Koulibaly scores Napoli’s late winner to reignite Scudetto race
● Benevento back in Serie B despite Saturday’s win at San Siro
Kalidou Koulibaly scored a late winner to help Napoli win 1-0 at Juventus and reignite the Serie A title race yesterday.
Napoli trailed Juventus by six points last weekend but the Bianconeri drew at Crotone midweek, and two straight wins for Maurizio Sarri's team slashed the lead to a solitary point with four rounds left.
"We have always believed in the title, we have to continue like this and believe in ourselves until the end," Koulibaly said.
"Winning here was practically mission impossible, we can be happy because we have played against a great team which hasn't lost at home for so long."
Juventus arguably has the tougher run-in as it faces Champions League-chasing Inter Milan and Roma as well as Bologna and Hellas Verona.
Napoli plays Fiorentina, Torino, Sampdoria and Crotone.
Earlier, Ciro Immobile scored twice as Lazio beat Sampdoria 40 to keep pace with Roma and ahead of Inter Milan in the race for Champions League spots.
Lazio remained level on points with third-place Roma and a point ahead of Inter, which struggled but won 2-1 at Chievo Verona. None of the teams can catch either Napoli or Juventus. TITLE FIGHT Napoli was aiming to boost its dream of a first title since Diego Maradona led the southern club to its only two Serie A championships in 1987 and 1990.
Its chances seemed to increase when key Juventus defender Giorgio Chiellini limped off in the 10th minute and was replaced by Stephan Lichtsteiner.
However, Napoli struggled to find a way through the Bianconeri back line and it was Juventus which went closest in the 17th minute as Miralem Pjanic's free kick took a deflection off Jose Callejon to leave Pepe Reina stranded but the ball bounced off the right post.
Marek Hamsik went closest for Napoli with an angled drive which flashed just past the right post.
The Allianz Stadium was briefly silenced shortly before halftime when Lorenzo Insigne had the ball in the back of the net but it was ruled out for offside.
Napoli continued to press high and was camped out in the Juventus half for much of the second period but never really tested Gianluigi Buffon until Koulibaly headed in a corner in the 89th minute. TOP SCORER Immobile boosted his bid for the Serie A top goalscorer award with two late goals as Lazio dominated Sampdoria and could have scored more.
The Italy forward tapped in a ball from Sergej Milinkovic-Savic five minutes from time and doubled his tally moments later after running onto Luis Nani's through ball.
Milinkovic-Savic had headed in Stefan Radu's cross in the 32nd minute and Stefan de Vrij headed in a corner 10 minutes later.
Immobile leads Serie A scoring with 29 goals, three more than Inter forward Mauro Icardi. He won the award in 2014 while playing for Torino. INTER RELIEF Inter again had goalkeeper Samir Handanovic to thank as he pulled off a number of saves to maintain the team's Champions League pursuit.
Manuel Pucciarelli also hit the upright as Chievo had several opportunities to take the lead in the first half.
Inter broke the deadlock seven minutes after the break.
Chievo goalkeeper Stefano Sorrentino parried Marcelo Brozovic's strike but Danilo D'Ambrosio rolled the ball across for Icardi to score.
The goal was initially ruled out for offside but was allowed to stand on video review despite Chievo players protesting that they had stopped after seeing the flag raised on D'Ambrosio.
There was no doubt over the second goal, 10 minutes later. Yann Karamoh ran down the right flank before crossing for Rafinha to set up Ivan Perisic, who fired home from close range.
Chievo set up a tense finale when substitute Mariusz Stepinski scored in the final minute.
The hosts almost snatched an equalizer but Nenad Tomovic was unable to steer in Roberto Inglese's header as he came sliding in. OTHER MATCHES Crotone won 2-1 at Udinese to relegate bottom side Benevento, despite its win over AC Milan on Saturday.
Davide Faraoni, who used to play for Udinese, scored a late goal to help Crotone move two points clear of the relegation zone — and level on points with Chievo.
Udinese has just two more points after an 11th successive defeat.
