With a victory over Sassuolo at home, Lazio extended the 33-year wait for a Serie A championship for Napoli by at least another day.
Lazio, who needed a win to maintain their seriously thin chances, took the lead early on through Felipe Anderson before Toma Basic secured the victory in stoppage time.
However, with Napoli needing just a point from their final six games to win the championship, Maurizio Sarri’s team has likely only delayed the unavoidable. On Thursday, they will go to Udinese for their second opportunity to secure that point.
The only two championships Napoli had before were won in 1987 and 1990, both times while Diego Maradona was a member of the team.
With five games remaining, Lazio’s victory put them back in second place, 15 points behind champions Juventus, who had earlier on Wednesday passed them with a 2-1 victory against Lecce at home.
In other Serie A action, Inter Milan improved their chances of making the Champions League with a 6-0 rout of struggling Verona thanks to two goals each from Edin Dzeko and Lautaro Martinez.
However, a 1-1 draw against second-bottom Cremonese hurt Inter’s city rival AC Milan, who will face them in the Champions League semi-final next week, and dropped them to sixth.
If Junior Messias’ equaliser for the hosts in the 93rd minute hadn’t saved the home team a point, it may have been worse for Milan. After defeating Spezia 3-2, Atalanta is in sixth, stuck between the two Milan teams.
