Ending 2024 on a high, Napoli returns to top of Serie A

ROME — Napoli went through three different coaches during its Serie A title defense last season and ended the campaign in 10th place.

Antonio Conte was hired in July, and now Napoli is ending 2024 level with Atalanta atop the Italian league again.

Substitute Giacomo Raspadori scored a late goal, as Napoli beat relegation-threatened Venezia 1-0 on Sunday in its final match of the year.

Napoli trails Atalanta only on goal difference, but both teams are one point ahead of defending champion Inter Milan, which has a game in hand.

"Even if I play cards with my daughter, I want to win," said Conte, who was hired to get Napoli back into the Champions League. "Personally, I don't accept minimal goals, but we all know where we started and what the club's objectives are."

Atalanta drew 1-1 at Lazio on Saturday and Inter won 3-0 at Cagliari.

Also Sunday, Juventus and Fiorentina drew 2-2 in a match that was briefly suspended because of discriminatory chants aimed at Juventus striker Dusan Vlahovic; and AC Milan drew 1-1 with visiting Roma.

After Luciano Spalletti coached Napoli to the Serie A title in 2022-23, Rudi Garcia, Walter Mazzarri and Francesco Calzona had a stab at managing the team last season, when the Partenopei finished a whopping 41 points behind Inter.

"What happened is in the past. The present is what counts," Napoli captain Giovanni Di Lorenzo said. "It's great to be back on top but there's still a long way to go."

Napoli had struggled to get the ball past Venezia goalkeeper Filip Stankovic, the son of former Lazio and Inter standout Dejan Stankovic. But, Raspadori broke the deadlock in the 79th, when he used one touch to fire in a loose ball from the center of the area less than 10 minutes after he came on.

"These are tough matches where it means a lot to come away with three points," Raspadori said. "We know we're on the right path."

In the first half, Stankovic saved a penalty kick from Romelu Lukaku. Then, in the second half, Stankovic deflected a shot from Lukaku off the post.

Napoli produced 25 shots to Venezia's four.

Napoli's 27 goals scored are the least among the top six teams in the standings.

"The squad is improving from every point of view. We just need to score more goals," Conte said.

Vlahovic chants

Discriminatory chants aimed at Juventus striker Vlahovic by visiting Fiorentina fans prompted a two-minute suspension during the first half the match in Turin.

Vlahovic, a Serbia international who played for Fiorentina before transferring to Juventus three years ago, appeared to tell the referee about the chants. The ref then stopped play, gathered the teams and ordered a warning announcement to be made over the stadium's public address system.

The announcement said that the match would be suspended definitively if there were more discriminatory chants.

Khephren Thuram put Juventus ahead midway through the first half. Former Juventus striker Moise Kean equalized before the break with his 15th goal of the season across all competitions. Thuram added another in the second half, and Fiorentina equalized again with a volley from Riccardo Sottil in the 87th minute.

Juventus and Fiorentina are both nine points behind the leaders.

Juventus is the only unbeaten team in the league, but the Bianconeri have drawn more matches (11) than they've won (seven).

At the San Siro, Tijjani Reijnders put Milan ahead early on, and Paulo Dybala equalized for Roma.

Under-pressure Milan coach Paulo Fonseca was sent off for protests at the end of the first half.

Earlier, Torino came back from two goals down to draw 2-2 at Udinese.

Agencies via Xinhua