Romelu Lukaku’s decisive aim secured Napoli an exciting 3-2 victory over Atalanta on Saturday, extending their Serie A result in six factors, whereas Juventus climbed into the Champions League spots with a 2-0 win in opposition to AC Milan.
Belgium striker Lukaku nodded house his eighth Napoli aim from Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa’s excellent cross within the 78th minute to offer Antonio Conte’s group a press release win in Bergamo.
Matteo Politano and Scott McTominay additionally scored for Napoli, who’ve 50 factors and have made it clear that they’re now the group to beat on this yr’s title race.
Napoli are gunning for a second Scudetto in three seasons and await the response from champions and closest challengers Inter Milan – who even have a sport in hand – in opposition to struggling Empoli on Sunday.
Lukaku additionally dealt a blow to Atalanta’s unprecedented title bid, because the provincial upstarts fell to their first defeat in Italy’s high flight since late September.
Gian Piero Gasperini’s group took the lead by way of Serie A’s main scorer Mateo Retegui and appeared on the best way to an enormous win as soon as Ademola Lookman leveled the scores 9 minutes after halftime.
But Atalanta at the moment are seven factors off the title tempo in third after failing to win in 4 matches, with their earlier three all drawn.
Atalanta even have Champions League soccer to take care of and face Sturm Graz and Barcelona within the subsequent 10 days whereas Napoli don’t have any European distractions because of their disastrous title protection final season.
Juve sink sorry Milan
Goals in 5 second-half minutes from Samuel Mbangula and Timothy Weah gave Juventus a deserved win in Turin which pushed Thiago Motta’s facet as much as fourth.
Unbeaten Juve snapped a run of three straight attracts which had taken their tally of league stalemates to 13, with Saturday’s win simply their eighth in 21 fixtures in Italy’s high flight.
Substitute Weah emulated his father within the sixty fourth minute by netting in a Juventus match with Milan 25 years after Ballon d’Or-winner George Weah did the identical – for Milan in opposition to Juve.
“The boys are growing, match after match, and getting to the point that they can put in a performance like the one they did tonight,” mentioned Motta.
“That’s because they all work really hard every day … today’s win is the reward.”
Milan keep eighth and at the moment are six factors from the highest 4, albeit with a sport in hand at Bologna which was postponed because of flooding in October and is but to be rescheduled.
Sergio Conceicao’s group had possibilities to open the scoring by way of Tijjani Reijnders and Rafael Leao in an entertaining first half however did not present up for the second interval of a match stuffed with incidents.
The Portuguese known as Milan’s collapse after the break “unjustifiable” and mentioned that “when there’s no desire it’s very difficult for me.”
“I’m the one that has to turn this situation around,” added Conceicao.
The away facet might have simply been forward within the nineteenth minute when Tijjani Reijnders met Theo Hernandez’s sensible low nook with a goal-bound volley which pinballed out for a aim kick.
Bologna continued their resurgence with an easy 3-1 win over Monza, who stay backside of the desk after six defeats in seven matches.
Vincenzo Italiano’s facet bounced again from Daniel Maldini’s fourth-minute opener for the away facet with strikes from Santiago Castro, Jens Odgaard and Riccardo Orsolini, targets which moved Bologna as much as sixth on 33 factors, 4 factors behind Juve.
Source: www.dailysabah.com