It was a Sunday unlike any other in Serie A. Or maybe exactly like it. Unpredictable, full of drama, and stretched to its emotional limits.

On paper, it ended just as it began. Napoli top. Inter one point behind. Nothing changed. But saying that misses everything.

This was a day that somehow held an entire season in its grip. Ninety minutes that squeezed nine months’ worth of tension into one feverish window.

Napoli arrived one point ahead and left with the same margin. The league table, all numbers and lines, doesn’t show what it felt like. No heart rate, no nervous flicker, no sense of the nation holding its breath.

But you felt it.

Things boiled over to the point that both managers, Antonio Conte and Simone Inzaghi, were sent off. Not in the same stadium, not even in the same region. Yet both were overcome. With one match left, the title still very much undecided, neither coach will be on the touchline.

And really, in that kind of atmosphere, how could they have kept cool?

For Napoli, the title should have been sealed by now. Their fixtures looked manageable. But by the time they trudged back into the dressing room at half-time away to Parma, they were temporarily second. Inter were ahead in their game against Lazio. Napoli’s match was goalless.

Nothing would fall for them.

Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa rattled the post. Matteo Politano’s cross kissed the bar. Zion Suzuki tipped a Scott McTominay free kick onto the frame of the goal. Those tiny margins, those few inches, they were the space between Napoli and glory.

Inter, meanwhile, started to believe again.

Just a few weeks ago, their title hopes were in tatters. A loss to Bologna on the same pitch where they had collapsed in 2022. A Coppa Italia exit to Milan. A league defeat to Roma. It looked like their season had folded.

Inzaghi had to juggle those disappointments with a draining Champions League semi-final against Barcelona. He played the reserves in Serie A. The players he had not trusted much all year. Surely they would stumble. Maybe against Verona. Maybe Torino. But instead, they won both.

Suddenly, Napoli could feel their breath on their necks.

Conte, reflecting on last week’s 2-2 draw with Genoa, tried to paint a more comforting image. “The cake was ready,” he said. “All that was missing was the cherry on top.”

Then came Sunday night.

At 9:47pm, it felt like Inter had picked up the dessert.

Yann Bisseck scored in first-half stoppage time at San Siro. Back in the away dressing room at the Ennio Tardini, Napoli found out. Conte’s voice might as well have been replaced by buzzing phones and crackling radios. They had to score now. Or hope Lazio, who had lost 6-0 to Inter earlier this season, pulled something off.

Out warming up for Lazio was Pedro. A veteran. A player Conte once managed and won the Premier League with at Chelsea.

Then he delivered.

Pedro scored twice. The first was ruled out, then reinstated. The second was a penalty the referee missed, but VAR didn’t. Pedro didn’t either.

“His eighth and ninth goals from the bench this season,” the stats would later show. No one in Europe’s top five leagues has more.

Napoli fans in Parma went wild. It was as though one of their own had struck. Blue smoke floated into the night.

But the story didn’t stop there.

Inter, just like they did against Barcelona in that wild semi-final, surged again.

Francesco Acerbi, who had moved forward like a makeshift striker in that European tie, was back in the opposition box in stoppage time. His knockdown found Marko Arnautovic, who missed a golden chance. Then scored, only for the goal to be disallowed.

The title race was as breathless as the Imola Grand Prix earlier that day. Inter were ahead, but had to hand the lead back.

Napoli had been playing on edge all night, afraid of losing their grip. Just when they had a late chance to make things safe, a penalty won by David Neres, it all came undone again.

The referee gave it. Then VAR flagged a foul by Giovanni Simeone in the build-up. He went to the monitor. Decision overturned.

Hearts pounded across Italy.

That goalless draw meant Parma aren’t safe yet. Cagliari’s 3-0 win over Venezia sealed their survival. Juventus beat Udinese 2-0 and now control their Champions League fate. Lazio’s draw and Roma’s 3-1 win over Milan kept both in the running for fourth place.

Elsewhere, Claudio Ranieri’s final home game, probably, as Roma boss brought heartfelt scenes. A beautifully choreographed Curva Sud tribute. A warm, emotional speech from the 73-year-old. Any other week, it would have been the main story. This was not any other week.

Serie A will go to the final day once again.

Because there’s still a chance the top two could finish level on points, which would trigger a Serie A title play-off, and with Inter set to play in the Champions League final on May 31, the decision has been made to hold the season finale on a Friday night. It’s a first in league history. Not since Bologna met Inter in 1964 has there been title play-off, over half a century ago. 

People keep asking which league is best. Spain. England. Germany.

Italy’s top division has now seen four different champions in five years. Two of those seasons went all the way to the wire.

The evidence is mounting.

No one does last-day drama quite like Serie A. No league mixes chaos and beauty quite so well.

If you want a story with everything, you are already watching the right one.