Khaberni - Round 34 of the Italian football league will be decisive in many respects, as it witnesses some key matches in officially identifying the title holder or the teams competing for the Champions League qualification spots.
Although the round will feature a strong face-off between Milan and its guest Juventus at the top of the round’s matches, attention will turn to the "Diego Armando Maradona" Stadium on Friday, where Napoli meets its guest Cremonese in a match that could hand the title to the league leader Inter Milan.
Napoli is in second place with 66 points, 12 points behind the leader Inter Milan, and if they lose to Cremonese, who are in seventeenth place and threatened with relegation, Inter Milan will need a win or a draw against their host Torino on Sunday to secure the title for the 21st time in their history.
Coach Antonio Conte's team knows that retaining the title is now a foregone conclusion, with four rounds remaining (after the Cremonese match), and hence, there will be significant pressures within the team facing Cremonese, who is threatened with relegation.
Inter Milan will strive to achieve victory over Torino, regardless of the result of the Napoli vs. Cremonese match, especially since the team has continued to win recent competitions, and it reached the Italian Cup final after beating Como 3-2 in the second leg of the semifinals, after the first leg had ended in a goalless draw at Como’s stadium.
Inter Milan will face Lazio in the Italian Cup final on May 13, where they will be vying for another domestic title to compensate their fans for the failure in the Champions League, where the team was eliminated in the Round of 16 playoff against Norway's Bodo/Glimt.
In the pinnacle of the round’s matches on Sunday, Juventus seeks to achieve a victory that would enhance their hopes of reaching the Champions League next season. Not only that, but it might advance to the third place and leave the fourth spot to Milan.
In the past, matches between Juventus and Milan were direct battles for the title, especially in the early years of the third millennium with great coaches such as Carlo Ancelotti at Milan and Marcello Lippi at Juventus, but currently, both teams are struggling in a difficult season dominated by Inter Milan and Napoli in first and second place, with Milan being a leader at times but failing to take advantage to its benefit, thus falling to the third place and perhaps further by the end of the current season.
Como, which is in fifth place with 58 points, alongside Roma, which faces Bologna on Saturday, will be anticipating the results of these matches as they hope everything goes in their favor.
The battle for Champions League qualification will continue in the league competition should Inter Milan clinch the title in round 34, involving three teams eager to occupy the fourth spot: Juventus, Como, and Roma.
In other matches of the round, Parma plays Pisa, Hellas Verona takes on Lecce in a relegation battle, Fiorentina faces Sassuolo, Cagliari meets Atalanta, and Lazio plays Udinese.
