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.

Giovanni Di Lorenzo made sure Napoli will stay top of Serie A this weekend after firing the winner in Saturday’s 1-0 victory over Lecce to move his team five points clear. Captain Di Lorenzo bundled home the only goal of a scrappy game in Naples after Scott McTominay’s header from a corner was saved by Lecce goalkeeper Wladimiro Falcone, giving Napoli their fourth win in as many matches. The Italy full-back’s third goal of the season for Napoli came after he was denied in the first half when his close-range finish was rightly ruled out for offside.

Napoli are comfortably ahead of second-placed Inter Milan, who host Juventus on Sunday in the biggest match to date of their league title defence.

“It was a really important match for us, we tried in every way possible to score and in the end we managed to do it,” said Di Lorenzo to DAZN.

Antonio Conte’s side created little else against spirited Lecce, who remain second from bottom on five points after a fourth straight defeat, as Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Matteo Politano started on the bench.

Romelu Lukaku fluffed Napoli’s best chance of the match when he skied over from inside the six-yard box nine minutes after half-time, and the hosts were panicky in the final minutes as Lecce pushed for a leveller.

Lecce came into the match on the back of last weekend’s 6-0 home hammering at the hands of Fiorentina which put coach Luca Gotti’s job at risk but went toe-to-toe with Napoli and on another day could have easily left with a point.

“I don’t like to lose, even with our heads held high,” said Gotti.

“But I’ll take the attitude of our players today, let’s hope we can take it into the coming matches.”

Gasperini’s 400th match

On Tuesday, Napoli travel to the San Siro to face AC Milan, who sit sixth and will not play this weekend after Saturday’s match at Bologna was postponed due to torrential rain and flooding.

Bologna and its surrounding areas are still reeling from a massive downpour over last weekend which claimed the life of a 20-year-old man.

On Friday Serie A president Lorenzo Casini said the match would likely be played in February due to the two clubs’ Champions League commitments and Milan’s involvement in the four-team Italian Super Cup which will be played in Saudi Arabia in early January.

Atalanta celebrated Gian Piero Gasperini’s 400th match as coach by destroying Verona 6-1 with a stunning display in which they raced into a five-goal lead in just over half an hour.

Marten de Roon, Charles De Ketelaere and doubles from Serie A top scorer Mateo Retegui and Ademola Lookman fired Atalanta up to fourth, level on 16 points with Juventus, and made up for Wednesday’s frustrating goalless draw with Celtic in the Champions League.

“We were disappointed with the Celtic game as we created loads. Today we scored plenty of goals,” said Retegui who has scored 10 times in his first nine league matches with Atalanta.

“It’s down to the faith shown in me by the lads and the fans. I’ve got a lot of teammates with a lot of experience who have helped me integrate well in the team.”

The hosts went ahead in the sixth minute when De Roon thumped home Lookman’s cross, and the match was effectively over by the 14th minute after Retegui and De Ketelaere both curled in fine left-footed strikes.

Verona got the treatment Celtic should have suffered and coach Paolo Zanetti looked shellshocked on the sidelines as Lookman first skipped past three players and drilled home at the near post before tapping in Ederson‘s low cross in the 34th minute.

Amin Sarr scored a consolation goal in the 42nd minute and Atalanta took their foot off the gas after the break, only adding to their score once through a Retegui tap-in.

Stefano Pioli’s team trail runaway league leaders Inter Milan by 13 points.© AFP