MILAN: A last-gasp goal by forward Giacomo Raspadori earned Napoli a precious 1-0 win at Juventus on Sunday as Luciano Spalletti’s side brace to celebrate their first Serie A title since the Diego Maradona era.

Napoli ended their mini-slump of no wins in their last three competitive outings and could become champions as early as next weekend if they beat Salernitana at home on Saturday and second-placed Lazio fail to win at Inter Milan on Sunday.

“These are nice bricks towards the final victory, so rightly the players had a bit of a celebration as the goal came in added time,” Spalletti said. “When you bring home a win in the dying minutes there is even more happiness. But we have to wait to uncork bottles and hearts.”

Napoli completed a league double over Juve for only the fourth time, the last being in 2009-10.

Italy international Raspadori was left completely unmarked to lash home a volley from Eljif Elmas’s cross in the 93rd minute of a pulsating encounter in Turin, pushing Napoli 17 points ahead of second-placed Lazio, who lost at home to Torino on Saturday.

Juve stay third, where they rose to on Thursday following the decision to revoke their 15-point penalty for illicit transfer activity, after their third straight league defeat.

However they await a new ruling from the Italian Football Federation’s (FIGC) appeals court to see if they will be handed a new points penalty, a decision which will have a big impact in Serie A’s race for the Champions League.

“We played well but we conceded a really idiotic goal,” said Juve coach Massimiliano Allegri. “It’s the 93rd minute you have to have bodies into the box to defend.”

Rafael Leao and Romelu Lukaku both hit braces as the Milan giants earned straight-forward wins over Lecce and Empoli days after setting up a derby Champions League semi-final.

On a high from his stellar display which knocked Napoli out of Europe on Tuesday, Leao scored his first home goals since November in fifth-placed Milan’s 2-0 success over lowly Lecce.

Stefano Pioli’s side are outside the Champions League positions on goal difference behind AS Roma. Milan are also two points ahead of Inter following their 3-0 win at Empoli which came thanks to two fine low finishes in the second half from Lukaku, his first league goals from open play since the opening day of the season.

Published in Dawn, April 25th, 2023