The 124th season of Italian top-flight football has reached its conclusion, and it has delivered everything the sport can offer: a dominant champion crowned well ahead of schedule, a fairytale club punching far above its weight, a historic return to Europe's elite stage after seven years in the wilderness, and two of Italian football's most storied institutions left to confront an uncomfortable reality. The 2025/26 Serie A Enilive season, which ran from 23 August 2025 to 24 May 2026, was one of the most dramatic and consequential in modern Italian football memory. 

Below is the complete story of a season that Italy will not forget quickly. 

2025/26 SERIE A — FINAL STANDINGS 

SEASON AT A GLANCE 

CHAMPIONS: INTER MILAN — NERAZZURRI SUPREME AGAIN 

Inter Milan claimed their 21st Scudetto with authority and swagger, wrapping up the title with three games to spare — a commanding statement that left their rivals in no doubt about who the finest team in Italy was in 2025/26. Their coronation was confirmed on 3 May 2026 with a 2-0 win over Parma at the Giuseppe Meazza Stadium, captain Lautaro Martínez lifting the Coppa Campioni d'Italia trophy to a delirious San Siro a few weeks later. 

Under manager Cristian Chivu, Inter powered to 87 points — the highest total in Serie A this season — finishing 10 clear of second-placed Napoli. Their record of 26 wins, 7 draws and just 5 defeats told the story of a side that was relentless: Inter's 8-match winning run was the longest of any team in the division, while their biggest away win, a 5-0 demolition of Sassuolo in February, underscored their ability to hurt teams of all shapes. 

The outstanding individual of the campaign was Lautaro Martínez, who claimed the Capocannoniere (Golden Boot) with 17 goals across the season — the most of any player in the division. The Argentine captain was the heartbeat of everything Inter did going forward, combining work rate, intelligence and clinical finishing in a manner that no rival could replicate. Inter also completed the double this season, adding their 10th Coppa Italia title alongside the league crown. 

Their biggest away win — a 5-0 thrashing at Sassuolo — and highest scoring result — a 6-2 win over Pisa — demonstrated a side capable of both efficiency and entertainment. Inter's eight consecutive victories in mid-season was the longest winning run of any club in the division, and through it all, their defensive record was the best in Serie A. 

THE FAIRYTALE: COMO 1907 REACH THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE 

Of all the stories from the 2025/26 Serie A season, none captured the imagination quite like the one that emerged from the shores of Lake Como. Cesc Fàbregas's side — only in their second consecutive season in the top flight after a 21-year absence — sealed a historic fourth-place finish and, with it, a place in the UEFA Champions League for the first time in the club's 119-year history. They finished on 71 points, with 20 wins, 11 draws and 7 defeats — a record that would have comfortably placed them in the top four in many previous Serie A seasons. 

The achievement came in the most dramatic of circumstances. As Como thrashed regional rivals Cremonese 4-1 away on the final day, AC Milan — who had held fourth place for much of the season — collapsed at home to Cagliari, losing 2-1 in a result that shook Italian football to its core. The moment Como's players discovered what had happened in Milan was captured in footage that immediately went viral: tears, embraces, and the kind of disbelief that comes with the realisation that something genuinely historic has just occurred. 

The architect of this miracle is Cesc Fàbregas. The former Arsenal, Barcelona and Chelsea midfielder joined Como as a player in 2022 when the club were in Serie B. After retiring in 2023, he transitioned into coaching — first as an interim manager in November 2023, then as confirmed head coach ahead of the 2024/25 season. In his first campaign in the dugout, he guided Como to a credible 10th-place finish. In his second — their first real push — he took them to fourth. Over just two years, Como's squad value has reportedly risen from around €60 million to over €350 million, a reflection of the project's seriousness and ambition. 

The team's football has been defined by a modern, possession-based style that Fàbregas learned during his playing career at the highest level. Top scorers this season were Anastasios Douvikas and Nico Paz, who both netted 12 league goals each; the combination of Paz's creativity and Douvikas's physicality gave Serie A defenders a unique challenge. Como's biggest win of the season — a breathtaking 6-0 dismantling of Torino on 24 January 2026 — was a statement of their quality on their best days. The club also reached the Coppa Italia semi-finals, a further sign of their readiness for European football. 

