The battle for the top four in Italy was overshadowed by violence in Turin, where Juve joined Milan in missing out

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 decided – Inter claimed their 21st Scudetto at the start of this month – but there were four teams contesting two Champions League berths, while Lecce and Cremonese fought to escape relegation. All of them would play simultaneously. Or at least, that was the plan.

Among these five games was a derby between Torino and Juventus. As kick-off approached, supporters clashed close to the stadium. One, a 36-year-old Juve fan named Marco Leonardo Basoccu, was rushed to hospital for emergency surgery after suffering a head wound.

• Juventus and Milan miss out on top four Serie A spots

• Turin derby at Torino delayed after pre-match clash

Antonio Conte announced his departure as Napoli head coach on Sunday after guiding the team to a 1-0 home victory over Udinese in their final match of the Serie A season.

The 56-year-old confirmed the decision at a press conference alongside the Napoli president, Aurelio De Laurentiis, after the match. Having joined the club in July 2024, he won the league title in his debut campaign. Conte’s final match was settled by a 23rd-minute goal from striker Rasmus Højlund, securing a second-place finish in the league table for the hosts behind Inter.

• Stuttgart beaten 3-0 in DFB-Pokal Cup final

• Girona and Mallorca relegated from La Liga

Harry Kane cut through the smoke of the DFB-Pokal cup final with a hat-trick for Bayern Munich to beat defending champion Stuttgart 3-0 and complete another domestic double on Saturday.

Kane’s goals in the second half set off fireworks among the Bayern fans who had joined their Stuttgart rivals in protesting against the German soccer federation (DFB) for a planned increase in security measures.

After a spring of boardroom civil war, the Giallorossi’s two-goal hero put his side close to a historic return to Champions League

A Rome derby on the penultimate weekend of the Serie A season could never be a low-stakes occasion. Scudetto wins come rarely in Italy’s capital city – Roma and Lazio have five between them – leaving neighbourly bragging rights as the next-most important prize on offer. It is an intense, bitter rivalry that has produced countless memorable moments – Francesco Totti taking selfies under the Curva and a cup-winning goal by Senad Lulic, for example – if also, sadly, many violent clashes between supporters.

It matters even more when either side has tangible objectives to play for, but as recently as late April that did not appear very likely. Roma were sixth – five points adrift of the Champions League places – and Lazio ninth. But then the Giallorossi got on a roll, just as Milan and Juventus started dropping points. A win in the derby could propel them into the top four, if either of those sides slipped up again.

• Sevilla safe despite defeat against Real Madrid

• Tiny Elversberg seal first promotion to Bundesliga

Roma took a huge step towards returning to the Champions League by beating Lazio 2-0 in a feisty derby which finished with both teams down to 10 men, while Napoli won 3-0 at Pisa to secure a top-four spot.

Gianluca Mancini smashed home two headers from corners, one in each half, at the Stadio Olimpico to move Roma up to fourth thanks also to Juventus’s shock 2-0 home defeat by Fiorentina.

• Fàbregas’s team up to fourth in Serie A before later action

• Hamburg get better of Europa League finalists Freiburg

Como kept up their stunning bid for Champions League football on Sunday by beating relegated Verona 1-0 and moving to within two points of Serie A’s top four.

Tasos Douvikas rattled home the only goal of the game in the 71st minute at the Stadio Marcantonio Bentegodi as Como moved up to fifth and piled pressure on fourth-placed Milan.

• Kane misses first Bundesliga spot-kick in 25 attempts in win

• Slavia-Sparta derby abandoned after pitch invasion

Harry Kane missed a penalty as Bayern Munich failed to hit top form but the Bundesliga champions still edged struggling Wolfsburg 1-0 to bounce back after their midweek Champions League semi-final exit to Paris Saint-Germain.

Bayern, who won with a Michael Olise goal, had suffered a 6-5 aggregate loss to PSG after their 1-1 draw in Munich on Wednesday, narrowly missing out on what would have been their first Champions League final in six years. The frustration was evident at the start as the Bavarian side, with six changes in the lineup, lacked their usual attacking spark despite having Kane, the top scorer, in the starting XI.

