LUCIANO SPALLETTI OFFICIALLY EXTENDS JUVENTUS TENURE UNTIL 2028 AFTER IMPRESSIVE INTERIM SPELL
Juventus coach Spalletti extends his contract until 2028. Get the latest on the Serie A top-four race and match news.
Juventus coach Luciano Spalletti just signed a new two-year deal with the club, capping off a promising six months at the helm.
He broke the news to his players first, right before Friday’s training session. Not long after, Juventus posted a video of Spalletti sharing the update. “I wanted you to hear it from me before anyone else,” he told the squad. “We’ve decided to extend my contract by another two years. I wanted to tell you before the news got out. Honestly, the road ahead looks tough, but I’m convinced we’ll tackle it together. With your character and your fight, we can turn every challenge into something bigger.”
Spalletti took charge back in October, stepping in after Juventus sacked Igor Tudor. Tudor’s departure came after three straight losses and a long, frustrating stretch without a win. At the time, Juventus handed Spalletti an eight-month contract. The word was, he'd get an automatic two-year extension if the team qualified for the Champions League.
Right now, Juventus sits just outside the Champions League spots, one point back from fourth-place Como, with seven games left in the season.
“When I joined seven months ago, the club gave me this short contract,” Spalletti explained. “The idea was simple: let’s give it some time, get to know each other, then decide at the end of the season if we want to keep going.”
Back then, Juventus sat in seventh place, fighting just to stay in Europe. In the Champions League, they were already scrambling to avoid elimination.
Things have improved since Spalletti took over. Juventus has picked up 17 wins, six losses, and eight draws in 31 matches. They managed to push through to the Champions League playoffs, though Galatasaray knocked them out.
Club CEO Damien Comolli praised Spalletti’s impact. “Since joining us, Luciano’s made a real difference on the pitch, around the club, and among our fans,” Comolli said. “He’s exactly the kind of leader we need. His ambitious football matches what we all expect from Juventus, and he stands for what our club’s all about. So, we want to keep going with him. We believe stability and continuity are key to reaching our goals.”
Juventus hasn’t lifted the Serie A trophy since 2020, when they wrapped up a run of nine straight titles.
Before arriving in Turin, Spalletti led Napoli to the Serie A title in 2023, then took charge of Italy’s national team. That stint didn’t go well; he lost his job last June after a shaky start in World Cup qualifying. Now, he’s got another shot to lead a powerhouse club.
NAPOLI LEAPFROG AC MILAN INTO SECOND PLACE WITH VITAL 1-0 SAN SIRO VICTORY
Napoli beat AC Milan 1-0 to move into second place. Discover how Politano and McTominay are chasing Inter for the title.
Napoli snatched a late 1-0 win over AC Milan at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona, keeping their hopes for a second straight Serie A title very much alive. Scott McTominay played the entire match, and with Napoli sitting third before kickoff, their victory bumped them ahead of Milan into second place, just seven points behind Inter. That gap was a daunting 11 points a mere three weeks ago, but Napoli's five-game winning streak, combined with Inter dropping points, has changed the picture fast. With seven matches left, McTominay and the team aren’t giving up on defending their scudetto.
Early in the game, McTominay nearly had Napoli fans holding their breath when he tried a bicycle kick, a move that’s become one of his signatures. This time, though, he couldn't duplicate his Hampden magic from last November against Denmark. The ball skipped wide.
The game felt tense and looked to be heading for a draw until the 79th minute. That’s when Napoli broke through with a quick attack down the left. McTominay didn’t get the goal, but his movement from a Mathias Olivera cross caused chaos in the Milan box. Matteo Politano, coming on as a sub, pounced at the far post and put in a tidy left-footed finish.
Billy Gilmour, McTominay’s Scotland teammate, didn’t get on the pitch. He’d started in three of his last four Serie A appearances, but this time watched from the bench.
Napoli’s next game takes them away to Parma, who sit in 13th. Inter travelled to play Como later that same day. Talking about the title race, manager Antonio Conte said, “Scudetto? It's tough. Inter is really strong and is having an incredible season. We can’t slip up; we need them to make mistakes, and not just once. Honestly, we have to be realistic… Inter deserves to lead. Still, we’ve won the Supercoppa and sit second. We should be pretty happy. With all our injuries and problems, this season could easily have gone off the rails.”
Around the rest of Serie A, Lennon Miller, who didn’t see action for Scotland over the international break, came off the bench for Udinese in the 65th minute of their scoreless draw with Como. On Sunday, Lewis Ferguson saw red for the first time in Italy after picking up two yellows in thirty seconds late in Bologna’s 2-1 win at Cremonese. Che Adams found the net for Torino in their 1-0 victory over Pisa.
LAUTARO MARTINEZ RETURNS FROM TWO-MONTH INJURY LAYOFF TO BLAST INTER NINE POINTS CLEAR
Lautaro Martinez returned from injury to score twice as Inter Milan hammered Roma 5-2 to move nine points clear in Serie A.
Inter Milan took a huge leap toward clinching the Serie A title after hammering Roma 5-2 on Sunday. The win snapped their recent shaky form and pushed them nine points clear at the top.
AC Milan is still close behind, with a tough trip to Napoli. Both teams face a big challenge if they want to stop Inter from grabbing their 21st league trophy.
Lautaro Martinez made his return after almost two months out, and you could tell he made a difference. He scored twice and looked sharp. Marcus Thuram chipped in with his first goal for the club since February. That helped Inter shake off their mini-slump in style.
Before Martinez got injured against Bodo/Glimt in the Champions League, Inter were picking up points pretty easily. Since then, they’d only managed eight points from five games.
After the game, Martinez said, “Tonight was a big match for us… We had to come out with the right attitude and personality. I’m happy for my teammates, because it was the win we deserved.”
Hakan Calhanoglu smashed in a bending rocket right on halftime, and Nicolo Barella added his second league goal of the season, sealing the victory and hurting Roma’s Champions League chances even more.
Roma’s now sixth in the table, three points behind Como, who play Udinese next. They’re tied with fifth-placed Juventus, who face Genoa at home.
Roma coach Gian Piero Gasperini summed up the night, saying, “It was a game of two halves. In the first, I saw a lot of good things, even if the final result makes everything look different. Losing in Milan to this Inter team can happen, even if it shouldn’t be by such a margin.”
Inter just look like a different team with Martinez leading the attack. He wasted no time, smashing in a goal from Thuram’s pass barely a minute into the game.
Calhanoglu then blasted one in from 30 meters to put Inter back ahead just as Roma looked like they might go into the break level, thanks to Gianluca Mancini’s header in the 40th minute.
That goal fired up Inter. They stormed back after the break, and within ten minutes, Martinez and Thuram had pretty much killed the match. Martinez calmly put away his 16th league goal in the 52nd minute, again off a pass from Thuram. Not long after, Thuram headed in from Calhanoglu’s corner.
Barella capitalised on sloppy Roma defending just past the hour mark, fighting his way through and burying Inter’s fifth. Lorenzo Pellegrini got one back for Roma in the 70th minute, but by then it hardly mattered.
Meanwhile, at the bottom of the table, Cremonese fell into the relegation zone after losing 2-1 to Bologna, and Pisa moved closer to the drop with a 1-0 home defeat against Torino.
