Rome (AFP)
Napoli, the current season’s champion, defeated numerically deficient Inter 3-1, in the thirty-sixth stage of the Italian Football Championship, while Lazio rose to third place at the expense of Inter in particular, by defeating Udinese 1-0 away from home.
Napoli raised its score to 86 points in first place, while Lazio raised its score in third place to 68 points, two points ahead of Inter and one point behind Juventus II, who plays today with its host Empoli.
Inter entered the match ecstatic from reaching the Champions League final for the first time since winning the title in 2010, after overcoming its neighbor Milan back and forth.
The Inter coach made many adjustments to the starting line-up that competed in the continental confrontation, so he released the Bosnian strikers Edin Dzeko and the Argentine Lautaro Martins, and replaced them with the Belgian Romelu Lukaku and the Argentine Joaquin Correa.
The turning point in the match was the dismissal of Inter player Roberto Gagliardini in the 38th minute.
Napoli took advantage of the numerical shortage in the ranks of its opponent to open the scoring through Cameroonian Andre Frank Zambo Angisa (67).
After that, Napoli coach Luciano Spalletti brought out the Nigerian team’s top scorer, Victor Osimhen, in a move that was not favored by the local league’s top scorer.
And after Lukaku equalized for Inter (82), Napoli responded with two late goals, the first with a missile shot by his defender Giovanni Di Lorenzo (85), and the second by substitute Gianluca Gaetano (90 + 4).
Inter has three matches before facing Manchester City in the Champions League final on the tenth of next June, at Ataturk Stadium in Istanbul, including the Italian Cup final against Fiorentina on the current 24th.
In the second match, Lazio boosted its hopes of participating in the Champions League, after its precious victory away from Udinese, with a goal scored by its top scorer, Ciro Immobile, in the 61st minute from a penalty kick.
Cremonese was officially relegated to the Italian second division after one season in the top flight, after Spezia and its host Lecce drew 0-0.
And Cremonese, who ranked nineteenth and penultimate, became seven points away from the first safe positions occupied by Spezia XVII (24 versus 31), two matches before the end of the season, and therefore it became impossible to catch up with him.
Cremonese joined bottom club Sampdoria (18 points), who had previously been relegated to the second division.
Three teams compete in the last two stages to avoid occupying the eighteenth place, which brings its owner back to “Serie B”, namely Verona (30), Spezia (31) and Lecce (33).
Two teams have been confirmed so far next season from the second division, namely Genoa and Frosinone.
As for Fiorentina, which is playing two final matches, one against Inter in the Italian Cup final, and the second against West Ham in the Conference League competition, it tied with Turin 1-1.
Luka Jović scored for Fiorentina before Antonio Sanabria equalized for Torino.
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