For the first time in 17 years, three Italian teams reached the Champions League quarterfinals.
Now they will have to focus on ensuring they qualify for next season’s competition in one of the tightest races for the top four in Serie A, reports AP.
Napoli, Inter Milan and AC Milan have all reached the final eight of Europe’s top club competition in a sort of redemption for Italian soccer after the national team again didn’t qualify for the World Cup.
However, only Napoli seems assured of playing in the Champions League next season. The club, which reached the quarterfinals for the first time in its history has an 18-point lead at the top of Serie A and is 21 points clear of fifth-place Roma.
Inter and Milan are second and fourth, respectively, but only three points separate second place from fifth place, with Atalanta also only five points further back.
In such a tight race, the teams know they can’t afford any slipups although all of them dropped points last weekend.
Milan has the easiest match on paper this weekend at Udinese, while Roma visits third-place Lazio in the capital derby.
Inter hosts Juventus in the derby d’Italia on Sunday, knowing that the Bianconeri could also be thrown into the mix for the Champions League spots.
Inter drew 0-0 at Porto on Tuesday to progress 1-0 on aggregate and also relieve a lot of the pressure on coach Simone Inzaghi after mixed results in the league.
The Nerazzurri have won only two of their past five league matches, losing at Spezia and Bologna and drawing at Sampdoria.
Source: Bahrain News Agency