The unfortunate truth for Napoli is that they didn’t do enough today. They had chances in patches but they didn’t play with enough intensity and the sting in the tale is that they’ve not just lost the league, they’ve given Roma hope of taking the second automatic Champions League place off them. Roma are two points behind Napoli, who can no longer catch Juventus. Five titles in a row for the Old Lady. It truly is a fairytale. Move over, Leicester.
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Full-time: Roma 1-0 Napoli
That’s it! Radja Nainggolan’s late goal means that Juventus are the Italian champions for the fifth consecutive year!
90 min: There will be three minutes of stoppage time. From Roma’s perspective, winning here will keep their hopes of nabbing second place off Napoli alive.
GOAL! Roma 1-0 Napoli (Nainggolan, 89 min)
The title is heading to Juventus! Not that Roma care. This is a magnificent team goal and it began with Totti, who clipped a lovely ball over the top and into the Napoli area. From there, Pjanic combined with Salah, who showed good feet and equally good composure to beat a man and then roll the ball back to the edge of the area for Nainggolan. From there, the midfielder opened up his body and stroked an accurate low finish to Reina’s left with the inside of his right foot.
87 min: Insigne wallops one over from 25 yards. It’s not happening for Napoli.
84 min: It’s all Napoli now. Is there to be a late twist?
83 min: Napoli thought they were going to score. Everyone thought they were going to score. The ball is flicked into the area towards Higuain and a flap from Szczesny sees it drop into the six-yard box. Hamsik comes steaming in, seemingly certain to prod it into the empty net, only for Rudiger to deny him with a spectacular challenge at the expense of a corner.
82 min: Totti’s first contribution is to give a free-kick away.
81 min: A huge roar goes up around the stadium. El Shaaraway is making way ... for Francesco Totti.
79 min: Napoli make another change, David Lopez coming on for Allan.
78 min: Maicon’s cross is blocked by Ghoulam. Roma appeal for handball and a penalty; nothing doing.
74 min: Lorenzo Insigne replaces Dries Mertens. Can he spark Napoli into life? “Equal parts concerned and enthused about Florenzi’s injury,” says Barry Lysaght. “Concerned as, if serious, it would rob the football-loving public of a ding-dong, mouthwatering “who’s the best underrated right-back in Europe?” throwdown in Lille later this summer. Enthused as it means we need fear neither goals from the halfway line nor the goalscorer’s celebrations with elderly members of the Florenzi family who may be sitting near us in the stands. What about Dries Mertens? Seems like he’s having a fairly profitable afternoon. Anything for our Séamus to be concerned about there when Ireland v Belgium rolls around on 18th June?”
Mertens has been tricky and dangerous but there wasn’t much of an end product from the Belgian.
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73 min: Callejon spins and sends a cross towards the far post. It takes a deflection and loops towards Maicon, who decides he might as well leave it and see if Higuain score. It’s a wonderful opportunity for Higuain but his shot is saved by Szczesny. But Maicon’s not done there. He decides to try and knock the ball back to the grounded Szczesny, just to test his keeper’s reflexes, and the Pole is forced to scramble it behind. From the resulting corner, Szczesny is forced to make another save, tipping the ball over his bar.
70 min: After Mertens is booked for diving, Roma almost find the breakthrough at the other end, only for Albiol to deny El Shaaraway with a superb last-ditch challenge.
68 min: Mertens goes for goal again, this time for 25 yards. But again his aim is awry, the ball fizzing over the bar.
65 min: Higuain bewitches Zukanovic with a splendid turn that leaves the Roma defender in no man’s land, before rolling the ball to the left for Mertens, who dips inside and curls one wide. Napoli have 25 minutes to find a goal.
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64 min: Maicon’s cross is only headed as far as El Shaarawy on the left, but the winger’s shot is deflected over for a corner, from which nothing occurs.
60 min: Maicon plays a one-two with Nainggolan and charges into the Napoli area on the right, but his low drive from an angle, possibly destined for the far corner, is tipped away by Reina. He’s scored from tighter angles, come to think of it.
58 min: Get Totti on.
55 min: This will probably annoy European Football Experts everywhere, but watching Serie A is quite sad these days. To think how good it used to be; the state of it now.
52 min: “Re: the comments on Totti, to be fair he hasn’t done that much for the national team – he kept his best for his club,” says Fritz Stelluto. “He’s a bit of a Le Tissier in that respect.”
