SSC Napoli on Sunday stayed on the heels of Serie A leaders Inter after beating AC Milan 2-1 to remain three points off the pace in the race for the scudetto.
Antonio Conte’s side were ahead with a minute on the clock through Matteo Politano’s thumping low finish and once Romelu Lukaku scuffed in his 400th career goal in the 19th minute the hosts had a big enough cushion to claim the three points.
Sunday’s win was huge for Napoli as next week’s fixture at fourth-placed Bologna is the only one of their final eight league matches against a team in the top half of the division and unlike Inter, who squeezed past Udinese 2-1 earlier on Sunday, Napoli have no European or Coppa Italia commitments and can focus exclusively on trying to win their second league crown in three seasons.
Photo: Reuters
“We can only to take it one game at a time,” Politano told DAZN. “We believe in ourselves, we have to try to make our fantastic fans happy and then we’ll see where we are at the end of the season.”
Milan, who lost Ruben Loftus-Cheek to acute appendicitis, were dismal in the first half, but the introduction of Rafael Leao and Santiago Gimenez after the break helped shake Sergio Conceicao’s team from their stupor.
Gimenez could have cut the gap from the penalty spot in the 69th minute, but Alex Meret saved his low effort, following a foul on Theo Hernandez by Philip Billing.
Another substitute, Luka Jovic, pushed home Hernandez’s low cross with six minutes to go, but Milan stay ninth and nine points away from the UEFA Champions League positions after leaving it too late to mount a comeback.
Milan now face Inter in the first leg of their Coppa Italia semi-final tomorrow before ACF Fiorentina visit the San Siro next weekend, with their Champions League hopes hanging by a thread.
“We were too slow to get into the game, the first pass they sent forward led to their first goal,” Conceicao told DAZN. “It wasn’t the opening 20 minutes we prepared ... we fixed some things in the second half and created lots of chances. I think a draw would have been a fair result.”
Goals in the opening half an hour from Marko Arnautovic and Davide Frattesi were just enough to give Inter their third straight win ahead of the Coppa derby with Milan, but nervy Inter almost threw the points away after coach Simone Inzaghi made a series of changes midway through the second half and Oumar Solet halved the deficit for Udinese with a rocket of a shot in the 71st minute.
Inter have a huge month coming up as they also face a titanic Champions League quarter-final with Bayern Munich, and tricky fixtures with fourth-placed Bologna and AS Roma which could be crucial to their title defense.
“We almost failed to win a match which we started really well. At a certain point we just stopped playing,” said Inzaghi, who was sent off after blowing his top at his team and officials in the final minutes.
Inzaghi would be happy to have seen second-string players step up given his team’s upcoming commitments, with Arnautovic and Frattesi giving Inter a deserved two-goal lead at halftime by sweeping home Federico Dimarco crosses in the 12th and 29th minutes.
Inter have also all but ended Atalanta BC’s slim hopes of winning their first league crown, with the Bergamo outfit nine points off the pace with eight matches remaining after slumping to a 1-0 defeat at Fiorentina.
Moise Kean inflicted a first league away defeat for Atalanta since August last year when he confidently netted his 16th league goal of the season on the stroke of halftime after robbing Isak Hien on the halfway line.
“We lacked the dynamism and energy to give Fiorentina any difficulty ... we just have to put it behind us and look ahead,” Atalanta head coach Gian Piero Gasperini said.
Cagliari strengthened their bid to avoid relegation by thumping rock-bottom AC Monza 3-0 and moving six points clear of the drop zone.
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