THE RETURN: AS ROMA BACK IN THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE AFTER 7 YEARS 

When the 2025/26 Serie A season began, very few observers predicted that AS Roma would be competing for the Champions League on the final day. The club had missed out on Europe's premier competition for seven consecutive seasons — their last appearance had come in the 2018/19 campaign, when they were knocked out by Porto in the round of 16 under Eusebio Di Francesco. Seven years of near misses, managerial upheaval, and heartbreak had followed. 

This season was different. Under the tactical direction of Gian Piero Gasperini — the same manager who had built Atalanta into a Champions League regular over eight remarkable seasons — Roma came together as a cohesive, hard-running unit. Gasperini had been appointed in June 2025, taking over from club legend Claudio Ranieri, who had himself performed the miracle of guiding Roma from flirting with relegation in the early weeks of the 2024/25 season to within touching distance of the top four before moving into a senior executive advisory role at the club. 

Roma's journey in 2025/26 was not without its turbulence. A 5-2 thrashing by Inter in early April appeared to have derailed their Champions League hopes. But Gasperini's side showed the same resilience that had defined his Atalanta teams, winning six of their final seven matches in all league competitions to edge past both Milan and Juventus in the final weeks. Crucially, Roma's January signing of Donyell Malen from Aston Villa proved to be the catalyst — the Dutchman scored 14 goals in just 18 league appearances, a contribution that Gasperini described as 'a huge leap forward' for the club. 

Roma sealed their place on the final day, winning 2-0 away to already-relegated Hellas Verona at the Stadio Bentegodi — a result that confirmed third place with 73 points. It ended a seven-year wait that had tested the patience of the Giallorossi faithful. The Stadio Olimpico, which had been a place of frustration and occasionally fury over the previous half-decade, celebrated with the kind of unbridled joy that only a long drought can produce. 

The scale of Roma's resurgence under Gasperini was not limited to league position. The coach had transformed the mentality of a squad that, at various points in the previous 18 months, had featured three separate managerial regimes in a single calendar year — De Rossi, Jurić, and Ranieri — and appeared rudderless. His directness, his organisational clarity, and his ability to galvanise players in a collective purpose have been the defining factors of Roma's campaign. 

THE FALL: AC MILAN — SO CLOSE, YET SO FAR 

AC Milan began the 2025/26 season with genuine optimism. Under returning manager Massimiliano Allegri — appointed with the explicit goal of Champions League qualification — the Rossoneri recruited smartly, adding Luka Modric on a free transfer and bringing in Samuele Ricci from Torino and Brighton's Pervis Estupiñán to strengthen both midfield and defence. Christian Pulisic was named Serie A Player of the Month in September, and through the first half of the season, Milan ran neck and neck with Inter at the top of the table — separated by just a single point with 16 games played. 

The second half of the campaign, however, told a different story. Pulisic suffered a dip in form that proved damaging, and a relentless run of difficult fixtures exposed the limitations of a squad that lacked depth in key areas. Despite boasting the longest unbeaten run of any team in the division — 24 matches — a spate of draws against sides they would have expected to beat ultimately cost them dearly. Milan's 70 points would have been sufficient for a Champions League place in many recent seasons. In 2025/26, it left them fifth. 

The fatal blow came on the final day. Hosting 16th-placed Cagliari — a team with nothing left to play for — in front of their own fans, Milan needed only a draw to stay in the top four. Alexis Saelemaekers gave them the perfect start by opening the scoring, but the Rossoneri were ultimately undone, losing 2-1 in a result that was immediately compared to some of the most painful final-day collapses in the club's recent history. As the final whistle blew and the San Siro fell silent, the news arrived that Como had beaten Cremonese and would be taking fourth place. The Rossoneri will compete in the UEFA Europa League next season instead. 

