🇮🇹⚽ The Tuesday Calcio Wrap-Up #12: Scudetto is in Napoli's hands, Venezia not going down without a fight and have Bologna ruined their season?!
Welcome to this week's wrap-up, where I give my thoughts on all the ups, downs and round and rounds from a weekend of Calcio fun.
More twists. More turns. The title race is in full force and with two games to go, who knows who’s going to win it? We do know, though, that Inter’s run-in is the harder one, and they also have a European final to prepare for. Elsewhere, Milan stuck a dagger in Bologna’s chances of Champions League, beating them 3-1 on Friday but with Juventus and Lazio drawing against each other, the battle for fourth is still going down to the wire. Empoli beating Parma was huge for their survival chances, especially as they took the opportunity to close the gap with Lecce following Marco Giampaolo’s men drawing to Verona.
The Serie A is an absolutely fantastic league this season and in my (biased) eyes, it’s the best in Europe. The title race is going down to the wire, the battle for fourth is in full throttle and the relegation battle is looking precarious for a few, too. And whilst I feel I’m constantly chatting about these areas in the league in this newsletter, there’s just SO MUCH to focus on. It’s brilliant.
👐 Despite drawing, the Scudetto race is in Napoli’s hands
I predicted Inter to draw against Torino and Napoli to beat Genoa. I got it the wrong way round. Inter travelled to Turin and came away with three points, beating Torino 2-0. Following their epic semi-final with Barcelona and a few injuries, Simone Inzaghi was forced to start with a well-rotated team, including Mehdi Taremi, Nicola Zalewski and Joaquin Correa all involved from the off. Beating Torino 2-0 with this starting XI is a wonderful result, showing Inter’s quality. After that, it was over to Napoli, who faced Genoa - a side with literally nothing to play for, barring pride. They failed to beat Genoa, going in front twice and conceding an equaliser. The 2nd goal for Genoa was fantastic, but regardless, this is a missed opportunity to keep the gap at 3pts for Antonio Conte’s men. Whether or not you think Napoli should have had a penalty, to win the title means needing to win these games. However, it’s not all doom and gloom. A point gained and the title race is still in their hands. One point separates them from Inter and winning their remaining games is all they need to do. And they’re very winnable, too. Parma and Cagliari left to play - Napoli will be confident they can see it out and secure #4. Strap yourselves in…
🥵 Who will survive: Empoli, Lecce or Venezia (or Parma!)?
Empoli beating Parma and ending their torrid run of form was huge for their survival chances. Level on points with 17th placed Lecce, Empoli will be fighting tooth and nail to gain some points from their final two games and build on this momentum. Lecce drawing away to Verona wasn’t the result they’d have hoped for and I’d suspect they’ll see it as a missed opportunity to overcome a team who are poor and who have nothing to play for. Venezia had the toughest game out of the three, facing Fiorentina, but prevailed 2-1 with goals from Fali Cande and Gaetano Oristanio. This win takes Venezia out of the bottom three, leapfrogging Lecce, who seemed to be doomed. A MASSIVE win for Venezia, putting them into the driving seat in the relegation battle. Whilst the battle seems to be between three teams for one place, Parma need to be careful they’re not dragged back into the mire, too. They’re currently four points clear but with a loss against Empoli and Napoli and Atalanta to play, they’re fully out of the woods yet.
🛟 What happened to Bologna!?
They were doing so well. But one win in their last five has left them outside the European spaces, putting their hopes of qualification to ANY of the competitions in doubt and potentially getting caught by Milan (who they lost 3-1 to this weekend), who’ve been shocking for the most part. Vincenzo Italiano had his men leading in the race for Champions League football not so long ago but with their dip in form and Roma’s incredible resurgence, they’ve let Claudio Ranieri’s men back in and have also fallen behind Lazio and Juventus. Two points separate them, with Juventus in fourth and with two games left in the league, fourth spot is all to play for. Bologna do have hope, though, that if they win the Coppa Italia, they will get a form of European football and a trophy next season. Roma losing to Atalanta will also give them some hope. So, it’s not all doom and gloom in Bologna. Yet…
Serie B:
🪂 The final game of the Serie B season happens tonight (Tues 13th May). Cesena jumped into the play-off spots, leaping over Bari into 8th place. Sampdoria moved out of the automatic relegation spots and still have hopes of avoiding the play-out, too. They’d need to beat Juve Stabia and hope Brescia lose against Reggiana.
Serie C:
🚨 We’re into the Round of 16 in the play-offs. Here are the fixtures to be played on 14th May:
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