AC Milan and Juventus take final 2 Champions League places

Milan, May 24 (AP/PTI): Seven-time European champion AC Milan is back in the Champions League after an eight-year break. And Juventus also narrowly qualified on the final night of Serie A.

Two penalties from Franck Kessie on Sunday helped Milan to a 2-0 win at Atalanta, which had already claimed a top-four spot along with Serie A champion Inter Milan.

Juventus won 4-1 at Bologna with two goals from Alvaro Morata plus scores from Federico Chiesa and AdrienRabiot.

Still, Juventus needed help and got it when Hellas Verona held Napoli to a 1-1 draw, leaving Napoli in fifth place.

Amir Rrahmani had put Napoli ahead on the hour mark but DavideFaraoni quickly equalized for Verona.

When Juventus’ game finished a few moments earlier, Bianconeri players watched the final moments of the Napoli-Verona match on the touchline before they could celebrate.

The final standings read: Inter (91 points), Milan (79), Atalanta (78), Juventus (78) and Napoli (77).

Conference League

Roma came back from two goals down against Spezia for a 2-2 draw to take seventh place and a spot in the new Europa Conference League for incoming coach Jose Mourinho.

Stephan El Shaarawy and HenrikhMkhitaryan equalized for Roma after Daniele Verde and TommasoPobega had put Spezia ahead.

Sassuolo, which finished eighth, beat Lazio 2-0 with goals from GiorgosKyriakopoulos and DomenicoBerardi despite finishing with 10 men after Kyriakopoulos picked up his second yellow.

Lazio was already assured of finishing sixth and will go into the Europa League with Napoli.

Also, Torino and already-relegated Benevento drew 1-1.

Inter Celebrates

Inter got its title party started by crushing Udinese 5-1 in the final round.

Inter had clinched the title earlier in the month but there was an award ceremony on the field after its final match, with captain Samir Handanovic lifting the trophy to huge cheers from inside and outside the stadium.

There were 1,000 invited guests allowed into San Siro as friends and family and 4,500 fans outside in an allocated area. Hundreds of them had started gathering hours before the team arrived, carrying flags and setting off flares while chanting songs to celebrate Inter’s first Serie A title in 11 years.

After the celebrations on the field, the players went to one of San Siro’s iconic towers to continue the party with the fans below.

Fans have been banned from matches in Italy for the majority of the past year because of the coronavirus pandemic, apart from a brief period shortly after the start of the season when up to 1,000 spectators were allowed into stadiums.

Ashley Young and Christian Eriksen set Inter on the way to victory with first-half goals. Lautaro Mart nez converted a penalty 10 minutes after the break with Ivan Periic and RomeluLukaku also scoring to add to the festive atmosphere.

Roberto Pereyra netted a late penalty for Udinese.