Napoli edge Atalanta to extend Serie A lead
MILAN: Dries Mertens ended a long goal drought to give Napoli a 1-0 victory at Atalanta on Sunday that saw the Serie A leaders move four points clear.
Napoli’s win in the first league game after the winter break extended their lead over secondplaced Juventus ahead of the champions’ clash with Genoa on Monday.
Belgian international Mertens’s 65th-minute strike ended a league dry spell that stretched back to October 29, getting behind the defence and flashing his 11th goal of the season past Atalanta goalkeeper Etrit Berisha.
“He (Mertens) had shown some signs of improvement even without scoring goals, so the drought was relative. It was obvious he’d get back to scoring goals eventually,” said Napoli coach Maurizio Sarri.
There was controversy in added time in Bergamo when Jorginho set up Marek Hamsik to slide the ball inside the far post, only for referee Daniele Orsato to rule it out after spotting the tightest of offsides on video review.
Atalanta are down to eighth after the loss and AC Milan’s 21 win at Cagliari, which came thanks to Franck Kessie scoring twice to drag his team back from a goal down in Sardinia.
Ivorian Kessie equalised from the spot in the 36th minute following an eighth-minute opener from Nicolo Barella, who was sent off with two minutes left.
Kessie collected Nikola Kalinic’s layoff before slotting home the winner six minutes later.
Lazio moved third with a thumping 5-1 win over Chievo in Rome that saw rising star Sergej Milinkovic-Savic bag a fine brace either side of half-time to put Lazio two up, after Chievo’s Manuel Pucciarelli had equalised Luis Alberto’s 23rd-minute longrange opener for the hosts.
Substitute Nani laid on Bastos to fire home a deflected fourth with seven minutes left, before the former Manchester United winger added a fifth three minutes later with a fine hit from the edge of the area. Simone Inzaghi’s exciting side are Serie A’s top scorers with 53 goals following the win and are a point ahead of Inter Milan, who host fifth-placed Roma later on Sunday.
“The boys are enjoying themselves, when we manage to go ahead we often score a lot of goals and that is a great hallmark,” said Inzaghi, whose team won emphatically despite having Serie A top scorer Ciro Immobile limp off with a muscle injury after 35 minutes.
“Even without Immobile we did well. It shouldn’t be anything serious but we might lose him for a few matches.”
Sampdoria are three points ahead of Atalanta in sixth after Fabio Quagliarella fired an excellent hat-trick to down Fiorentina 3-1 in Genoa.
The 34-year-old Italian is enjoying something of an Indian summer and scored in the 30th, 60th and 68th minutes to continue Sampdoria’s fine home record that has seen them gather 24 of their 33 points at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris.
“I am in an environment that I like a lot, a team in which I have a lot of fun and everything else comes from that,” said Quagliarella, who has scored 15 times in 20 league appearances.
Bottom club Benevento’s minirevival came to a crashing halt with a 3-0 beating at Bologna, thanks to goals from Mattia Destro, Sebastien De Maio and Blerim Dzemaili.
Benevento had won two games in a row -- there first ever Serie A successes -- going into the winter break but remain on seven points and are now 11 points from safety after Crotone’s 3-0 win at secondbottom Verona, which lifted them out of the bottom three.
Elsewhere, Simone Berardi saved a point for Sassuolo with a 11 draw at home to Torino after Obi had given the away side a 26thminute lead, and Udinese played out another 1-1 draw with SPAL, who drop back into the relegation zone despite Sergio Floccari saving a point after Samir’s 11thminute opener.