Staff Reporter.
Napoli clinched their second Serie A title in three seasons after edging Inter Milan thanks to a 2-0 home victory over Cagliari in a dramatic finale to the season on Friday.
It sealed a fourth Italian championship for Napoli, and a record for coach Antonio Conte, who is the first coach to win Serie A with three clubs after earning titles with Inter Milan and Juventus.
“Everyone contributed to this — but the coach most of all,” Napoli captain Giovanni Di Lorenzo said. “Napoli needed him to get back on top. He’s phenomenal.”
Comparing it with his three Serie A titles won at Juventus and one at Inter — not to mention a Premier League title at Chelsea — Conte, 55, said it was “the most unexpected, the most difficult, and the most stimulating in terms of the challenge.”
“It happened again, and it’s something wonderful,” Conte said. “When we got to the stadium, it was honestly difficult to get in, as I don’t know how many people were there.
“I had a slight thought, if we let these people down, it’d be something we carried with us for a long time.”
Napoli led defending champions Inter by one point entering the final round, and it briefly looked as if the title might be staying in Milan in the first half.
Inter took the lead over Como in the 20th minute of a game being played simultaneously to Napoli’s match. But it was Conte’s two big summer signings who ensured the Scudetto headed back to Naples.
Scott McTominay went airborne to redirect a cross from Matteo Politano in the 42nd minute for his 12th goal this season after transferring from Manchester United.
Then, Romelu Lukaku, who was signed from Chelsea in August, controlled a long vertical pass and dribbled past two defenders before scoring in the 51st minute. It was the 14th goal for Lukaku, who has a league-leading 10 assists.
It meant Inter’s 2-0 win at 10-man Como wasn’t enough for the Nerazzurri. Napoli claimed the title by one point to ignite celebrations 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.
Conte watched the match from the tribune after getting sent off last weekend. But he went to the pitch at the final whistle and embraced Lukaku, with whom he also won Serie A at Inter in 2021.
McTominay dropped to the pitch in tears when the match was done. Minutes later, he was honored as Serie A player of the season.
Napoli players held up signs that read “Again,” featuring a “4” for the team’s fourth title.
Napoli fans began cheering and singing hours before kickoff and celebrated at the final whistle in the stadium and around the city’s central piazzas, which showed the match on jumbo screens.
After the glory days of Maradona faded, Napoli ended a 23-year wait to win the Scudetto when a team led by Victor Osimhen and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia marched to glory in 2023.
But, after Napoli finished 10th last season, Conte has returned them to the summit of Italian soccer.