Goals by Lorenzo Insigne and Gonazalo Higuain saw SSC Napoli to a precious 2-1 win over Juventus on Saturday and compounded the champions’ poor start to the season days before a crucial UEFA Champions League fixture against Sevilla.
Juventus had earned their only points from a win and two draws in their five opening games before traveling to a Napoli side that had hit 10 goals in their previous three outings, including a 5-0 UEFA Europa League win over Club Brugge KV.
After conceding their third defeat of the season, Juve coach Massimiliano Allegri admitted fighting for the title this season has just become more difficult.
Photo: Reuters
“I don’t know about our chances of winning the title now, but we’ll be fighting all the way for every point,” Allegri told Sky Sport. “We’re in a difficult moment, but it’s a long tournament and we have a break for international duty coming up soon.”
Napoli coach Maurizio Sarri applauded his side.
“We showed a lot of determination and character. Even after Juve’s goal, we kept to our game plan,” Sarri said.
Allegri gambled by leaving striker Alvaro Morata on the bench and with Mario Mandzukic sidelined through injury it meant starts for Simone Zaza and Paulo Dybala.
Napoli, looking for just their second league win under new coach Sarri, deployed their new-look 4-3-3 with Insigne, Higuain and Jose Callejon spearheading an attack that kept the visitors on their toes throughout a pulsating encounter at the Stadio San Paolo.
While Zaza showed promise in the early exchanges, he was all too often ruled offside after seeing a great chance pushed to safety by Pepe Reina.
Insigne broke the deadlock in style in the 26th minute to send the stadium into raptures.
Pouncing on a Mario Lemina error outside the penalty area, Insigne found Higuain with a pinpoint pass, which the Argentine fired back into the Italian’s path and he beat Gianluigi Buffon with a low shot from outside the area.
Napoli could have doubled their lead on the stroke of halftime when Marek Hamsik found Faouzi Ghoulam with a defense-splitting pass, but Buffon did well to parry the Algerian’s drive across goal as Higuain lurked at the back post.
From the highs of reaching last season’s UEFA Champions League final, having already sealed a first league and Cup double in 20 years, Juventus have come back to earth with a bump in recent weeks.
Despite an improved second half, the champions struggled and mistakes proved costly.
Higuain, who hit a brace in a 5-0 rout of SS Lazio last week, doubled Napoli’s lead on the hour mark after Hernanes gave up possession, the Argentine pouncing and powering down the left flank to beat Buffon down low.
Juventus refused to buckle and barely a minute later the visitors reduced the arrears when Lemina latched on to Dybala’s cross from the left to squeeze the ball past Reina from a tight angle.
Morata replaced Dybala with 20 minutes to play and soon after fired just wide of Reina’s far post after collecting Roberto Pereyra’s ball on the edge of the area.
Juve pressed for a late equalizer, but were instead handed a third defeat of the season that left them 10 points behind leaders Inter ahead of their home clash with ACF Fiorentina yesterday.
AS Roma warmed up for their UEFA Champions League clash at BATE Borisov with a comprehensive 5-1 win over promoted Carpi to move to within four points of Inter.
Rudi Garcia’s Serie A title challengers began their Group E campaign with a hard-fought 1-1 home draw against defending champions Barcelona two weeks ago.
Days before their trip to Belarus, no less than five different Roma players hit the net in a one-sided performance that also saw goalkeeper Morgan de Sanctis save a penalty for the hosts.
However, Garcia could be made to sweat on the fitness of Francesco Totti, Seydou Keita and Edin Dzeko after all three were forced off with suspected knocks.
“Having three players come off within 55 minutes means it was a costly victory,” Garcia said.
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