England and Germany have already crowned their champions, and Spain’s title race is practically over. That leaves us with Italy, where the league leaders did us the great favor of slipping up and giving us some drama to end the season. Some other stuff happened in Serie A, so let’s get to it.
Serie A Winners
Inter Milan
The weekend couldn’t have gone much better for the blue and black. Napoli’s draw came while Inter grabbed an easy 2-0 win in a downpour in Turin. The scoreline could have been much worse if not for some great stops by Torino goalkeeper Vanja Milinković-Savić, as Inter won thanks to a brilliant solo run by Nicola Zalewski and a penalty converted by Kristjan Asllani. Backup goalkeeper Josep Martínez (starting in place of Yann Sommer after the latter’s heroics against Barcelona) also kept a clean sheet and had a great reflex save with his right hand off Che Adams’ close-range shot. The odds are still against the nerazzurri with Napoli’s remaining games coming against Parma and Cagliari, but Inter have reason to hope.
Atalanta
The Bergamo club guaranteed themselves Champions League soccer next season with a signature win over a team that’s chasing the same. Ademola Lookman wasn’t supposed to start, but the Nigerian recovered from injury in time to score one goal and create many chances that his teammates failed to convert against AS Roma. Gian Piero Gasperini threw Lookman under the bus after Atalanta’s Champions League exit, but now after the coach’s public apology, it seems they’ll be back in that competition together.
Venezia
In a battle of cities that were centers of art during the Italian Renaissance, Venezia bagged an immense win over an uninspired Fiorentina side, thanks to Fali Candé’s first-ever goal in Serie A (the Guinea-Bissau defender is on loan from Metz) and Gaetano Oristanio breaking a scoring drought that had been on since December. The win pulled the arancioneroverdi out of the relegation zone and gives them hope of keeping the top flight in La Serenissima.
Tino Anjarin
Empoli looked headed for an ignominious draw, given that they were at home with a 1-0 lead and the man advantage after Parma’s Lautaro Valenti received his second yellow card. Yet short-handed Parma came back and tied the game thanks to a long-range header by Milan Djurić. It was Anjarin who rescued the three points when he came in as a sub and looped in a 25-yard shot that found a spot where no goalkeeper could stop it. It was only the second goal this season for the Chelsea academy graduate, and it may help save the Blues from the drop, especially if they can win next week’s match against already-relegated Monza.
North Americans
Just like last week, Christian Pulisic and Santiago Giménez featured prominently in AC Milan’s win, with the Mexican scoring two while his American teammate assisted on one of his goals and scoring one of his own in Milan’s resounding win over Bologna. In Juventus’ game against Lazio, Weston McKennie assisted on Randall Kolo Muani’s opening goal and fellow American Timothy Weah would have had an assist on that as well if soccer gave out assists like hockey does.
Serie A Losers
Napoli’s aerial defense
Once again, the azzurri’s offense was good enough to win against Genoa, with Scott McTominay assisting on goals by Giacomo Raspadori and Romelu Lukaku. This time, however, the Neapolitans’ inability to defend crosses let them down, as Genoa’s 17-year-old attacker Honest Ahanor scored his first-ever goal in Serie A by losing all of Napoli’s defense and heading Junior Messias’ cross to equalize. When Napoli took the lead again, Genoa restored parity when Mexican central defender Johan Vásquez bombed forward and headed home Aarón Martín’s cross for a draw at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona. Because Napoli lost the aerial battles, the title race is back on.
Pierre Kalulu
Kenan Yıldız’ red card did not cost Juventus last week against Monza, but the Frenchman’s red card this week against Lazio certainly did. Juve were leading the game 1-0 when their right-back drew red, and the bianconeri promptly devolved into the worst, most negative stereotype of themselves, retreating into a defensive shell. It did not work, as Matías Vecino found the equalizer late in stoppage time for a 1-1 draw that hurt both teams.
Pepe Reina
You remember the goalkeeper who won the FA Cup with Liverpool and was named the Premier League Golden Glove for three years running? He’s had lots of other honors, too, but he had a moment to forget against Cagliari. The Spaniard had the near post covered against Michel Ndary Adopo’s shot from the right side, but the ball crawled underneath his body and over the line to open the scoring. Lucky for him, his team came back to win it.
Lorenzo Lucca
The Udinese striker scored for the first time since February to tie the game up against Monza, but he missed two clean headed chances to give his team the lead in the latter stages of the game, and then Keita Baldé swept home a loose ball at the other end to give the relegated team only its third win of the season. It’s true that goal-scorers go through these dry spells, and the guy is still only 24, but if I’m a team looking for a big center forward in the summer transfer window, I might be leaning toward someone who’s more clinical.
Fourth place
The draw between Juventus and Lazio presented an opening for someone to grab hold of that last Champions League spot, but both Roma and Bologna lost their games, so Juve currently hold fourth on goal difference. With all the contenders having matches left against teams that still have something to play for, European soccer is up in the air.