I’m not sure that I agree with that comparison. He helped them win the World Cup!
50 min: It strikes me that Roma don’t have enough of a presence up front. Edin Dzeko is on the bench.
49 min: Hamsik breaks into the Roma area from the left, but his shot takes a deflection and goes straight at Szczesny.
47 min: Rudiger picks up Roma’s first booking for a foul on Mertens.
46 min: Roma get the second half underway.
There’s some bad news for Barry Lysaght. Maicon has replaced the injured Florenzi.
Half-time: Roma 0-0 Napoli
Unless Napoli score, Juventus will be confirmed as champions in 45 minutes. And Napoli haven’t really looked like scoring. Fortunately for them, neither have Roma.
45 min+2: A clever dummy from Higuain buys some space for Hamsik, but the Napoli midfielder rams his 25-yarder miles over.
45 min: There will be three minutes of added nonsense. This isn’t a very good game.
41 min: Napoli achieve a rare double, getting wo players booked for committing separate fouls within the same attack. The first booking went to Koulibaly, who chopped down Perotti, the second went to Ghoulam, who caught Salah as he attempted to sprint on to the loose ball after playing a clever one-two with Perrotti. But for the foul, Salah would probably have raced clear on goal, but it was too far out for it to be considered an obvious goalscoring opportunity, and there was also a covering Napoli defender.
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39 min: “I am embroiled in an ongoing dispute with a Roma-supporting Italian colleague about the relative merits of Alessandro Florenzi and Séamus Coleman - two of Europe’s best right-backs who don’t get the credit they deserve,” says Barry Lysaght. “One scores outrageous long-range efforts from the halfway line in crucial Champions League fixtures against Barcelona, while the other routinely slotted them over the bar from similar distances for his local GAA team, Na Cealla Beaga. The similarities are, obviously, endless, and the debate has only intensified what with us both nabbing tickets to Ireland v Italy on 22 June in Lille. Based on what you’ve seen today, does Séamus have anything to be worried about?”
I think that Seamus Coleman has a lot to worry about, playing on the right side of Everton’s Wiganised defence, but Florenzi hasn’t done a so far. Hope that helps!
38 min: Pjanic picks up a blatant booking for a cynical foul on Mertens, who was haring away down the left.
34 min: Nothing of much significance, but this was a fairly incompetent moment, two Napoli players sending farcically miscued volleys high into the area, another keeping the ball airborne with his 50p head.
32 min: Having cut inside from the right, Salah shoots tamely at Reina from 18 yards. “With Nainggolan being more and more connected with Chelsea, what do you think about Chelsea trying to get him in a package deal with Pjanic?” wonders Sanel Aganovic. “It looks like they complement each other well in the midfield, and Pjanic would be a good Fabregas replacement?”
Will they need a Fabregas replacement?
29 min: With the Roma back four creaking - Florenzi has been off for treatment and Maicon is warming up - Higuain superbly plucks a high ball out of the sky, his instant control sending two defenders off in the wrong direction, and he looks certain to score. He appears to have done enough, with Szczesny committed and on the floor, but he aims his shot too close to the Roma goalkeeper, who makes a cracking save!
28 min: “I can only assume Big Ron’s massive coat gave him sunstroke and he forgot how outrageously brilliant Totti is,” says Rory McGee . Sure, Totti is definitely cynical, egotistical, a bit snide, a bit nasty and a bit of a bully- yet we’ll happily forgive players all sorts of on and off the pitch malarky time and again. In Totti’s case, how can you not? The man is pure unadulterated football. Passion and delightful skill in one. Plus he’s a much better “What could have been if only he’d moved clubs” example than Steven Gerrard will ever be. Incidentally, I reckon Totti’s Roma may be in with a shout for best 11 made up of players to play with one other player at a club. Giggs, Gigi Buffon (even at Parma) and Iker Casillas are also going to do quite well at that tournament-do you reckon you could persuade Nike to set that up before the next world cup? Enjoy the Rome sun vicariously, I’ll be enjoying the football through you”
26 min: Mertens pierces the Roma defence with a stunning ball through to Callejon, who smashes the ball high past Szczesny - but the flag is up for offside! There wasn’t much in that. “Juve fan for 31 years now, and hoping this will be a draw,” says Cheta Nwanze. “Principally because this will be the sweetest scudetto of the last five given our horrendous start to the season, but also because I think Napoli will do a better job in next season’s UCL.”
