Why Atalanta will be rooting for Inter in Coppa Italia final against Lazio

Lazio and Inter will do battle for the 2025-26 Coppa Italia title on Wednesday evening, but tonight’s cup final could also have implications on Serie A and qualification for next season’s UEFA competitions.

Lazio currently find themselves in ninth place in Serie A ahead of tonight’s cup final, against the recently-crowned Scudetto winners, Inter.

Whoever wins the Coppa Italia also earns a spot in next season’s Europa League as a result.

Inter, however, have already booked their spot in next season’s Champions League. If they were to win tonight’s Coppa Italia final, the Serie A top four would all qualify for next season’s Champions League, fifth and sixth place would qualify for the Europa League and seventh place for the Conference League.

However, if Lazio were to pull off an upset, they would claim one of the Europa League spots instead, which means that the Serie A top four would qualify for the Champions League, fifth place (plus Lazio) would qualify for the Europa League, and sixth place for the Conference League.

As things stand, the situation appears to impact Atalanta, currently seventh in Serie A, more than anybody.

La Dea are almost guaranteed to finish the 2025-26 Serie A season in seventh place: They are unable to catch the sixth-placed Como, who are seven points above them with two games to go, and Bologna are now six points behind them heading into the final two league matches of the campaign.

If Inter were to win in the Coppa Italia final, Atalanta would almost certainly earn themselves a spot in next season’s Conference League, however, if Lazio win this evening, then Atalanta will definitely be denied a spot in Europe next season.

Given that there are only three points separating four sides from third down to sixth place in the Serie A table, Como, Roma, Milan and even Juventus will be keeping an eye on tonight’s final.