Back in the big time: Empoli ensures immediate return to Serie A

Empoli won the Serie B title - and more importantly, a one-way ticket to the top flight - thanks to a combination of results on Saturday.

Even though the Tuscan outfit mustered a measly 1-1 draw at home to relegation-threatened Novara, a pair of slip-ups by promotion hopefuls Parma and Frosinone afforded Empoli an insurmountable 14-point lead at the top of the table.

The club's stay in the second division lasted just a single season after being demoted from Serie A at the end of the 2016-17 campaign.

Aurelio Andreazzoli's men picked the right time to go 24 matches unbeaten, with wins against heavy promotion candidates in that span.

Andreazzoli, a former assistant coach at AS Roma, only took over last December after the firing of Vincenzo Viviani.

Empoli's attack - by the far most prolific in Serie B with 82 goals in 38 contests - proceeded to make mincemeat of the league's elite. There were four-goal performances against Bari, Palermo, Parma, and Frosinone, with frontmen Alfredo Donnarumma and Francesco Caputo running riot during that magnificent run.

Donnarumma and Caputo accounted for more than 50 percent of Empoli's tallies this season, and will now try to reproduce their form in the Italian top flight.