Milan and Juve take final two CL places, Napoli miss out

MILAN: Seven-time European champions AC Milan are back in the Champions League after an eight-year break. And Juventus also narrowly qualified on the final night of Serie A on Sunday.

Two penalties from Franck Kessie helped Milan to a 2-0 win at Atalanta, who had already claimed a top-four spot along with Serie A champions Inter Milan.

“We deserved the Champions League as well as second place,” said Milan coach Stefano Pioli whose side had missed the chance to seal their berth last weekend against Cagliari. “We went through the whole championship at the top, unfortunately we had thrown away the match point last Sunday. I’m really excited, happy, I have to thank the club because they made us work in a spectacular way.”

Atalanta had already ensured a third consecutive season of Champions League football but missed out on a first second-place Serie A finish days after losing out in the Coppa Italia final to Juventus.

Juve won 4-1 at Bologna with two goals from Alvaro Morata plus scores from Federico Chiesa and Adrien Rabiot.

Cristiano Ronaldo was left on the bench by Juventus coach Andrea Pirlo who opted for an attacking line-up of Paulo Dybala and Morata flanked by Chiesa and Dejan Kulusevski.

“It was a shared choice, Ronaldo was tired after the fatigue on Wednesday,” said Pirlo. “He made himself available to the team but I chose to have another player named Morata play, who is not the latest arrival. I have a quality team, with many choices available.”

Still, Juventus needed help and got it when Hellas Verona held Napoli to a 1-1 draw, leaving Napoli in fifth place.

Amir Rrahmani scored for Napoli after an hour against his former club, which would have been enough to secure a berth at the top table but Davide Faraoni pulled one back for the visitors nine minutes.

Gennaro Gattuso’s side were denied a return to elite European action after also missing out last season.

When Juventus game finished a few moments earlier, Bianconeri players watched the final moments of the Napoli-Verona match on the touchline before they could celebrate.

Inter won the title eventually by 12 points ahead of Milan, with Atalanta and Juve both a point further adrift.

But Juve could face sanctions from UEFA including a potential ban from the Champions League for failing to renounce their role in the breakaway Super League that collapsed within 48 hours of its launch last month.

“It was important to finish the job well by winning the Italian Cup and bringing the squad into the Champions League,” Pirlo said.

Still, Pirlos status remains a question mark after Juve’s run of nine straight Serie A titles was ended.

“I’ve always given 100% for the squad and this is the final result,” Pirlo said. “Then I’ll leave the floor to whoever will decide.”

In a tense game in Bergamo, Milan held on despite playing without injured star striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

Kessie proved solid in front of goal taking the first penalty three minutes before the break and the second deep into injury time.

In Bologna, Italy forward Chiesa, who scored the Coppa Italia winner midweek, finished off a Kulusevski cross into the box from close range after six minutes for his 15th goal in all competitions this season.

Dybala set up Morata to nod in the second before the half-hour mark with Rabiot adding a third before the break at the Stadio Dall’Ara.

Morata got the second just after the interval latching onto a ball Juve goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny blasted up the pitch. The Spaniard controlled the ball and raced forward to finish off.

Riccardo Orsolini pulled a goal back for Bologna past Juve’s third-choice goalkeeper Carlo Pinsoglio who got his first outing this season coming on for Szczesny for the final quarter of an hour.

AS Roma came back from two goals down against Spezia for a 2-2 draw to take seventh place and a spot in the new Europa Conference League for incoming coach Jose Mourinho.

Stephan El Shaarawy and Henrikh Mkhitaryan equalised for Roma after Daniele Verde and Tommaso Pobega had put Spezia ahead.

Sassuolo, who finished eighth, beat Lazio 2-0 with goals from Giorgos Kyriakopoulos and Domenico Berardi despite finishing with 10 men after Kyriakopoulos picked up his second yellow.

Lazio were already assured of finishing sixth and will go into the Europa League with Napoli.

Also, Torino and already-relegated Benevento drew 1-1.

Earlier, Inter got their title party started by crushing Udinese 5-1 in the final round.

Inter had clinched the title earlier in the month but there was an award ceremony on the field after their final match, with captain Samir Handanovic lifting the trophy to huge cheers from inside and outside the stadium.

There were 1,000 invited guests allowed into San Siro as friends and family and 4,500 fans outside in an allocated area. Hundreds of them had started gathering hours before the team arrived, carrying flags and setting off flares while chanting songs to celebrate Inter’s first Serie A title in 11 years.

After the celebrations on the field, the players went to one of San Siro’s iconic towers to continue the party with the fans below.

Fans have been banned from matches in Italy for the majority of the past year because of the coronavirus pandemic, apart from a brief period shortly after the start of the season when up to 1,000 spectators were allowed into stadiums.

Ashley Young and Christian Eriksen set Inter on the way to victory with first-half goals. Lautaro Martinez converted a penalty 10 minutes after the break with Ivan Perisic and Romelu Lukaku also scoring to add to the festive atmosphere.

Roberto Pereyra netted a late penalty for Udinese.

Final standings

(Tabulated under played, won, drawn, lost, goals for, goals against, points)

Inter Milan 38 28 7 3 89 35 91

AC Milan 38 24 7 7 74 41 79

Atalanta 38 23 9 6 90 47 78

Juventus 38 23 9 6 77 38 78

Napoli 38 24 5 9 86 41 77

Lazio 38 21 5 12 61 55 68

AS Roma 38 18 8 12 68 58 62

Sassuolo 38 17 11 10 64 56 62

Sampdoria 38 15 7 16 52 54 52