Luciano Spalletti, the manager of Napoli, has urged his team not to start celebrating yet, despite their dramatic 1-0 win over Juventus, which leaves them potentially just one win away from claiming the Serie A title.
Giacomo Raspadori scored the stoppage-time decider to secure a crucial victory against Juventus, who knocked Napoli out of the Champions League earlier in the week.
However, Spalletti is keen to keep his players focused on the task at hand, as they need to beat regional rivals Salernitana on Saturday and hope that Inter Milan does not suffer a home defeat to Lazio on Sunday to be crowned champions for the first time since 1990.
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“We need to wait before we pop any bottles, and hearts, because we still have a little way to go,” said Spalletti in an interview with DAZN. “They played really well and it wasn’t easy to do that so soon after being knocked out of the Champions League. I don’t think we could have done any more tonight.”
If Napoli do go on to win the title, it would be a crowning achievement for Spalletti, who has had a long and winding road to the top of Italian football.
Starting from lower-league football as a player, Spalletti has worked his way up to become one of the most respected coaches in Italy, known for his ability to get his teams playing great football.
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Spalletti has often been accused of lacking the winning mentality to achieve success, despite his teams’ impressive performances.
Winning the league title with Napoli would be his first league title since the two he won in Russia with Zenit Saint Petersburg in 2010 and 2012 and his first trophy in a major league since winning the Italian Cup with Roma in 2008.
