Como's Champions League Qualification Brightens Gloomy Serie A Finale

Como’s ascent to the Champions League provided a rare bright note amid the chaos of Serie A’s final day, which was overshadowed by fan violence in Turin. The battle for the top four saw Como, Roma, and Napoli secure the remaining Champions League spots, while Juventus and Milan missed out.

Violence in Turin Delays Derby

The stage was set for a grand finale: five games to settle season-long battles at either end of the Serie A table. Top spot was already decided – Inter claimed their 21st Scudetto earlier this month – but four teams contested two Champions League berths, while Lecce and Cremonese fought to escape relegation. All matches were scheduled to kick off simultaneously.

Among these was a derby between Torino and Juventus. As kick-off approached, supporters clashed near the stadium. One fan, 36-year-old Juventus supporter Marco Leonardo Basoccu, was rushed to hospital for emergency surgery after suffering a head wound. A rumour spread that he had been struck by a tear gas canister, though other reports suggested he was hit by a blunt object, likely a glass bottle.

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Juventus ultras entered the away section demanding the game be abandoned. Players, led by captain Manuel Locatelli, were called over to listen. Kick-off was eventually suspended for an hour.

The other four games began as scheduled. To do otherwise might have risked further public disorder, but the fairness of the competition had been compromised. A rescheduling of the Rome derby a week earlier had led to a full-blown legal appeal.

In the end, results elsewhere meant Juventus, who began the day in sixth, could no longer qualify for the Champions League. Kicking off late did not confer any advantage. Still, the spectacle of the final round was tarnished before a ball was kicked.

A Dismal Year for Italian Football

This has been a dismal year for Italian football, between the national team’s third consecutive failure to qualify for the World Cup and the underperformance of Serie A clubs in Europe. Now even the domestic campaign ended on a grim note.

The persistence of violent incidents around high-profile games is an unhappy reality. Supporting your team should never come with the risk of hospitalisation. Doctors described Basoccu’s condition on Monday morning as stable, though he remained in a medically-induced coma.

When a league cannot guarantee its own schedule, it sends a troubling message. There is plenty of blame to go around, and it is reasonable to question the wisdom of scheduling a derby as an evening kick-off in the final round. Regardless of motivations, it cannot be healthy for a small subset of one team’s supporters to so easily impose a delay.

Dramatic Matches Unfold

For the football to be overshadowed is even more frustrating when the games themselves turned out to be highly compelling. The night began with Milan and Roma occupying the last two Champions League spots, both two points ahead of Como and Juventus. Serie A’s use of head-to-head tie-breakers left an array of different outcomes on the table.

Roma were away to relegated Verona, who had won only one game since Christmas, but did not make their task look straightforward. They struggled to carve out chances and almost conceded before half-time when the hosts’ Scottish forward Kieron Bowie spun away from Daniele Ghilardi and stung the palms of Mile Svilar.

A red card for Verona’s Nicolás Valentini right after half-time, followed almost immediately by a penalty, finally set them on the right path. Lorenzo Montipò saved Donyell Malen’s spot-kick, but Paulo Dybala returned the rebound to the Dutchman, who converted at the second attempt.

Roma kept their fans on edge a while longer, but the second goal, when it finally arrived, felt worth the wait. Stephan El Shaarawy made his debut under Gian Piero Gasperini at Genoa in 2008 and has since spent 10 years with Roma, split across two clubs. He is due to leave when his contract expires this summer but signed off by delivering the Giallorossi back to the Champions League – all while playing for that same manager who gave him his first break. Poetically, the clock showed 92 minutes, the same number El Shaarawy, born in 1992, has worn for most of his career.

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Milan's Collapse Opens Door for Como

Another of his former clubs, Milan, would join Roma, Inter and Napoli in the Champions League if they could win at home to 16th-placed Cagliari. Alexis Saelemaekers got them off to the perfect start, running on to Santiago Giménez’s flick to score in the second minute.

But they were undone at set-pieces. Gennaro Borrelli equalised from a corner before Juan Rodríguez made it 2-1 to Cagliari with a header from a free-kick. There was still more than half an hour for Milan to respond, but they didn’t.

Cagliari could have scored more. They moved the ball better, attacked with greater directness and looked hungrier. The teenager Paul Mendy had a chance to put an exclamation mark on their triumph when he ran clean through late on, but he shot too close to Mike Maignan.

Milan’s defeat opened the door for Como. They were supposed to have the more difficult game, away to Cremonese, who needed to win and hope Lecce dropped points to prolong their stay in the top flight.

But Como were simply better. Cremonese showed grit, pulling a goal back after Jesús Rodríguez and Tasos Douvikas had given the visitors a two-goal lead, and the penalty that allowed Como to restore their two-goal cushion came from a debatable decision. There was no question, though, that Cesc Fàbregas’s team dominated, a 4-1 final scoreline reflecting the balance of chances.

Como's Remarkable Rise

The word count here is insufficient to do all these stories justice. Defeat saw Cremonese relegated, though even a win would not have saved them, since Lecce beat Genoa 1-0. Como, in seven years, have climbed from the fourth tier up to the Champions League.

They have spent a lot of money, but plenty of others have done the same without producing such a coherent and compelling football model. Indeed, Como’s win was enough to guarantee their qualification even without knowing Juventus’s result, because they beat the Bianconeri home and away.

Igor Tudor was still in charge of Juventus for the first of those, and Luciano Spalletti is expected to be given the chance to continue in Turin. Massimiliano Allegri’s tenure at Milan looks a lot more precarious. Both these managers, whose experience was supposed to be the key to navigating a fierce battle, have stumbled badly down the stretch.

Next season will be the first since 1991-92 that neither club has qualified for Europe’s top club competition. The first time, in other words, since the Champions League became the Champions League.

These stories all interweave: the failings of those two clubs bringing them to this low ebb at the same moment that Roma and Como are trending in the opposite direction. Roma won their last five games of this season. Como took 13 points from a possible 15 in the same period.

Even in a bleak year for Italian football, there are still bright notes like these to be found.