Elsewhere, Cagliari drew 0-0 at home to Bologna and Atalanta beat Torino 2-1 to move above Milan and into the Europa League spots. Serie A
Saturday Spal-AS Roma .................................... 0-3 Sassuolo-Fiorentina .......................... 1-0 AC Milan-Benevento ......................... 0-1 Yesterday Cagliari-Bologna ............................... 0-0 Atalanta-Torino ................................ 2-1 Chievo-Inter ...................................... 1-2 Lazio-Sampdoria ............................... 4-0 Udinese-Crotone ............................... 1-2 Juventus-Napoli ............................... 0-1 Today 20:45 Genoa-Verona Juventus Napoli AS Roma Lazio Inter Atalanta AC Milan Sampdoria Fiorentina Torino Bologna Genoa Sassuolo Cagliari Udinese Chievo Crotone Spal Verona Benevento P W D L F A Pts 34 27 4 3 78 20 85 34 26 6 2 71 23 84 34 20 7 7 55 27 67 34 20 7 7 83 43 67 34 18 12 4 56 23 66 34 15 10 9 52 35 55 34 15 9 10 44 38 54 34 15 6 13 51 53 51 34 14 9 11 47 38 51 34 11 14 9 48 41 47 34 11 6 17 37 44 39 33 10 8 15 26 33 38 34 9 10 15 25 53 37 34 9 6 19 30 56 33 34 10 3 21 43 56 33 34 7 10 17 30 53 31 34 8 7 19 32 59 31 34 5 14 15 30 55 29 33 7 4 22 26 65 25 34 5 2 27 29 78 17
Saturday Brescia-Cesena .................................. 0-0 Cremonese-Ascoli ............................. 1-2 Entella-Pro Vercelli ........................... 3-2 Foggia-Bari ........................................ 1-1 Novara-Venezia ................................ 1-3 Palermo-Avellino .............................. 3-0 Parma-Carpi ...................................... 2-1 Salernitana-Cittadella ....................... 1-3 Yesterday Perugia-Ternana ............................... 2-3 Pescara-Spezia .................................. 3-2 Today 20:30 Frosinone-Empoli Empoli Palermo Parma Frosinone Perugia Venezia Bari Cittadella Foggia Carpi Spezia Brescia Salernitana Cremonese Pescara Novara Avellino Entella Cesena Ascoli Ternana Pro Vercelli P W D L F A Pts 36 21 10 5 78 44 73 37 16 15 6 53 33 63 37 18 9 10 51 34 63 36 16 14 6 57 39 62 37 16 9 12 61 49 57 37 14 15 8 48 36 57 37 15 12 10 52 45 57 37 15 10 12 51 44 55 37 14 9 14 59 60 51 37 12 13 12 31 42 49 37 11 14 12 39 39 47 37 11 13 13 36 42 46 37 9 17 11 45 52 44 37 8 19 10 41 42 43 37 10 12 15 46 62 42 37 10 10 17 38 47 40 37 9 13 15 45 56 40 37 9 13 15 39 50 40 37 8 15 14 51 60 39 37 10 9 18 35 56 39 37 7 16 14 58 65 37 37 7 13 17 43 60 34
Friday Pisa-Pontedera ................................. 3-1 Saturday Arzachena-Livorno ............................ 2-3 Gavorrano-Alessandria ..................... 0-1 Lucchese-Olbia .................................. 3-0 Siena-Cuneo ...................................... 1-0 Carrarese-Pistoiese ........................... 1-1 Monza-Giana Erminio ....................... 1-1 Piacenza-Pro Piacenza ...................... 2-0 Prato-Arezzo ..................................... 0-0
Serie C - Group B
Standings Standings
Yesterday Triestina-Fano ................................... 0-1 Bassano-Gubbio ................................ 0-1 Fermana-Padova ............................... 1-1 Pordenone-Sambenedettese ............ 4-0 Ravenna-Vicenza .............................. 2-0 Santarcangelo-Renate ...................... 0-1 Sudtirol-FeralpiSalo .......................... 3-2 canc Teramo-Modena Today 20:30 AlbinoLeffe-Reggiana
Serie C - Group C
Yesterday Cosenza-Rende ................................. 0-3 Fondi-Catanzaro ............................... 1-1 Paganese-Sicula Leonzio ................... 1-2 Siracusa-Bisceglie .............................. 1-1 Casertana-Juve Stabia ....................... 3-1 Reggina 1914-Akragas ...................... 2-0 Andria-Matera .................................. 0-1 Monopoli-Virtus Francavilla ............. 1-1 Today 20:45 Catania-Trapani