Football – Naples blows on the neck of AC Milan
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The “Partenopei” won against Atalanta Bergamo by Remo Freuler (2-1). A result that replaces them on equal points with the Milan leader, opposed to Bologna on Monday.
Inter Milan maintained their scudetto dreams by emerging victorious from a burning Italian derby against Juventus (1-0), decided by a penalty from Hakan Calhanoglu just before the break, Sunday during the 31st day of A series.
The Nerazzurri (3rd), threatened with being ejected from the podium in the event of defeat, were able to respond to the physical challenge imposed for 90 minutes by a dominating Juventus (4th), who multiplied the opportunities but hit twice the quantities.
Success had chosen the Inter camp, victorious thanks to an incredible episode of VAR and missed penalty then withdrawn, which lasted seven minutes at the end of the first period.
Bianconero goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny couldn’t do anything on Hakan Calhanoglu’s second attempt (45 + 5th), after stopping the Turkish’s first. The VAR, which had already intervened to show the fault of Alvaro Morata having escaped the referee, had again invited itself between the two shots to signal that the Turin defender Matthijs De Ligt had entered the surface too early.
With this prestigious success in Turin, Inter Milan, struggling for a few weeks, is reviving in the title race, remaining three points behind the co-leaders, AC Milan, who plays Monday against Bologna, and Naples , Sunday winner of Atalanta (3-1). The Nerazzurri still have a late game to play in Bologna.
Napoli met the pressure
Naples, beautiful winner of Atalanta (3-1) Sunday in Bergamo, put pressure on AC Milan by returning to equal points at the top of Serie A, pending the match of the Rossoneri against Bologna on Monday at the end of the 31st day.
Lorenzo Insigne, more successful with the Naples jersey than under that of the Nazionale deprived of Mondial 2022, put his team in orbit in the first period with two decisive kicks. The captain first transformed into force a penalty obtained by Dries Mertens, after a late exit from the goalkeeper of the “Dea” Juan Musso (14th). He then took advantage of a Bergamasque defense at a standstill to quickly take a free kick volleyed victoriously by another Italian international, Matteo Politano (37th).
After the exit of Insigne, the Macedonian Eljif Elmas ensured the success of the “Partenopei” against (81st), while Atalanta had reversed the debates thanks to a header from Marten De Roon (58th).
The victory puts Napoli in a position to regain the lead on Monday evening if Milan loses against Bologna. The two co-leaders (66 points) are in perfect equality with the particular difference, main criterion to decide between the formations with equal points in Italy, but the Neapolitans would be in front with the general difference.
“The Shield? We believe in it, we always believed in it”, an insured on DAZN Lorenzo Insigne, decided to leave Napoli at the end of the season (to join Toronto) on a championship title, which would be the first since the two obtained at the time Maradona (1987, 1990). The Italian winger took the opportunity to ask “forgiveness to the supporters” of the Nazionale after the non-qualification for the World Cup in Qatar, after the defeat against North Macedonia (0-1).
Atalante confirms its big difficulties at home with this fifth defeat (for six draws and four successes). Gian Piero Gasperini’s team, despite the overall control of the ball, was beaten in the liveliness by a Napoli yet deprived of two key elements: their striker Victor Osimhen, suspended, and their side Giovanni Di Lorenzo, injured.
In slow motion since the start of 2022, Atalanta (7th) has almost given up all hope of seeing the Champions League again, the competition it has played in for the past three seasons, and will have to whip to save a European place in the four-way match with Lazio (5th), Roma (6th) and Fiorentina (8th). Not the ideal preparation ahead of the Europa League quarter-final first leg against RB Leipzig.
Cagliari, for its part, sank in Udine (1-5), victim of a hat-trick from the Portuguese Beto, after having nevertheless opened the scoring by Joao Pedro. First non-relegation (17th), the Sardinian club can be joined by Genoa (18th and first relegation) if successful Monday in Verona.
AS Roma move into the top 5
Behind the detached top 4, to whom the four tickets for the Champions League seem promised, the fight remains open for runners-up in the Europa League (5th or even 6th depending on the winner of the Italian Cup) and in the Conference Europa League ( 6th or 7th).
AS Roma won on the field of Sampdoria Genoa (1-0), stretching their unbeaten streak in Serie A to ten games, and moved into fifth place, qualifying for the Europa League. After the defeat of Atalanta, the Giallorossi did not wait to put an option on fifth place, thanks to a goal from Henrikh Mkhitaryan (27th) and a great fighting spirit. The Armenian closely concluded a nice collective movement from goalkeeper Rui Patricio and passed through the left lane between the feet of the young side who goes up to the Giallorossi, Nicola Zalewski (20 years old).
The “serial scorer” Tammy Abraham did not score this time, even missing an incredible opportunity to put the Giallorossi away before the break after intercepting a back pass from a “Samp” defender. The Romans were then able to resist the final push from Fabio Quagliarella and Francesco Caputo well. José Mourinho’s men are two steps ahead of Lazio (6th), three over Atalanta (7th) and four over Fiorentina (8th), knowing that Bergamasques and Florentines are one game behind.
Fiorentina remain in the race after their victory in the Tuscan derby against Empoli (1-0). Everything was decided at the start of the second half with the exclusion of Empoli defender Sebastiano Luperto, behind the Argentinian winger of Viola Nicolas Gonzalez. Which scored a few seconds later on the free kick born of this fault (58th).
(AFP)