MILAN: Defender Miguel Britos was sent off for head-butting an opponent as Napoli lost 3-1 at Serie A champions Juventus on Saturday, all but ending their hopes of Champions League football next season.

Roberto Mancini’s Inter Milan will finish outside the Europa League places after they lost a thriller 3-2 at Genoa.

Napoli can now only qualify for the Champions League if Lazio lose to AS Roma in their derby on Monday and Napoli beat Lazio in their final game. Their defeat also meant that second-placed Roma qualify at least for the Champions League preliminary rounds.

With Napoli trailing 2-1 in stoppage time, Britos lost his temper and head-butted Juventus striker Alvaro Morata. The Uruguayan was shown a straight red card and conceded a penalty, which was converted by substitute Simone Pepe.

Celebrating winning the double of the Serie A and Coppa Italia in a party atmosphere in Turin, Champions League finalists Juve rested several regular players, but still went ahead in the 13th minute when Kingsley Coman dinked the ball over the defence and Roberto Pereyra fired past Mariano Andujar.

David Lopez levelled for the visitors when he smashed home the rebound after Gianluigi Buffon saved a penalty from Lorenzo Insigne but Stefano Sturaro scored a spectacular first goal for the club to restore Juve’s lead on 77 minutes and at the death Napoli self-imploded.

There was a special atmosphere at the Juventus Stadium, in the final home match of the season, and the team paraded the Italian Cup before kickoff, while they were presented with their fourth successive Serie A trophy after the match.

Juve outclassed Lazio 2-1 in the Cup final on Wednesday to secure their first double since 1995 and with two weeks to go until their Champions League final have already turned their attention towards beating Barcelona in Berlin.

“The lads are in good condition and played well, especially after the interval. They could have been a bit less fanciful, but I’m not going to blame them for that,” said Allegri. “Heading into the final, we’re in a pretty good place. But you only win games on the pitch, not before.”

Napoli were left with 63 points in fourth place while Roma, in second, have 67 and Lazio 66. The team finishing second go straight into the Champions League group stage and third place earns a place in the final qualifying round.

Inter’s defeat left them eighth with 52 points and ended their hopes of the top-six finish they needed to qualify for the Europa League.

Published in Dawn, May 25th, 2015

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