⚽️🇮🇹 Milan and Bologna secure European soccer next season!
In this week’s Italian soccer digest, we're also looking back at Inter's epic title celebrations, we're revealing Serie A's huge history-making moment from last week and much more!
🇪🇺 Bologna return to European competition for the first time in 22 years
Following their 1-1 draw with Fabio Cannavaro’s Udinese in match week 34, Bologna is mathematically assured to return to the continental stage for the first time in over two decades.
💪 Thiago Motta’s side sit in fourth place and are guaranteed to feature in the Europa Conference League next season at a minimum.
😮 Bologna’s most recent European game was a defeat to Fulham in the 2002 UEFA Intertoto Cup Final.
🥰 The return to Europe saw Riccardo Orsolini give his nonna a tearful hug at full time on Sunday. Excuse us, we have something in our eye…
😮 This season, due to Italy’s superior UEFA coefficient, the top five teams in Serie A will automatically qualify for the Champions League (which puts Bologna on track to qualify for the newly expanded competition). Spots six and seven will qualify for the Europa League, while eighth place earns a Europa Conference League berth.
6️⃣ However, if either Atalanta or Roma win the Europa League this season, Serie A will earn six Champions League berths next season!
👏 Congratulations are also due to AC Milan, which secured its fourth consecutive Champions League berth under Stefano Pioli in Saturday’s goalless draw at Juventus.
⭐️⭐️ Inter fans paint Milan black and blue in title celebrations
Following their 2-0 win over Torino on Sunday (more on that game shortly), Inter continued their scudetto celebrations with a bus parade and a fireworks show in the Piazza del Duomo.
🗣️ "Marvelous. Almost more beautiful than the treble in 2010. The most beautiful scudetto in my life of 70 years as an Inter fan," said a proud member of the Interisti in a Reuters interview amid the jubilation.
😂 Aboard the bus during the parade, Inter coach Simone Inzaghi briefly went in disguise as… Simone Inzaghi!
Inter’s victory over Torino, which was rearranged to coincide with the scudetto party, also featured a historic moment for Serie A….
👏 Serie A makes history with first all-female refereeing team
History was made at the San Siro on Sunday, where an all-female officiating team took charge for Inter’s aforementioned 2-0 win over Torino.
Referee Maria Sole Ferrieri Caputi was joined by assistants Francesca Di Monte and Tiziana Trasciatti. The team had already refereed together for a Serie B match in 2022 and a Coppa Italia match in 2023.
The officiating team were welcomed onto the field to applause from the Torino players. This was a traditional Guard of Honor ritual, which is always performed by opponents for newly crowned champions as they enter the field.
Ferrieri Caputi is a well known presence in Serie A, having officiated nine top flight matches prior to this one. Her Serie A debut came in in Sassuolo’s 5-0 win over Salernitana in October 2022.
🙁 Salernitana relegated following Frosinone defeat
Serie A saw its first relegation casualty in match week 34, when Salernitana fell 3-0 at Frosinone.
📉 Salernitana has recorded only two wins all season - at home to Lazio in November and at Verona in December - and will return to Serie B after three consecutive seasons in the top flight.
👨⚕️ I Granata has had three coaches this season, including Filippo Inzaghi, the older brother of scudetto-winning manager Simone Inzaghi.
📈 Despite sealing Salernitana’s fate, the result was a huge boost for Frosinone, who now sit two points above the relegation zone after recording their first win since January.
😬 Udinese and Sassuolo currently sit in the relegation zone, but five other teams are mathematically in contention for the drop: Empoli, Frosinone, Verona, Cagliari and Lecce.
👊 Genoa, in 12th place, are officially safe in their first season back at the top, after their 3-0 win over Cagliari on Monday.
👏 Derby D’America watch party raises money for families affected by Baltimore bridge collapse
Thank you to everyone who stopped by Baltimore’s Power Plant Live! last Saturday for our Juventus vs Milan watch party!
⚽️ Fans of the Bianconeri and the Rossoneri were very well represented at the event, which included merch giveaways and a live auction for a signed Rafael Leão jersey, a signed Danilo jersey, a signed Alessandro Del Piero jersey, and tickets for this summer’s game between Milan and Barcelona in Baltimore.
🙏 Over $1,500 was raised by those in attendance for those affected by the Baltimore bridge collapse.
👀 Look out for updates on our next watch party, plus giveaways for this summer’s Soccer Champions Tour in the next few weeks on Calcio Weekly.
👏 Social Post of the Week: Super Mario’s skill challenge
Mario Balotelli, who was part of Inter’s treble-winning side of 2009-10, is plying his trade in Turkey with Adana Demirspor these days. The notorious 33-year-old Italian striker, who has also played in Serie A for Milan, Brescia and Monza, showed he still has the skills to pay the bills with a fun backheel challenge during training…
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🇪🇺 Three Serie A teams in crunch European ties today!
It’s a huge Thursday for Italian soccer: Atalanta, Roma and Fiorentina are all in action this afternoon in major European semifinals.
😎 Atalanta are heading to Marseille for their Europa League semifinal first leg, while Roma hosts newly crowned German champions Bayer Leverkusen on the other side of the draw (both 3pm ET on Paramount+)
🟣 Fiorentina is hosting Belgian side Club Brugge in the first leg of their Europa Conference League semifinal (3pm ET on Paramount+). If victorious, the Viola will face the winner of Aston Villa and Olympiacos in the final.
👊 Both Roma and Fiorentina are looking to avenge heartbreaking European final defeats from last season: the Giallorossi lost out in the Europa League final to Sevilla on penalties, while Fiorentina were second to West Ham in last season’s Europa Conference League. Atalanta, meanwhile, is seeking its first-ever European title.
💬 Calcio Conversations
One thing every team would love from their strikers at this stage of the season is a tripletta.
🤷♂️ What does it mean? A tripletta is the name for when a player scores three goals, which we would call a hat-trick in English.
🤔 Are there collective goalscoring terms? Yes: two goals is a doppietta, with the similarity to the words double and triple making this easy to follow, so far. What’s not so obvious is the word for four goals: a poker!
👏 Did you know? Five players have managed to score a tripletta so far this season: Bologna’s Riccardo Orsolini (vs Empoli), Empoli’s Szymon Zurkowski (vs Monza), Roma’s Paulo Dybala (vs Torino), Napoli’s Victor Osimhen (vs Sassuolo) and Inter’s Lautaro Martinez, who managed a poker against Salernitana.
🆙 Parma secure promotion to Serie A
Parma will return to Serie A next season following their 1-1 draw with Bari last night.
👏 Parma, who have spent three seasons away from Serie A, have been promoted with two games to spare. They sit at the top of Serie B, with 74 points from 36 games.
😎 The top two teams in Serie B are promoted automatically, with the third through eighth-place finishers entering into playoffs for the third promotion spot.
🏆 Parma have enjoyed a storied history since forming in 1913, with their peak years of success coming in the decade between 1992 and 2002, when they won the Coppa Italia three times, two UEFA Cups, a European Cup Winners' Cup and a European Super Cup.
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