Matchday 26 of the Italian Serie A produced some shocking and interesting results as we get closer to the end of the season.
Although 13 matches are left to end the season, runaway league leaders only need to win seven of them to be crowned Serie A champions after restoring their 18-point gap at the top of the table with a 2-0 win over Atalanta at the Diego Armando Maradona stadium on Saturday.
Napoli’s 18-point gap was also assisted by a second-placed Inter Milan 2-1 loss to relegation-threatened Spezia on Friday. Inter have now lost the most matches in the league (8) among the top four clubs in the Serie A season this season. They would be third by now had Lazio, who are in third, not drawn with Bologna who are currently 9th.
Jose Mourinho’s AS Roma fell out of the top four after losing to 4-3 to 13th-placed Sassuolo at home. Roma were always playing catch-up to a Sassuolo side that came determined to take the three points, and Roma’s defender Marash Kumbulla’s sending-off in added time of the first half did not help matters.
It meant Roma would play the second half with 10 men and Sassuolo used the numerical advantage to secure the three points.
In Turin, Juventus returned to winning ways with a 4-2 win over bottom-of-the-table Sampdoria thanks to an Adrien Rabiot brace and goals from Gleison Bremer and Matias Soule. Juventus are now 7th on the table, but are still nine points away from Champions League positions.
Full-time results
Friday, 10 March
Spezia 2-1 Inter Milan
Saturday, 11 March
Empoli 0-1 Udinese
Napoli 2-0 Atalanta
Bologna 0-0 Lazio
Lecce 0-2 Torino
Cremonese 0-2 Fiorentina
Verona 1-0 Monza
Sunday, 12 March
Roma 3- 4 Sassuolo
Juventus 4-2 Sampdoria
Tonight, AC Milan will host Salernitana to round off the matchday.