Inter’s manager was not first choice to replace Simone Inzaghi but created a juggernaut that could not be stopped

It all felt inevitable, by the end, Inter becoming champions of Italy for the 21st time with a win over Parma they did not even need. A draw would have sufficed: in this game, or the next one, or either of the two after that. Their rivals for the Scudetto yielded one by one through the spring and then, finally, all at once. None of Napoli, Milan or Juventus won this weekend, not that it would have mattered any more if they had.

Inter were 10 points clear at the start of this round and 12 by its conclusion, the best team in Serie A by a mile. They have scored 82 goals in a league where no other team have yet made it to 60. Defensively, only Como can equal their 17 clean sheets.

• Barça will be champions if Real fail to win on Sunday

• Bayern draw with Heidenheim; PSG denied by Lorient

Barcelona could secure the La Liga title on Sunday after Robert Lewandowski and Ferran Torres struck late in a 2-1 victory at Osasuna. With four games remaining, Barça top the table on 88 points, 14 clear of second-placed Real Madrid, who have a game in hand and visit Espanyol on Sunday. Should Madrid fail to win, Barcelona will be confirmed champions for the second successive season.

Barça broke through in the 81st minute when Marcus Rashford crossed from the right and Lewandowski rose to head in. Five minutes later Fermín López slipped Torres clear and he finished low past Sergio Herrera. Raúl García pulled back a goal from close range two minutes later, but it was too little to late for Osasuna, who remain 10th on 42 points.

Allegations of ‘sporting fraud’ against Gianluca Rocchi arrive at an especially messy moment for Italian football

This could have been the weekend when Inter sealed the Serie A title. Instead, it became one overshadowed by a refereeing scandal. On Saturday, Agenzia Italia broke the news that Gianluca Rocchi, the man responsible for designating match officials for Serie A and Serie B, was under investigation for “complicity in sporting fraud”. He suspended himself from his duties for the National Referees’ Committee for Italy’s top two divisions (CAN) the same day.

So did Andrea Gervasoni, the video assistant referee system (VAR) supervisor for the same body and implicated in the same investigation. Rocchi released a statement through the Italian Referees’ Association saying he wanted to minimise disruption to peers while the legal action took its course, but that he was confident he would “emerge unscathed and stronger than before”. Lawyers for both men suggested they were still unclear about the exact nature of the charges.

• Nikola Vlasic scores Torino equaliser in 2-2 draw

• Dortmund seal Champions League spot with 4-0 win

Champions-elect Inter were held to a 2-2 draw at Torino on Sunday, with the Serie A leaders letting slip a two-goal lead and leaving the title race ticking over with four rounds left.

Inter appeared to be cruising after Marcus Thuram put them in front in the 23rd minute and Yann Bisseck doubled their lead 16 minutes after the break with another header but Torino clawed their way back into the game.

• Gianluca Rocchi accused of pressing Serie A officials

• VAR chief also under investigation for same charge

The head of referees for Serie A and Serie B has temporarily stepped aside after being placed under investigation by prosecutors in Milan for “sporting fraud”.

Gianluca Rocchi said on Saturday that he has decided to “suspend himself” from his role as the man who assigns referees to matches in Italy’s top two divisions.

In this exclusive book extract, the former Italy goalkeeper describes a moment of crisis before a game against Reggina

If I have to identify the most important moment of this crisis, it was just before a Juventus-Reggina match in February 2004. It was an evening game. We were six points off the top of the table. There were 13 games left in the season, so anything could still happen, but there was an air of negativity, as if the season was already over. We had just had two crazy and very different games. In our previous league match, we had conceded four goals to Totti and Cassano’s Roma, while in midweek we had won the Coppa Italia semi-final against Inter at San Siro, on penalties. Although we were still in the running in the Champions League and perhaps even a little in the league, inside me I was certain that in that season everything was lost.

It was a classic winter Turin evening, wet and cold, and the stadium was half-empty. The speakers played a song that I only heard as an annoying buzz. During the warm-up I prayed and performed my usual pre-match routine, but it felt as if something was wrong with my muscles. After two minutes I put on my gloves, I stood in the goal and I realised that I was struggling to breathe. I stood there, staring at the pitch, and I felt slightly dizzy. What scared me, however, was the tightness I felt in my diaphragm, between chest and stomach, as if I had been hit.

