SERIE A
Osimhen’s Napoli on verge of first Serie A title in 33 years
Runaway Serie A leaders Napoli could seal their third Scudetto in record fashion this weekend if they beat lowly visitors Salernitana and second-placed Lazio drop points at Inter Milan.
Victory on Saturday would move Luciano Spalletti’s side to 81 points and they will become the first team to win the title with six matches remaining unless Lazio earn their first win away to Inter in more than four years on Sunday.
Spalletti urged his Napoli players not to get ahead of themselves despite being tantalisingly close to ending the city’s 33-year wait for the Serie A title since Diego Maradona led the team to two championships in 1987 and 1990.
“I don’t like to celebrate in advance,” he said. “If we all do it together there will be twice as much joy.”
It would be unthinkable for Napoli to blow their 17-point lead at this stage but Spalletti’s caution is understandable given a tough April in which his team managed two wins in six games in all competitions.
With no other silverware to play for after Napoli were knocked out of the Champions League by AC Milan in the quarter-finals this month, Spalletti can focus on landing the domestic crown, though he will be without injured defender Mario Rui.
Salernitana have improved dramatically since Paulo Sousa took over from Davide Nicola in mid-February and have pulled well clear of the relegation scrap. They are up to 14th in the table after an eight-game unbeaten run.
INTER SLUMP
Simone Inzaghi’s Inter have slipped to sixth place after Juventus won an appeal against a 15-point deduction that sent the Turin club back up to third in the standings.
Inter are only two points off the top four but have one win in their last six Serie A games with the distraction of a Coppa Italia final and Champions League semi-final with Milan ahead.
Lazio have not lost on the road in the league since the start of January, a run of five wins and two draws in which they have scored 11 goals and conceded one, although they suffered a dispiriting 1-0 home defeat by Torino last week.
Ciro Immobile played 36 minutes against Torino days after fracturing a rib and hurting his back in a car crash, but Lazio have shown they are not dependent on the Italy forward’s goals, so manager Maurizio Sarri is almost certain not to start him.
Injury-ravaged AS Roma, who are fifth, host fourth-placed Milan on Saturday in another key match in the race for the top four with both teams on 56 points.
Defender Diego Llorente and forward Paulo Dybala are doubtful while Rick Karsdorp, Chris Smalling and Gini Wijnaldum have all been ruled out for Jose Mourinho’s Roma side, who were pushed out of the Champions League places by the Juve decision, despite winning three of their last four league games.
Gian Piero Gasperini’s seventh-placed Atalanta, who have 52 points, travel to Torino on Saturday while Juve, with 59 points, visit another mid-table side in Bologna on Sunday.
-Reuters
SERIE A
Inter and AC Milan reject plan to renovate San Siro
Inter and AC Milan on Friday rejected the project to modernise and restructure the iconic San Siro stadium which they share, city mayor Giuseppe Sala announced.”The two clubs said no to the restructuring of San Siro proposed by (construction group) WeBuild,” Sala said after a meeting with officials of the two northern Italian clubs.
“They provided detailed analyses of technical and economic feasibility and their conclusions are that this project cannot be carried out at a sustainable cost and that they do not wish to move in this direction.”
The two clubs would, however, be ready to relaunch the initial project of a new stadium in the immediate vicinity of San Siro, according to Sala.
“We are not starting from scratch on this subject, but there is resistance from local residents,” Sala pointed out.
“They must present us with a project within a fairly short time frame, but building stadiums in Italy is never easy, it is always very complex.”
To increase their commercial revenue both clubs, who have been crowned European champions 10 times between them, have announced that they wish to leave the San Siro, which is owned by the city of Milan.
Officially known as the Giuseppe-Maezza stadium, the 80,000 capacity San Siro is a spectacular concrete structure built in 1926 but which no longer meets their needs.
The two clubs also each have a stadium project in their pipeline.
Earlier this year AC Milan bought land in the suburb of San Donato Milanese, to the south-east of the city, as part of a plan to move away from the San Siro and outside the official boundaries of the city of Milan.
Reigning Serie A champions Inter have their sights set on the towns of Rozzano and Assago, just south of Milan, after having also sounded out the possibility of building on former industrial land in populous northern suburb Sesto San Giovanni.
In 2026, San Siro will host the opening ceremony of the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics.
It should also be the scene of the 2027 Champions League final, which according to the Italian press could be called into question amid the ongoing uncertainty over the stadium’s future.
-AFP
SERIE A
Osimhen left out of Napoli squad for season
Victor Osimhen has not been included in Napoli’s official 23-man Serie A squad for this season, after the Nigerian striker’s expected move away from the club failed to materialise.
Osimhen’s 26 goals helped Napoli to their Scudetto win two seasons ago, but it has all turned sour since and although the want-away player is still at the club, for now he plays no part in their plans.
The 25-year-old signed a contract extension with Napoli last December, keeping him at the club until 2026 and with a reported release clause of 130 million euros.
A month later, club president Aurelio De Laurentiis said Osimhen would leave at the end of the season, and in recent days his expected destination appeared to be Chelsea or Saudi Pro League club Al-Ahli.
Negotiations went on until the transfer window closed in both Italy and England on Friday, but with Osimhen’s wage demands apparently not met by Chelsea it appeared he was on his way to Saudi Arabia.
Napoli, however, did not accept the offer from Al-Ahli, who then signed Ivan Toney from Brentford for a reported 40 million pounds, and signed Belgian Romelu Lukaku from Chelsea
-Reuters
SERIE A
Osimhen’s replacement, Lukaku fires up Napoli for late win over 10-man Parma
Napoli’s Romelu Lukaku and Andre Zambo Anguissa scored in stoppage time to snatch a dramatic 2-1 comeback win over promoted Parma in Serie A on Saturday.
Antonio Conte’s side moved up to fourth in the standings following their second victory of the campaign.
Feisty Parma, who beat Milan last week, looked to be on their way to a second surprise win of the season thanks to a 19th-minute penalty from Ange-Yoan Bonny.
The visitors had chances to extend the lead but Napoli looked more threatening after the break when new signing Lukaku came on to the pitch.
The momentum changed significantly when Parma keeper Zion Suzuki was shown a second yellow card for a foul on David Neres, causing defender Enrico Del Prato to take over in goal with no further substitutions available.
Napoli thought they had won a penalty for a foul on Giovanni Simeone, only for it to be overturned by VAR in the 90th minute.
But Lukaku grabbed the equaliser two minutes later with a low shot from 12 yards from a Leonardo Spinazzolla through ball before Zambo Anguissa’s header sealed the win in front of an ecstatic home crowd in the 96th minute.
“It is an honour to play for this club, these fans and also for these lads, who gave me a really warm welcome,” former Chelsea and AS Roma forward Lukaku told DAZN.
“We worked really hard and the effort we put into training paid off. It is something of a habit that I score on my debut, but we won and that’s the most important thing.
“I am very happy, but now we need to work and keep winning.”
-Reuters
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