Napoli’s title defense in Serie A last season saw three different coaches, culminating in a 10th-place finish.
After hiring Antonio Conte in July, Napoli has rebounded to end 2024 level with Atalanta at the top of the Italian league.
Giacomo Raspadori, a substitute, scored a late goal to secure a 1-0 win over relegation-threatened Venezia on Sunday in the team’s final match of the year.
Napoli trails Atalanta on goal difference, with both teams one point ahead of defending champions Inter Milan, who have a game in hand.
“Even if I play cards with my daughter, I want to win,” said Conte, who was hired to get Napoli back into the Champions League. “Personally, I don’t accept minimal goals. But we all know where we started and what the club’s objectives are.”
Atalanta drew 1-1 at Lazio on Saturday, and Inter won 3-0 at Cagliari.
Also Sunday, Juventus and Fiorentina drew 2-2 in a match briefly suspended because of discriminatory chants aimed at Juventus striker Dusan Vlahovic.
Later, AC Milan hosted Roma.
After Luciano Spalletti coached Napoli to the Serie A title in 2022-23, Rudi Garcia, Walter Mazzarri and Francesco Calzona managed the team last season, when the Partenopei finished a whopping 41 points behind Inter.
“What happened is in the past. The present is what counts,” Napoli captain Giovanni Di Lorenzo said. “It’s great to be back on top, but there’s still a long way to go.”
Napoli struggled to get the ball past Venezia goalkeeper Filip Stankovic, the son of former Lazio and Inter standout Dejan Stankovic. But Raspadori broke the deadlock in the 79th minute, firing in a loose ball from the center of the area less than 10 minutes after coming on.
“These are tough matches where it means a lot to come away with three points,” Raspadori said. “We know we’re on the right path.”
In the first half, Stankovic saved a penalty kick from Romelu Lukaku. Then, in the second half, Stankovic deflected a shot from Lukaku off the post.
Napoli produced 25 shots to Venezia’s four.
Napoli’s 27 goals scored are the fewest among the top six teams in the standings.
“The squad is improving from every point of view. We just need to score more goals,” Conte said.
Discriminatory chants aimed at Juventus striker Dusan Vlahovic by visiting Fiorentina fans prompted a two-minute suspension during the first half.
Vlahovic, a Serbia international who played for Fiorentina before transferring to Juventus three years ago, appeared to tell the referee about the chants. The referee then stopped play, gathered the teams, and ordered a warning announcement to be made over the stadium’s public address system.
The announcement said the match would be suspended definitively if there were more discriminatory chants.
Play resumed afterward.
Khephren Thuram put Juventus ahead midway through the first half. Former Juventus striker Moise Kean equalized before the break with his 15th goal across all competitions this season. Thuram added another in the second half, and Fiorentina equalized again with a volley from Riccardo Sottil in the 87th minute.
Juventus and Fiorentina are both nine points behind the leaders.
Earlier, Torino came back from two goals down to draw 2-2 at Udinese.