Serie A Final day: Juventus sneak into the Top Four along with AC Milan

Categories: Football | Published by: AC

25/05/2021

Serie A Final day: Juventus sneak into Top Four

Updated: 01/07/2022

On a dramatic final day of the Italian Serie A, Juventus sneaked into the top four of the league table to secure a Champions League spot after they humbled Bologna 1-4 in an away game on Sunday night.

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Juve's cause was further helped by Napoli who unexpectedly drew 1-1 against an unfancied Hellas Verona side and dropped to the fifth.

Serie A top scorer Cristiano Ronaldo was surprisingly benched for the critical away game but Juve more than made up for the Portuguese ace's absence with a double strike coming from Alvaro Morata and goals from Federico Chiesa and Adrien Rabiot.

The Juve players huddled around a pitchside monitor at the end of the game to watch the dying minutes of Napoli’s clash with Verona and roared with delight when the final whistle blew in Naples to guarantee Andre Pirlo’s team a top-four spot.

Despite the joy over their final four entry, it was a disappointing campaign for Juventus, who had bagged nine consecutive league titles before this season.

AC Milan secured a much-awaited return to the Champions League on Sunday as they beat Atalanta 0-2 away at Bergamo to seal a second-place finish on the final day of the Serie A season.

Atalanta who went down to two Franck Kessie penalties slipped to the third, sharing an equal 78 points with fourth-placed Juventus and a point behind AC Milans 79.

Milan who led the Serie A table until mid-February, saw a subsequent dip in form that left them at risk of falling out of the top-four if they failed to win on the final day.

The victory over Atalanta means that the seven-time European title-holders will play Champions League football for the first time since the 2013-14 season.

Serie A champions for 2020-21, Inter Milan ended their triumphant season with a 5-1 thrashing of bottom-half side Udinese to wild celebrations of around 4,000 fans gathered outside the San Siro stadium.

Antonio Conte’s side sealed their first Serie A crown in eleven years with four games to spare on May 2nd itself.

Ashley Young and Christian Eriksen struck before half-time with further goals coming from Lautaro Martinez, Ivan Perisic and Romelu Lukaku in the second half to complete the rout of Udinese.

Inter completed their 2020-21 campaign with 91 points, a clear 12 points above next best AC Milan and 13 ahead of Juventus whom they denied their 10th consecutive title.

It is only the second time Inter have broken the 90-point barrier and their best return since amassing 97, way back in 2007.