THE DISAPPOINT: JUVENTUS — POINTS WITHOUT THE PRIZE 

Juventus sit sixth in the final table with 69 points — a tally that, in virtually every other Serie A campaign in the club's history, would have been sufficient for Champions League qualification. In 2025/26, it was not enough. Manager Luciano Spalletti, who guided Italy to the 2024 European Championship, was unable to replicate that achievement at club level. The Bianconeri were consistent — 19 wins, 12 draws, just 7 defeats — but their draw-heavy campaign lacked the ruthlessness required to separate themselves from the pack around the top four. 

The Turin derby on the final day was played without the result mattering for Juventus's European fate; regardless of the outcome against Torino, the Bianconeri were already confirmed as Europa League participants. The confirmation they had missed out on the Champions League had come days earlier as Roma and Como both secured results that placed them out of reach. Manuel Locatelli, the Juventus captain, cut a frustrated figure in his post-match comments, noting that 69 points should be a Champions League total in any normal season. 

The Bianconeri's greatest frustration lies in the nature of their failure: they were not dramatically poor, but merely fractionally not good enough in the tightest top-six battle Serie A has witnessed in years. Europa League football — where Juventus will be joined by rivals Milan and Atalanta — represents a significant step down from the ambitions the club entered the season with. Whether Spalletti survives the summer to lead the club's response remains to be seen. 

RELEGATION & PROMOTION 

 ^{* The Serie B promotion play-offs Final between Monza and Catanzaro was ongoing as of 24 and 29 May 2026. 
Jamie Vardy, who had returned to professional football with Cremonese, was relegated after one season back in the top flight.} 

The three clubs dropping out of Italian football's top flight tell three distinct stories. Hellas Verona endured the most catastrophic season: 20th place, 21 points, 27 losses, and a final relegation confirmed in almost every metric before the season's end. The Scaligeri conceded 80 goals — by far the worst defensive record in the division — and never recovered from a terrible start to the campaign. Their return to Serie A after a three-year stint in the top flight is immediate. 

Pisa's relegation ends a brief, unhappy return to Serie A after a 34-year absence. Having come back to the top flight with genuine fanfare, the Nerazzurri were unable to cope with the quality gap. A 17-game winless run — the longest in the division — summarised their difficulties, and 24 points was never going to be enough for survival. Pisa SC head straight back to Serie B. 

Cremonese's demotion is, perhaps, the most poignant. Having won promotion to Serie A via the play-offs the previous summer, they also lasted just one season. The high-profile presence of Jamie Vardy — the legendary former Leicester City striker who had come out of retirement to join the Cremona club — gave the club and the season a certain romance, but the squad's limitations ultimately told against them. Vardy, now 39, was relegated with Cremonese, bringing to an end one of football's more unlikely late-career adventures. 

Their replacements for 2026/27 are confirmed as Venezia (Serie B champions) and Frosinone (runners-up), while the third promotion spot will be decided by a play-off involving Monza, Palermo, Catanzaro, and Juve Stabia — a fixture that had not yet been concluded as this article went to press. 

FINAL VERDICTS: A SEASON TO REMEMBER 

The 2025/26 Serie A season has produced one of the most compellingly varied final days in the competition's modern history. Inter's dominance was perhaps the only predictable outcome of a campaign that saw a team from Lake Como qualify for the Champions League for the first time, a Rome giant end a seven-year continental exile, and two of Italy's most famous clubs stumble when they needed to stand firm. 

The numbers tell their own story: 825 goals scored across 340 matches, an average of 2.43 per game; a highest single-match attendance of 75,681 for the April meeting between Milan and Juventus; and an aggregate season attendance of over 10.4 million. Serie A remains a spectacle, even in a year when none of its clubs could trouble Europe's elite at the very top level. 

The 2026/27 season begins on the weekend of 23 August 2026. The fixture list will be unveiled on 5 June 2026. Champions League football will be contested by Inter, Napoli, Roma, and — extraordinarily — Como 1907 of Lake Como. Football, at its best, still finds a way to surprise you.