Edoardo Bove is stable in hospital after his harrowing and sudden collapse which caused Fiorentina’s Serie A clash with champions Inter Milan to be suspended on Sunday, as Scott McTominay kept Napoli top in a 1-0 win at Torino. Fiorentina said that midfielder Bove, who suddenly fell to the turf with 16 minutes on the clock and the game still goalless, was under sedation in the intensive care unit at Florence’s Careggi hospital. “Initial cardiological and neurological tests have ruled out severe damage to his central nervous and the cardio-respiratory systems,” said Fiorentina in a joint statement with the hospital.
Fiorentina added that the 22-year-old’s condition will be re-assessed “in the next 24 hours” while family and teammates, who had rushed to his aid and then sobbed as he was stretchered from the Stadio Artemio Franchi field, went to be by his side.
The match will be rescheduled for “an as-yet undetermined date”, as happened when Evan Ndicka fell in a similar manner during Roma’s match at Udinese in April.
Bove’s fall reminded fans of tragic former captain Davide Astori, who in March 2018 died suddenly in his sleep aged 31 in a hotel before a league match at Udinese.
Goalkeeper David de Gea said “God please” on social media where a number of clubs, including Roma from where he was loaned to Fiorentina in August, showed support.
“One of us, we’re all with you. Forza Edo!” Roma said.
Napoli stay top
Napoli are four points ahead of the chasing pack thanks to McTominay’s neat finish in the 31st minute, following a trademark dribble into the area from Khvicha Kvaratskhelia.
McTominay’s winner was his third Serie A goal since signing for Napoli in the summer and the Scotland midfielder is playing a key role in his new team’s bid for a fourth Italian league title.
Napoli would have left Turin with a heftier goal haul had Torino goalkeeper Vanja Milinkovic-Savic not pulled off a series of top class saves.
The Serbia ‘keeper kept out a Romelu Lukaku backheel and Kvaratskhelia’s looping header before McTominay broke the deadlock, and he got down brilliantly to stop both Mathias Olivera’s close-range header in the 65th minute and Giovanni Simeone in stoppage time.
“We attacked them with aggression, much more than usual and it was only Milinkovic-Savic’s performance that stopped us from scoring more,” Napoli coach Antonio Conte told DAZN.
Atalanta can move back to within a point of Napoli with a win at Roma on Monday night.
Lazio lost ground after a frustrating 3-1 defeat at Parma which was inflicted by an early Dennis Man finish, Anas Haj Mohamed’s first Serie A goal and a stoppage-time strike from Enrico Del Prato after Valentin Castellanos had halved the deficit for the away side.
Juve pegged back
Defeat at the Stadio Ennio Tardini snapped a five-match league winning streak and left Marco Baroni’s Lazio fifth, level on 28 points with Inter, Fiorentina and Atalanta, two points ahead of Juventus who were stunned late to draw 1-1 at lowly Lecce.
Ante Rebic poked home Lecce’s leveller in the third minute of stoppage time to snatch a deserved draw from a frantic, largely low-quality clash in southern Italy and move his team two points above the relegation zone in 16th.
Andrea Cambiaso looked to have won the points for unbeaten Juve with his speculative shot in the 68th minute, which was wildly deflected off Kialonda Gaspar and past Lecce goalkeeper Wladimiro Falcone.
Missing nine players through injury, Juve again failed to impress after recent goalless draws at AC Milan and Aston Villa, although Khephren Thuram and Francisco Conceicao both hit the post early on, with Thuram somehow striking the woodwork from the middle of an open goal in the fifth minute.
“You could see in the second half that we were running out of steam… we just need to keep going and learn from our mistakes,” said Juve coach Thiago Motta.
Patrick Vieira won his first match as Genoa coach with a 2-0 success at 10-man Udinese, which moved his new team three points away from the bottom three.
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