Romelu Lukaku fired Napoli six factors clear on the prime of Serie A with the decisive objective in Saturday’s thrilling 3-2 win at title rivals Atalanta, as Juventus beat AC Milan 2-0 to maneuver into the Champions League spots.
Belgium striker Lukaku nodded residence his eighth Napoli objective from Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa’s good cross within the 78th minute to provide Antonio Conte’s staff an announcement 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 staff 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 recreation in hand — towards 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 prime flight since late September.
Gian Piero Gasperini’s staff took the lead by Serie A’s main scorer Mateo Retegui and appeared on the best way to an enormous win as soon as Ademola Lookman levelled the scores 9 minutes after half-time.
However 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 as a consequence of their disastrous title defence final season.
– Juve sink sorry Milan –
Targets in 5 second-half minutes from Samuel Mbangula and Timothy Weah gave Juventus a deserved win in Turin which pushed Thiago Motta’s aspect as much as fourth, a degree forward of Lazio who’re at Verona on Sunday.
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 prime 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 towards Juve.
“The boys are rising, match after match, and attending to the purpose that they’ll put in a efficiency just like the one they did tonight,” stated Motta.
“That is as a result of all of them work actually onerous day-after-day… right this moment’s win is the reward.”
Milan keep eighth and at the moment are six factors from the highest 4, albeit with a recreation in hand at Bologna which was postponed as a consequence of flooding in October and is but to be rescheduled.
Sergio Conceicao’s staff had possibilities to open the scoring by Tijjani Reijnders and Rafael Leao in an entertaining first half however did not present up for the second interval of a match filled with incident.
The Portuguese referred to as Milan’s collapse after the break “unjustifiable” and stated that “when there isn’t any want it is very troublesome for me”.
“I am the one which has to show this example round,” added Conceicao.
The away aspect 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 objective 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 aspect bounced again from Daniel Maldini’s fourth-minute opener for the away aspect with strikes from Santiago Castro, Jens Odgaard and Riccardo Orsolini, objectives which moved Bologna as much as sixth on 33 factors, 4 factors behind Juve.
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