SERIE A
Gusty challenge for Osimhen and co as Napoli face impressive Lazio defence tonight
Runaway leaders Napoli will look to extend their eight-match winning run in Serie A when they host Lazio on Friday but face a stern test against the second-best defence in the league.
Lazio climbed back into the fourth and the final Champions League spot after beating visiting Sampdoria 1-0 on Monday but they will not find it easy against a Napoli side who have kept four consecutive clean sheets while scoring 10 goals.
Napoli have one hand on the title with an 18-point lead over second-placed Inter Milan and manager Luciano Spalletti has nothing but praise for his team as they look to end a 33-year wait for the Serie A title with 14 games left.
“Everyone we face seems to be playing for their lives and if we’re where we are at this stage of the season it means I have a group of lads who know how to handle every game the right way,” he said.
“(They are) displaying the mindset and the spirit you need as a squad if you want to come out on top in every game.”
Juventus are on the rise again after a 15-point deduction related to the club’s transfer dealings saw them plunge from third to 10th place. Four wins in a row have lifted them to seventh in the table ahead of their visit to Roma on Sunday.
Massimiliano Allegri’s side are six points behind sixth-placed Atalanta, who occupy the last European slot, and have been boosted by the return from injury of Paul Pogba.
The France midifelder came off the bench to make his first appearance in his second stint since his return to Juve in Tuesday’s 4-2 home win over Torino.
Roma will be without manager Jose Mourinho after the Portuguese coach was banned for two games and fined 10,000 euros ($10,628) for his explosive reaction to being sent off in his side’s 2-1 defeat at relegation-threatened Cremonese.
IBRAHIMOVIC RETURN
Reigning champions AC Milan bounced back from four straight losses in all competitions to win four on the trot without conceding and Stefano Pioli’s side can move up to second place with another win if Inter drop points at home to Lecce.
Swede Zlatan Ibrahimovic is back in the Milan squad after a lengthy injury layoff and the striker might even make his first start of the season on Saturday at Fiorentina, against whom he has scored 11 times in Serie A.
If he finds the net, the 41-year-old will set the record as the oldest scorer in the history of the competition, overtaking former Milan player Alessandro Costacurta.
Udinese visit Atalanta on Saturday and will attempt to break the home side’s 10-match unbeaten run against them in Serie A.
Inter have won each of their last eight home games against Lecce in Serie A, but manager Simone Inzaghi has warned about the impact of their unforgiving schedule.
“We can’t seem to maintain the same level of concentration and determination playing every two and a half days,” he said after Sunday’s 1-0 loss at Bologna.
-Reuters
Croatia captain Luka Modric, who left Real Madrid after 13 years at the LaLiga club, has completed his move to AC Milan on a one-year deal with an option to extend until June 2027, the Serie A side said on Monday.
The midfielder’s arrival was confirmed by newly-appointed Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri earlier this month.
“Very happy to be here to start a new chapter in my career,” said Modric, who turns 40 in September, in an Instagram video shared by Milan.
Milan said Modric will wear the number 14 shirt, which he previously wore during his four years at English side Tottenham Hotspur to honour Dutch great Johan Cruyff.
“It’s an immense honour for them to compare me to (Cruyff)… I wore the no. 14 at Tottenham in honour of him, and because the no. 10 wasn’t available,” Modric had said after winning the Ballon d’Or award in 2018.
Modric, regarded as one of the greatest midfielders of all time, announced in May that he would leave Real after the Club World Cup. He has made 597 appearances for the Spanish club, winning 28 trophies including four LaLiga and six Champions League titles.
He played his last game for Real on Wednesday, coming on as a second-half substitute during a 4-0 loss to Paris St Germain in the Club World Cup semi-finals.
“It’s a bitter end… he’s a legend of world football and of Real Madrid. He’ll be remembered for many more good things than for the 25 minutes he played today,” Real Madrid manager Xabi Alonso said after the match.
Modric, considered Croatia’s greatest player of all time, has represented the country a record 188 times, scoring 28 goals. He won the Golden Ball at World Cup 2018, where he led Croatia to the final for the first time.
He won the Ballon d’Or in December that year, becoming the first player other than Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo to win the prestigious annual award since 2007.
Modric’s arrival reinforces a Milan midfield that also features Youssouf Fofana, Yunus Musah and Ruben Loftus-Cheek, with Samuele Ricci joining from Torino earlier this month.
Milan, who failed to qualify for a European competition after finishing eighth in the Italian top-flight league last season, begin their Serie A campaign against newly-promoted Cremonese on August 23.
-Reuters
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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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