Antonio Conte’s side have won the Serie A title as former Manchester United pair Scott McTominay and Romelu Lukaku got the party started in Naples
Manchester United cast-offs Scott McTominay and Romelu Lukaku are Serie A champions in the same week their former club hit another new low.
The pair both scored in Napoli’s 2-0 win over Cagliari on Friday night, with Antonio Conte’s side pipping title rivals Inter to the Scudetto by a point.
McTominay, who has become a hero in Naples ever since joining Napoli from United last summer, opened the scoring with a superb acrobatic effort from a Matteo Politano cross shortly before half-time to send the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona wild.
The goal was McTominay’s 13th of a stellar debut season in Italian football, with the Scottish international scoring six in the final seven games of the campaign to help propel his side over the line.
Napoli, who also feature McTominay’s Scotland team-mate Billy Gilmour in midfield, then went 2-0 up early in the second half when Lukaku picked up Amir Rrahmani’s pass, burst past the former Everton defender Yerry Mina and fired home his 14th goal of the season to spark wild scenes.
The victory marks Napoli’s second Serie A title in the past three seasons, having previously won just two titles in their entire history – in 1986-87 and 1989-90, both of which were powered by Maradona.
Champions League finalists Inter were in action at Cesc Fabregas’ Como, where the former Liverpool goalkeeper Pepe Reina, 42, was sent off shortly before half-time in the final appearance of his long career.
Como were already a goal down at that point courtesy of a header from defender Stefan de Vrij, with Joaquin Correa adding a second at the start of the second half, at almost exactly the same time Lukaku scored Napoli’s second.
Conte’s side knew that had they won then there was nothing Inter could do to stop them from claiming the title, with both fixtures brought forward to Friday night. Had Napoli lost to Cagliari and Inter drawn at Como then a title playoff would have been held next week.
But Napoli avoided the need for that with their victory, with McTominay and Lukaku’s success coming just two days after former club United lost 1-0 to Tottenham Hotspur in the Europa League final.
McTominay came through the ranks at United and played 255 times for the Red Devils before he was deemed surplus to requirements last summer, when he joined Napoli for £25.7million.
United signed Lukaku from Everton in the summer of 2017 for £75m plus £15m in add-ons, but he was to last just two seasons in Manchester after scoring 42 goals in 96 games before joining Inter in 2019.
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