• Bayern stun Mainz with four second-half goals

• Rashford strikes for Barcelona in win at Getafe

Bayern Munich fought back from three goals down to clinch a 4-3 win away to Mainz 05, with substitutes Harry Kane and Michael Olise leading a second-half comeback for the Bundesliga champions. Dominik Kohr, Paul Nebel and Sheraldo Becker scored for Mainz in the first half while Bayern, who had made eight changes to the starting lineup that beat Bayer Leverkusen in Wednesday’s German Cup semi-final, had no shots on target until the break.

The Bayern coach, Vincent Kompany, brought on Kane and Olise after the break and their renewed aggression paid off with Nicolas Jackson scoring in the 53rd minute and Olise finding the net 20 minutes later.

• Late leveller is fresh blow to Madrid’s faint title hopes

• RB Leipzig’s 3-1 win is marred by online sexism row

Héctor Bellerín struck deep into stoppage time to earn Real Betis a 1-1 draw against Real Madrid on Friday, dealing another blow to the visitors’ fading title hopes.

Álvaro Arbeloa’s side appeared on course for a narrow win after taking the lead in the 17th minute. Federico Valverde let fly from outside the box and the Betis goalkeeper, Álvaro Valles, could only parry the ball into the path of Vinícius Júnior, who reacted swiftly to guide a neat finish just inside the right post.

• Host countries limited to five ‘foreign’ matches a season

• Bar raised for clearance and Fifa would have right of veto

Domestic leagues would be limited to staging one game a season in foreign countries under Fifa proposals that significantly raise the bar for controversial “international matches” to be approved.

A new protocol, developed by a Fifa working group set up almost two years ago, would bring in clearer regulations to police the divisive issue and introduce strict limits.

Giallorossi manager has struggled to build and his relationship with Claudio Ranieri is beginning to fray

Right from the beginning of Gian Piero Gasperini’s time as Roma manager, there have been people who believed it would all end in tears. Despite a brilliant record with Atalanta, whom he made into consistent top four contenders, as well as winning the Europa League in 2024, a section of his new club’s support was opposed to his appointment. “Respect our history,” read one banner outside the Stadio Olimpico last May. “Don’t bring that shit Gasperini to [Roma’s training ground at] Trigoria.”

Such objections were born more from rivalry than doubts about the quality of his work. Unsurprisingly, given that the Giallorossi were in direct competition with Atalanta throughout most of Gasperini’s nine-year tenure there, he had made various comments that got under fans’ skin.

• Bayern bounce back from early concession to win 4-2

• PSG’s title hopes hit after 2-1 home defeat by Lyon

Bayern Munich secured their 35th German league title by beating Stuttgart 4-2 to open up an unassailable lead with four games to play. Sunday’s result sent Bayern 15 points clear of second-placed Borussia Dortmund.

The Bavarian side, who face Bayer Leverkusen in the German Cup semi-final next week before taking on Paris Saint-Germain in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final on 28 April, were a goal down before scoring four times to quickly turn the game around.

Midfielder has again been Napoli’s star but ageing squad has taken club backwards and Conte’s future is uncertain

Was this the end of the Serie A title race? On a weekend when the last two teams pursuing them both slipped up, Inter delivered another statement victory, recovering from two goals down to win 4-3 away to a Como side who had been playing some of the best football in the division.

When the final whistle went, manager Christian Chivu celebrated like a man who knew exactly what it meant, hugging an assistant so hard he lifted them off the floor. Inter were nine points clear now in first place, with six games to go. But when the cameras arrived for post-game interviews, he played coy.

• Inter move nine points clear of Napoli after late 4-3 win

• Union Berlin make Eta Bundesliga’s first female manager

Inter put one hand on the Serie A title on Sunday after coming back from two goals down to win 4-3 in a thrilling match at Como and move nine points clear of Napoli, who could only draw 1-1 at Parma.

Two goals down in the dying moments of the first half due to goals from Álex Valle and Nico Paz, Inter looked set to give champions Napoli hope that their Scudetto defence might still be alive.