23 min: Mertens tries to bend one into the top left from the edge of the Roma area but he doesn’t hit it cleanly enough, allowing Szczesny to make a comfortable save.
22 min: Loud boos greet a brilliant surge through the middle by Higuain, who’s eventually toppled on the edge of the Roma area. But no free-kick is given.
21 min: Manolas does indeed trot off, replaced at the back by Zukanovic.
19 min: Manolas is still struggling after that blow from Higuain. He might not be able to continue; it seems that he can’t see properly. His team-mates are looking at him quizzically.
16 min: Higuain, back in the side after three games out, catches Manolas with a stray arm. The temperature rises. The Roma players want Higuain booked but that’s not going to happen.
15 min: Emails please!
12 min: Mertens, who’s looking lively, twists and turns on the left, easily confounding Florenzi, but his ball into the centre falls into the vague area between cross and shot.
10 min: Pjanic stands over a free-kick on the left. He taps it to Florenzi, a few yards to his right, taking the Napoli defence by surprise, but they recover to block the right-back’s shot.
8 min: Napoli haven’t got going yet; they’re making quite a few errors in their own half, Roma’s pressing disrupting their rhythm.
6 min: Salah has started well. He tries to burst into the Napoli area and goes down under a challenge from Ghoulam. No penalty.
4 min: Other than that early chance for Salah, it’s been a cautious, tight start from both sides.
2 min: It’s a sunny day in Rome. I want to go to Rome. I wish I was in Rome.
And we’re off! Napoli, all in blue, get the game underway at a sparsely populated Stadio Olimpico. And they almost make an awful start. Salah pounces on a dreadful defensive clearance and whistles a drive inches over the bar from the edge of the area. Pepe Reina was nowhere near that.
And here’s Francesco Totti at international tournaments. He was class at Euro 2000; and less class at Euro 2004. But perhaps the best moment of his career came when a technical glitch meant that Big “Ron” Atkinson was caught slagging him off live on air in 2002. “He’s a little twat, that Totti. I can’t see what all the fuss is about,” Atkinson said during a Champions League game between Arsenal and Roma, unaware that his mic was on.
While we wait, here’s Paolo Bandini’s Serie A blog.
Well blow me down. Napoli beat Juventus 2-1 at home and lost 1-0 away.
@guardian @guardian_sport @JacobSteinberg Serie A uses head-to-head results not goal difference
— Adam Symonds (@_AdamSymonds) April 25, 2016
Despite his recent goalscoring form off the bench, there’s no place in the Roma 11 for Francesco Totti. With his time at Roma possibly coming to an end, what do you make of the great man? Worth the hype or overrated?
The teams
Roma: Szczesny; Florenzi, Manolas, Rüdiger, Digne; Keita, Pjanic, Nainggolan; El Shaarawy, Perotti, Salah.
Napoli: Reina; Hysaj, Albiol, Koulibaly, Ghoulam; Allan, Jorginho, Hamsik; Callejon, Higuain, Mertens.
Hello. Away from the incredible Leicester City surge to the Premier League title, another fairytale is talking place at the top of Serie A. It is only nine years since unfashionable Juventus won promotion from Serie B; today they stand on the brink of their fifth consecutive title. Production on the Mario Mandzukic film begins soon.
Juve’s 2-1 win over Fiorentina last night means that it will all be over if Napoli fail to beat Roma at the Stadio Olimpico this afternoon. And even then, it’ll probably still be over. Victory for Napoli would leave them nine points behind the leaders with three games left. They have a substantially superior goal difference to Max Allegri’s side, so they still have hope. But come on. It’s not happening.
Still, it’s been a fine season for Napoli. After missing out on Champions League qualification last season, they’re assured of a place in the top three this time and perhaps the more pressing issue than the title race is ensuring that they go straight into the group stage by finishing second. They can take a giant stride towards that goal by defeating Roma, who are five points behind them in third place. Yet it won’t be easy against Luciano Spalleti’s side, who need the points to move eight points clear of fourth-placed Inter. It’s all to play for on Italy’s Liberation Day!
Kick-off: 2pm BST, 3pm in Rome.
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