Juan Cuadrado scored a brace and Juventus kept their hopes of qualifying for the Champions League alive with a 3-2 win over Serie A champions Inter Milan on Saturday despite spending most of the second half with 10 men.
The result puts Andrea Pirlo’s side in fourth place with one game remaining, 75 points ahead of third-placed AC Milan.
However, Napoli will return the Turin club to fifth place if they beat Fiorentina on Sunday and Milan will be guaranteed a top-four finish if they beat Cagliari, thanks to their longer head-to-head head-to-head record against Juve.
“It’s a tough game against a big team like Inter. Even with one player less, we had to work, make sacrifices and I think we got the result as a team,” Cuadrado told Sky Italia.
Both teams were penalised in the first half of a match governed by VAR decisions. Cristiano Ronaldo scored on the rebound to give Juve the lead after his saved shot, and Romelu Lukaku scored his penalty for Inter shortly after.
Juve regained the lead heading into the break thanks to a deflected shot from Cuadrado, but the hosts were reduced to 10 men early in the second half when Rodrigo Bentancur picked up a second yellow card.
Inter equalised thanks to an own goal from Giorgio Chiellini and Cuadrado responded with the winning penalty in the 88th minute. There is still time for Marcelo Brozovic to be sent off for a momentary booking for the visitors.
Inter ended Juve’s stranglehold on the Serie A name for nine years with 4 games left and were given the chance to deal a blow to their rivals’ 4 most sensible hopes.
But Juve took the lead when Chiellini fell to the ground from a corner and conceded a penalty following a VAR review. The penalty was saved, but Ronaldo took advantage of the rebound.
Inter equalised when Matthijs de Ligt judged Lautaro Martinez fouled in the box after a VAR review, and Lukaku converted the resulting penalty.
Juve took the lead in first-half stoppage time when Cuadrado’s hard shot deflected past Handanovic.
The hosts were reduced to 10 men in the 55th minute after Bentancur tripped Lukaku for a second yellow card and Pirlo to take Ronaldo off during the final quarter of the game in a bid to end the game.
The game erupted in the last 10 minutes. Chiellini placed a cross into his own goal, but the goal was disallowed for a foul, only for the resolution to be overturned after a VAR review.
Three minutes later, Cuadrado tripped Ivan Perisic to win the third penalty of the game and the Colombian scored before Inter’s night worsened when Brozovic was shown a second yellow card for a clumsy tackle.
Borussia Dortmund gained momentum in the race for fourth place as Bundesliga rivals Frankfurt dropped points, while Robert Lewandowski set a goal record.
Eintracht Frankfurt lost 4-3 to relegated Schalke 04 but ended their hopes of finishing in the top four with one game remaining in the season.
Eintracht is fifth with 57 points, while Borussia Dortmund is fourth with 58 and will play Mainz 05 on Sunday. A win would secure them fourth place heading into the final day.
Eintracht hit back after Klaas-Jan Huntelaar gave the hosts the lead in the 15th minute, scoring the rebound after his saved penalty.
Andre Silva equalized in the 29th minute and Evan Ndicka made it 2-1 six minutes after the restart.
But last-placed Schalke scored 3 times in 12 minutes thanks to Blendi Idrizi, Florian Flick and Matthew Hoppe, turning the game around.
Portugal’s Silva fought back and set a club record with his 27th league goal this season, one more than Bernd Hoelzenbein’s run in 1976/77, but it wasn’t enough.
Bayern Munich striker Lewandowski equalled 49-year-old Gerd Muller’s record for goals in the German league when he scored from the penalty spot in the 26th minute of a 2-2 draw in Freiburg, taking his season tally to goals.
The Polish striker already sits second in the Bundesliga’s all-time scoring charts, with 276 goals, only Müller’s 365. He still has a chance to surpass Müller’s record from 1971/72, with one more goal left in the season.
The Bavarians, who have already clinched their ninth consecutive league title, had their first chance in the 20th minute when Lewandowski’s shot from the edge of the box went wide.
He did it much more six minutes later, sending goalkeeper Mark Flekken to tie the record.
Freiburg equalised 3 minutes later with a header from Manuel Gulde, but the Bavarians took the lead again with Leroy Sané sliding in to join with a pass from Thomas Mueller in the 53rd minute.
Lewandowski missed a goal in the 78th minute and also saw a header in the 83rd minute that was headed home by the goalkeeper after Christian Guenter equalized for the hosts.
Union Berlin ended Bayer Leverkusen’s hopes of finishing fifth on the road with a 1-1 draw at the BayArena, while Werder Bremen’s chances of avoiding the relegation play-offs were dashed by losing 2-0 at Augsburg.
Similarly, Cologne missed out on a chance to get out of the last two with a 0-0 draw against Hertha Berlin, who are now mathematically safe. Arminia Bielefeld’s 1-1 draw with Hoffenheim means they go into the final matchday knowing that a win will secure their survival.
At the halfway point, Stuttgart beat Borussia Mönchengladbach 2-1.