Mertens brace conquers Roma, boosts Juve title bid
MILAN: Napoli’s Dries Mertens hit a brace in a thrilling 2-1 win at Roma that prompted Giallorossi coach Luciano Spalletti to virtually concede the Serie A title race to Juventus on Saturday.
“We have to be realistic. For us it’s now almost impossible to catch Juventus,” said Spalletti after a morale-crushing defeat that could leave Roma 10 points adrift in second place if the Turin giants beat Udinese away on Sunday.
Belgium midfielder Mertens was given the nod ahead of striker Arkadiusz Milik despite the Poland star’s recent return from a fivemonth injury lay-off.
And coach Maurizio Sarri’s intuition to keep deploying the Belgian midfielder as his main striker was proved right during an end-to-end thrill-fest that saw Napoli soak up long spells of pressure before seeing Mertens punish Roma’s leaky defence.
Napoli took a 1-0 lead into halftime at the Stadio Olimpico after Mertens struck against the run of play to flick the ball over onrushing Wojciech Szczesny on 26 minutes.
Mertens completed his brace, taking his league tally for the season to 18 goals, five minutes into the second half with another cool finish following Lorenzo Insigne’s inswinger towards the back post.
When Kevin Strootman reduced the arrears on 89 minutes it sparked a dramatic late fightback from Roma that saw Pepe Reina acrobatically palm Diego Perotti’s deflected drive off the crossbar before clearing with his leg.
But Napoli, who saw Sarri sent to the stands for dissent midway through the second period, held on for a valuable win.
After virtually dropping out of title contention last week following a 2-0 defeat to Atalanta which left them trailing Juventus by 12 points, Napoli are now just two points behind Spalletti’s men in the race for the second automatic Champions League spot.
Napoli maintained a recentlyimposed media blackout, but Sarri didn’t need to sing Mertens’ or Napoli’s praises -- Spalletti and one of his players did it instead.
“They were much better than us in terms of speed and passing the ball around,” added Spalletti. “In the first half we couldn’t go any faster, and they made it difficult for us to win back possession.”
“We almost came back to grab a draw but they were better than us,” Perotti told Premium Sport.
Napoli’s win is a potential setback for the few teams hoping a lateseason charge will secure a thirdplace finish and possible entry to the Champions League.
Surprise packages Atalanta are six points behind Napoli before hosting Fiorentina, with Lazio just one point further behind in fifth before travelling to Bologna.
Inter Milan, two points shy of Lazio in seventh place but now two points behind city rivals AC Milan after their 3-1 win at home to Chievo, face Cagliari away on Sunday.
Even before Napoli’s win at Roma took their lead over Inter to nine points, Nerazzurri coach Stefano Pioli expressed his doubts over qualifying for the Champions League for the first time since 2012.
“I couldn’t say,” Pioli said Friday. “Because it doesn’t just depend on us. Now, our focus is on Cagliari, where it won’t be easy to win.”
At a rain-hit San Siro on Saturday, Colombia striker Carlos Bacca went from hero to zero then back again as Milan edged Chievo.