors instead, netting with a flicked header after the half-hour mark.
Things slowed down significantly after a lively first half until Roma were awarded a penalty after an hour of play, following a clash between Atalanta’s Mario Pasalic and Manu Kone.
The referee, however, overturned his decision after consulting VAR.
Sulemana eventually restored the lead for Atalanta in the 76th minute, scoring with a low strike from just outside the area — a goal that stood after a VAR check for a potential offside.
Roma host AC Milan next weekend before visiting mid-table Torino in their bid to qualify for Europe’s elite club competition for the first time since the 2018-19 campaign.
Atalanta travel to Genoa on Sunday before welcoming lowly Parma in their final fixture.
-Reuters
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Paul Pogba can return to competition with the end of his 18-month doping ban on Tuesday, with the 2018 world champion hoping to leave behind three cataclysmic years also marked by injuries and a kidnapping case of which he was the victim.
The long penance of the French international (91 caps), one of the biggest stars in the world of football, is coming to an end and the midfielder will be able to draw a line under what seems like a slow descent into hell.
Suspended for four years after testing positive for non-endogenous testosterone metabolites (DHEA) at the end of the Juventus-Udinese match on August 20, 2023, Pogba saw his sanction reduced to 18 months by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, the CAS considering that the “ingestion” of the substance “was not intentional and resulted from taking a food supplement prescribed by a doctor in Florida.”
Based in Miami, the native of Lagny-sur-Marne, east of Paris, is now ready to bounce back, his Instagram account still very popular (62.7 million followers) multiplies photos of intensive training, with a few fashion shots, another of his passions. Sign of his return, at least in the media, while waiting to be able to resume the thread of his prestigious career.
His ultimate dream remains the 2026 World Cup, but he would first have to find a club. La Pioche (32 years old on March 15), whose contract with Juventus Turin that ran until 2026 was terminated last November, “is training 1000%, he is in good spirits, he has received many offers”, assures a member of his entourage. He is also in regular contact with the coach of the Blues Didier Deschamps, “one of his advisors for sporting decisions”, according to one of his close friends.
But who could be interested in a player whose last match was on September 3, 2023 with Juve?
During one of his rare public appearances, on AmineMaTue’s Twitch channel in January, he explained that he had received ” proposals, not very interesting stuff”, such as “going to play in Russia, but that’s not the goal “.
A contract, he admitted, ” doesn’t depend on me, but on many other things.”
– Strength of character –
David Beckham’s Inter Miami could be a solution. Pogba lives in the Florida metropolis where he bought a house, he was in the stands for the Roses’ first MLS match of the season, against New York City (2-2), on February 23, and he is fine-tuning his fitness with the fitness coach of Lionel Messi, the team’s star.
Olympique de Marseille also sounded him out, and football director Medhi Benatia played with him at Juventus. But OM did not want to take the risk of signing a player whose fitness is surrounded by too many questions.
In any case, morale seems to be at its highest, with Pogba having always maintained his legendary strength of character even in the worst of storms.
“I ‘ve had a difficult year, so I have this rage, this desire to play football and enjoy it until the end of my career,” he said on Al Jazeera channel, just before his positive test.
Also badly affected by the kidnapping case of which he was the victim in 2022, he can now also try to forget this sordid episode with the end of the trial of his attackers at the end of 2024, his brother Mathias and five of his childhood friends having been sentenced to terms of up to eight years in prison.
“I can finally turn the page on this extremely difficult period. This conclusion is an opportunity for everyone to focus on the future. Now that the judgment has been delivered, I can fully concentrate on my return to professional football ,” he wrote to AFP after the verdict.
” That he can rediscover the pleasure of playing on the pitch, that’s all I wish for him because humanly he’s really a good person ,” said Didier Deschamps in 2024.
–Le360/AFP
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