The fight for Italy’s most prestigious domestic football trophy, the Serie A Scudetto, delivered another pivotal twist this week, as defending champions Napoli secured a critical 1-0 victory over title rival AC Milan on Monday that reignited their hopes of retaining their crown. The match, played out at the packed Stadio Diego Armando Maradona in Naples, remained tight and disjointed for most of 79 minutes, until substitute Matteo Politano stepped off the bench to rifle home the only goal of the night, sending the home crowd into raptures.
Politano’s finish, his second league goal of the entire season, capped a dominant performance from Antonio Conte’s side and stretched their winning streak to five consecutive matches. The result was enough to push Napoli past Milan in the league table, lifting the reigning champions into second place. However, Inter Milan still hold a commanding position at the top of the standings, holding a seven-point lead over Napoli with just seven matches left to play in the campaign. Conte acknowledged the uphill battle his side faces, particularly after a season marred by repeated injury setbacks that could have derailed their title bid entirely.
“It’s a happy moment for us because we’re back in second place,” Conte told reporters after the win. “I thanked the boys for what they’ve done this season as it could have finished badly. We’ve got back to what we were like last season, we’ve got to keep going without getting ahead of ourselves.”
Monday’s defeat leaves AC Milan with an almost insurmountable gap to close on league leaders Inter, who sit nine points clear of Stefano Allegri’s side. With their title hopes effectively extinguished, Allegri admitted his team will now shift their full focus to securing a top-four finish to qualify for next season’s Champions League. “I think we’re done with the Scudetto race. We’re nine behind Inter and Napoli are ahead of us now,” Allegri said. “We’ve got an advantage of a few points for the Champions League, let’s try to keep it that way by winning some matches.”
Napoli earned the vital win without two key attacking players: Romelu Lukaku, who angered club leadership by remaining in Belgium to receive treatment for a hip injury, and Rasmus Hojlund, who was sidelined by a stomach bug. Prior to Politano’s match-winning strike, the closest either side came to breaking the deadlock was a long-range stinging drive from Napoli winter signing Giovanni, which forced AC Milan keeper Mike Maignan into the match’s best save. Politano’s winner came when he pounced on a weak headed clearance from Koni De Winter, firing a powerful first-time finish past the outstretched Maignan to seal three points.
In another key match in the race for Champions League qualification, Juventus closed the gap on the top four to just a single point with a comfortable 2-0 home win over Genoa. Juventus took full advantage of fourth-placed Como dropping points in a 0-0 draw against Udinese earlier on the same matchday, opening the scoring through Gleison Bremer’s header just four minutes into the match. American midfielder Weston McKennie doubled the lead 13 minutes later, a finish that pushed his season league goal tally to five—matching his best single-season return from his debut 2020-21 campaign with the club. McKennie brushed off the personal milestone after the match, telling DAZN that “the important thing is getting into the Champions League.”
Juventus had backup goalkeeper Michele Di Gregorio to thank for preserving their clean sheet, after he pulled off a spectacular double save to deny a spirited Genoa side. Di Gregorio, who has endured a difficult second season with Juventus after being dropped from the first team in February following a string of costly mistakes, was only called into action on Monday after starting keeper Mattia Perin was pulled off at halftime with a calf injury. He first saved a penalty from Aaron Martin, then blocked a follow-up volley from Vitinha to keep Genoa off the scoresheet. Bremer defended his teammate’s performance after the match, saying: “He has some good moments and some tough moments, but we always knew that he was a quality goalkeeper. He knew that his moment would come.”
The three points moved Juventus five places within the Champions League race, opening up a three-point gap over sixth-placed Roma, who were beaten 5-2 by Inter on Sunday. Juventus also hold a four-point advantage over seventh-placed Atalanta, who secured a 3-0 away win over Lecce. The two sides will face off this coming Saturday in Bergamo in what is shaping up to be a critical match for Champions League positioning, while Como hosts league leaders Inter the following day.
For Genoa, the defeat did little to damage their bid to avoid relegation, as they remain six points clear of the relegation zone. The biggest loser of the matchday was Lecce, whose heavy 3-0 defeat to Atalanta left them stuck in the bottom three, level on 27 points with Cremonese. Cremonese sit just outside the drop zone thanks to a superior head-to-head record, leaving Lecce fans booing their side off the pitch at full time amid growing frustration over their drop in form.