Napoli crumble at Torino, AC Milan defeat Empoli

MILAN: Napoli’s nightmare season continued on Sunday after crashing to a 3-0 defeat at Torino, while AC Milan consolidated their place in Serie A’s Champions League positions with a 3-0 win at Empoli. Livid Napoli fans launched flares onto the pitch at the Stadio Olimpico Grande Torino during a humiliating loss for the troubled champions, who have sunk down to ninth place.

Last season’s historic Scudetto has now been forgotten as Napoli plunge deeper into crisis with each passing week, their third defeat in four matches in all competitions fully deserved after a shambolic display in Turin.

Without Nigeria striker Victor Osimhen, Walter Mazzerri’s side failed to score for the fourth straight match and are completely unrecognisable from the team which cruised to title glory last term. Napoli are a full 20 points behind league leaders Inter Milan and are closer to the relegation zone than the top of the table.

Antonio Sanabria got the ball rolling two minutes before the break when he rolled home from close range, and things went from bad to worse in the 50th minute when debutant Pasquale Mazzocchi was sent off for a wild challenge on Valentino Lazaro.

Mazzocchi, who signed from Salernitana on Friday, had only been on the field since the start of the second half and two minutes later Nikola Vlasic doubled Torino’s lead with a brilliant low strike from outside the area.

Napoli were all over the place and they should have been three down just after the hour mark when Sanabria hit the post and Duvan Zapata somehow didn’t finish on the rebound. However Alessandro Buongiorno made sure of an emphatic victory in the 66th minute when he thumped a bullet header past Pierluigi Gollini.

A sumptuous early strike from Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Olivier Giroud’s 31st minute penalty set third-placed Milan on the way to a win which was sealed by Chaka Traore with two minutes remaining. Missing a host of players to injury and the Africa Cup of Nations, Milan took advantage of their closest rivals for the top four dropping points.