Napoli extended their lead at the top of Serie A to four points on Sunday after beating lowly Verona 2-0 as champions Inter Milan moved second with a 1-0 success at Venezia. An early own goal from Verona goalkeeper Lorenzo Montipo and Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa’s second-half rocket ensured that Napoli took advantage of Atalanta being held to a goalless draw at Udinese on Saturday and strengthened their bid for a second league title in three seasons. Napoli’s lead isn’t as imposing as it looks, however, as Inter have two games in hand, the first of which is against Bologna at the San Siro on Wednesday.
Atalanta, who are a further point back in third, also have an extra fixture to play due to their participation in the Italian Super Cup in Saudi Arabia and host Juventus on Tuesday before Napoli travel to Bergamo for a huge clash next weekend.
“There’s been a big change in the team since the summer… I can see the machinery starting to work better and better and that’s a point of pride for me and the boys,” said Napoli coach Antonio Conte.
Montipo could do nothing about either Napoli goal as Giovanni Di Lorenzo’s fifth-minute shot crashed out off the post, hit his back and then crept over the line.
And he barely saw Anguissa’s screamer whizz past him at his near post in the 62nd minute after the Cameroon midfielder exchanged passes with Romelu Lukaku.
But it was partly down to Montipo that Napoli didn’t win by more, as the 28-year-old made a couple of fine stops on Scott McTominay and David Neres in a attacking barrage from the hosts at the start of the second half, while defender Amir Rrahmani also had a header cleared off the line.
Napoli are a different team to the one hammered 3-0 by Verona on the opening day of the season, even without star winger Khvicha Kvaratskhelia who has asked the club to be sold amid reports of a 80-million-euro ($82 million) transfer to Paris Saint-Germain.
Neres is usually Matteo Politano’s replacement on the right wing but proved to be a decent substitute for the Georgian on the other flank, helping Napoli stay on the front foot and ahead of the chasing pack.
Inter on a roll
Matteo Darmian shot injury-hit Inter to victory on the Venetian Lagoon with the only goal of the game in the 16th minute.
Italy defender Darmian tapped home his second goal of the season on the rebound after Lautaro Martinez‘s shot was kept out by Venezia goalkeeper and Inter loanee Filip Stankovic.
“We work on getting up the pitch and it doesn’t matter who gets there. I found myself in front of goal and thankfully I managed to score and help the team win,” said Darmian.
Inter have had problems closing out matches this season and Sunday’s narrow win, their sixth on the bounce in Serie A, came after Simone Inzaghi’s side threw away a two-goal lead in the Italian Super Cup final against AC Milan.
The away side dominated and should have won by more despite having Italy defender Francesco Acerbi and key midfielders Hakan Calhanoglu and Henrikh Mkhitaryan out injured, with Marcus Thuram, Benjamin Pavard and Federico Dimarco all starting on the bench.
But Stankovic, the son of Inter legend Dejan, was excellent between the sticks and his brilliant save from Davide Frattesi in the 67th minute almost paid off moments later when the post denied USA midfielder Gianluca Busio and allowed Inter to escape with all three points.
“It wasn’t easy after losing the final the way we did, but the boys were brilliant because we came here tired with a host of players out and we played really well,” said Inzaghi.
Earlier Genoa continued their revival under Patrick Vieira with their first home win of the season, 1-0 over relegation rivals Parma, in front of new majority shareholder Dan Sucu.
Genoa are up to 11th on 23 points, a point behind Roma who snatched a last-gasp 2-2 draw at Bologna thanks to a controversial Artem Dovbyk penalty in the eighth minute of stoppage time.
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