Finding a date for a Serie A title playoff could be near impossible

ROME (AP) — Italian league officials might be second-guessing their decision to install a one-match playoff to determine the Serie A champion.

Inter Milan and Napoli are level with five rounds remaining and a rule put in place from 2022-23 requires a playoff when the top two teams finish with the same number of points.

But if Inter reaches the Champions League final and it comes down to a playoff, it’s not going to be easy to find a date.

Serie A ends on May 25 and the Champions League final is on May 31. Inter faces Barcelona in the semifinals.

A FIFA international match window is scheduled for June 2-10, with clubs required to release players for national team duty on June 1. Then the Club World Cup in the United States starts on June 15 with Inter one of the two Italian teams entered (along with Juventus). Inter opens its Club World Cup campaign against Monterrey on June 18.

There hasn’t been a playoff to determine the Serie A champion since 1964 when Bologna beat Inter 2-0 for the last of its seven league titles.

The rules call for no extra time in a championship playoff, with a penalty shootout in the case of a draw after 90 minutes.

The team with the better head-to-head record would host the playoff, but since Inter and Napoli drew 1-1 twice this season, it would go down to goal differential (Inter leads +40 to +27) or goals scored (Inter leads 72-52).

However, if the league determines that there are security issues it could decide to play the match at a neutral venue, likely the Stadio Olimpico in Rome.

Still, a playoff may be unnecessary.

Antonio Conte's Napoli appears to have an easier remaining schedule on paper, with games against Torino, Lecce, Genoa, Parma and Cagliari.

Simone Inzaghi's Inter plays Roma, Hellas Verona, Torino, Lazio and Como. And the Nerazzurri also have a two-leg semifinal with Barcelona in the Champions League.

However, Inter’s treble bid is done following a loss to AC Milan in the Italian Cup semifinals on Wednesday.

Napoli lost dribbling wizard Khvicha Kvaratskhelia to Paris Saint-Germain in January and now David Neres, who replaced “Kvara” on the left wing, is also out. That could mean more responsibility for Giacomo Raspadori, who was decisive when he came off the bench in a win at Monza last weekend.

Inter has lost consecutive matches from Serie A (1-0 to Bologna) last weekend to the Italian Cup (3-0 to Milan) but hopes to have back Marcus Thuram, Piotr Zielinski and Denzel Dumfries from injury for matches against Roma on Sunday and at Barcelona three days later.

Thuram's absence in attack — due to a left thigh issue — weighed heavily when Inter went scoreless in its last two matches.

Key players Alessandro Bastoni and Henrikh Mkhitaryan are suspended due to accumulated cards for the game against a Roma side looking to move into the Champions League places.

While Atalanta has tightened its grip on third place with 64 points, there are a handful of teams fighting for fourth place and the final Champions League place: Bologna (60) is fourth, followed by Juventus (59), Lazio (59), Roma (57) and Fiorentina (56).

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Inter Milan's Lautaro Martinez walks off as AC Milan players celebrate during the Italian Cup semifinal second leg soccer match between Inter Milan and AC Milan at the San Siro stadium in Milan, Italy, Wednesday, April 23, 2025. (Spada/LaPresse via AP)

Napoli's Romelu Lukaku gestures, during the Serie A soccer match between Monza and Napoli at U-Power Stadium in Monza, Italy, Saturday April 19, 2025. (Spada/LaPresse via AP)

Inter Milan's Marcus Thuram reacts after a missed scoring opportunity during the Champions League quarterfinal second leg soccer match between Inter Milan and Bayern Munich at the San Siro stadium in Milan, Italy, Wednesday, April 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Napoli's Scott McTominay scores during the Serie A soccer match between Monza and Napoli at U-Power Stadium in Monza, Italy, Saturday April 19, 2025. (Spada/LaPresse via AP)

Inter Milan's Lautaro Martinez reacts during the Italian Cup semifinal second leg soccer match between Inter Milan and AC Milan at the San Siro stadium in Milan, Italy, Wednesday, April 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

BERLIN (AP) — European leaders are expected to cement support for Ukraine Monday as it faces Washington’s pressure to swiftly accept a U.S.-brokered peace deal.

After Sunday’s talks in Berlin between U.S. envoys and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukrainian and European officials are set to continue a series of meetings in an effort to secure the continent’s peace and security in the face of an increasingly assertive Russia.

Zelenskyy sat down Sunday with U.S. President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner in the German federal chancellery in the hopes of bringing the nearly four-year war to a close.

Washington has tried for months to navigate the demands of each side as Trump presses for a swift end to Russia’s war and grows increasingly exasperated by delays. The search for possible compromises has run into major obstacles, including control of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, which is mostly occupied by Russian forces.

The U.S. government late Sunday said in a social media post on Witkoff’s account after the five-hour meeting that “a lot of progress was made.”

Earlier in the day, Zelenskyy voiced readiness to drop his country’s bid to join NATO if the U.S. and other Western nations give Kyiv security guarantees similar to those offered to NATO members. But Ukraine continued to reject the U.S. push for ceding territory to Russia.

Putin wants Ukraine to withdraw its forces from the part of the Donetsk region still under its control among the key conditions for peace.

The Russian president also has cast Ukraine’s bid to join NATO as a major threat to Moscow’s security and a reason for launching the full-scale invasion in February 2022. The Kremlin has demanded that Ukraine renounce the bid for alliance membership as part of any prospective peace settlement.

Zelenskyy emphasized that any Western security assurances would need to be legally binding and supported by the U.S. Congress.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who has spearheaded European efforts to support Ukraine alongside French President Emmanuel Macron and U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, said Saturday that “the decades of the ‘Pax Americana’ are largely over for us in Europe and for us in Germany as well.”

“Pax Americana” refers to the U.S.’s postwar dominance as a superpower that has brought relative peace to the globe.

Merz warned that Putin’s aim is “a fundamental change to the borders in Europe, the restoration of the old Soviet Union within its borders.”

“If Ukraine falls, he won’t stop,” Merz warned during a party conference in Munich.

Macron, meanwhile, vowed Sunday on social platform X that “France is, and will remain, at Ukraine’s side to build a robust and lasting peace — one that can guarantee Ukraine’s security and sovereignty, and that of Europe, over the long term.”

Putin has denied plans to attack any European allies.

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Ciobanu reported from Warsaw, Poland.

Steve Witkoff, special envoy of the United States, leaves through a hotel garage for talks between representatives of the U.S. and Ukraine in Berlin, Germany, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz,stands in his office in the chancellory in Berlin, Germany, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Maryam Majd)

Steve Witkoff, special envoy of the United States, arrives for talks between representatives of the U.S. and Ukraine, at the Hotel Adlon, in Berlin, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (Kay Nietfeld/dpa via AP)

Jared Kushner, entrepreneur and former chief adviser to President Donald Trump, arrives for talks between representatives of the U.S. and Ukraine at the Hotel Adlon, in Berlin, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (Kay Nietfeld/dpa via AP)

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, right, watches Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arriving at the chancellory in Berlin, Germany, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Maryam Majd)