Napoli clinched their second Serie A title in three seasons, surpassing Inter Milan thanks to a 2-0 home victory against Cagliari in a thrilling season finale.
Este triunfo asegura el cuarto campeonato italiano para el Napoli y establece un nuevo récord para el entrenador Antonio Conte.
Conte: A Master in Serie A
The 55-year-old Italian coach becomes the first manager to win Serie A with three different clubs, following his previous successes with Inter Milan and Juventus.
Napoli arrived at the last matchday leading Inter by one point, and for a brief period in the first half, it seemed that the title could stay in Milan.
Inter took the lead against Como in the 20th minute of a match played simultaneously with Napoli’s. However, Scott McTominay returned control to Napoli with a volley in the 42nd minute.
Romelu Lukaku scored the second goal for Napoli six minutes after the break, unleashing the celebration at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona, the stadium named after the man who led Napoli to their first two Serie A titles in 1987 and 1990.
Napoli ended a 23-year wait to win the Scudetto when a team led by Victor Osimhen and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia achieved glory in 2023.
After finishing in tenth place last season, Conte has brought Napoli back to the top of Italian football.
Romelu Lukaku scored Napoli’s second goal in the victory against Cagliari.
Conte has already won four Italian leagues. He led Juventus to the first three of their nine consecutive Serie A titles in each of his three seasons in charge from 2011 to 2014, and won with Inter in 2021.
Among these achievements, he also won a Premier League title with Chelsea in 2017.
While some coaches have won Serie A with two teams, no one has done it with three.
Fabio Capello lifted league trophies with AC Milan (four times) and Roma before guiding Juventus to consecutive triumphs in 2005 and 2006, but the Bianconeri were stripped of both titles due to the Calciopoli refereeing scandal.
Alofake Deportes
Conte inherited a team that was coming off a horrible season, having had one of the worst title defenses in history and going through three coaches.
Transforming the team into title winners is possibly one of Conte’s greatest achievements.
After losing the first match against Hellas Verona, Napoli won eight of their next nine matches before winning seven in a row from mid-December to early February.
Even the exit of star winger Kvaratskhelia to Paris Saint-Germain in January didn’t slow Napoli down, with only one defeat since his departure.
In the absence of Kvaratskhelia and Osimhen, Conte has brought out an inspired form of Lukaku and McTominay, while building the most solid defense in Serie A.
Napoli has been helped by the fact that it did not have European competition this season and was eliminated from the Coppa Italia in the round of 16, while its main rivals, Inter, reached the final of the UEFA Champions League and the semi-finals of the Coppa Italia.
Napoli will now return to the main European competition, with a big summer ahead to reinforce a thin squad.
El Inter, que no hace mucho soñaba con un triplete, ahora tendrá que centrar su atención en la final de la Champions League contra el Paris Saint-Germain el 31 de mayo.
