Roma reclaim 3rd spot, Spezia earn shock victory over Milan
ROME: French midfielder Jordan Veretout struck twice on Sunday as Roma beat Udinese 3-0 to climb back to third in Serie A.
Atalanta moved up to seventh, level on points with fith-placed Napoli, ater Luis Muriel scored in the 90th minute to earn a 1-0 victory at Cagliari.
One week ater losing to Juventus, who jumped into third, Roma took advantage of the reigning champions’ loss to Napoli on Saturday night.
Roma continued their strong form at the Stadio Olimpico even without Edin Dzeko, who returned from his brief exile when he came on for the last 21 minutes. They are the only team in Serie A unbeaten at home this season.
Veretout put Roma ahead ater five minutes, racing forward to meet a cross from Gianluca Mancini with a powerful header.
Ater visiting goalkeeper Juan Musso upended Henrikh Mkhitaryan in the 25th minute, Veretout converted the penalty.
It was Veretout’s fourth succesful penalty and ninth league goal of the season.
Spezia felled another Serie A giant as they shocked league leaders AC Milan with a dominant display in a 2-0 victory on Saturday.
Having already beaten AS Roma in the Coppa Italia and Napoli in the league since the turn of the year, Spezia, making their Serie A debut this season, scored twice through Giulio Maggiore and Simone Bastoni, both in the second half, to seal a surprise success.
Milan never got going and finished the match without having had a shot on target, while being completely outplayed by their opponents.
Spezia saw out the win with ease to move up to 14th in the standings on 24 points.
It has been quite the week for Spezia, who were taken over by an American consortium on Thursday, and celebrated by puting Milan to the sword.
Milan were off colour in the first half, with Zlatan Ibrahimovic cuting a frustrated figure at the service he was geting, and even with five second-half substitutions, chances remained few and far between for the visitors ater the break.
Captain Maggiore finished off a fine move to give the hosts a deserved lead in the 56th minute, before Bastoni arrowed a fantastic second into the top corner 11 minutes later to spark jubilant scenes on the home bench.
Spezia have now picked up more Serie A points against sides currently in the top half of the table (13) than against teams in the botom half.
NAPOLI STALLS JUVE’S TITLE PUSH: Spezia’s win means that Juventus’ title bid is still just about on course despite Lorenzo Insigne scoring his 100th Napoli goal in a 1-0 win over the champions.
Italy atacker Insigne’s 31st-minute penalty secured a big three points for Napoli coach Gennaro Gatuso, whose job is widely reported to be under threat ater a poor run of results.
“We’re happy with the result but most of all the display, because we worked as a team and fought together... We’re still a united team and we brought the win home,” said Insigne, who had missed his previous three penalties against Juve.