Napoli extend Serie A lead

… as Milan frustrated in stalemate against struggling Cremonese

NAPOLI extended their lead at the top of Serie A to eight points yesterday after beating Empoli 2-0 to claim their 10th straight league win, before nearest challengers AC Milan drew 0-0 with struggling Cremonese.

Hirving Lozano’s 69th-minute spot-kick and a neat late finish from Piotr Zielinski ensured hosts Napoli made their way past a resilient Empoli side and moved further ahead of Milan, whose title defence is faltering.

Napoli now have an ominous lead on the rest of the league heading into the final matches of 2022 this weekend, as they hunt their first league title in over three decades.

“The road ahead is still long and there are many pitfalls. We need to stay at it and be aware of the importance of the challenges ahead of us,” said coach Luciano Spalletti to DAZN.

Empoli, who finished with 10 men as Sebastiano Luperto picked up a second booking shortly after Lozano’s goal, stay 14th and seven points above the relegation zone.

The Tuscans beat Napoli twice last season and all-but ended their Scudetto challenge in April when they came back from two goals behind to stun Spalletti’s side.

And yesterday they frustrated Napoli, who were without injured wing wizard Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, for large periods of the match.

Napoli were awarded their soft penalty after Razvan Marin was judged to have fouled Victor Osimhen, five minutes after the Nigeria striker had headed over the home side’s only previous real chance.

“I’d rather not talk about the penalty,” Empoli coach Paolo Zanetti said later.

“The contact didn’t seem that obvious as to be a penalty but the referee saw it that way and there’s nothing we can do about it.”

Luperto’s sending off effectively ended Empoli’s challenge and Zielinski sent the Stadio Maradona into party mode with two minutes left when he perfectly met Lozano’s cross with a first-time strike which opened his league account for the campaign.

Milan were held to a 0-0 draw at Cremonese in Serie A yesterday as Stefano Pioli’s men wasted several clear-cut chances to score.

Both teams sat back in the opening stages before Milan gradually started dominating possession. However, neither team found the net in the first half despite several chances for the visitors.

“We could have done more. We played OK in the first half but the second half wasn’t good enough,” Pioli said to DAZN.

“We should have created more, there should have been more movement, we shouldn’t have been so sloppy technically. We didn’t create the amount of chances we needed to be more dangerous.”

Udinese’s slump in results continued after drawing 1-1 at Spezia, their fifth draw in a sixmatch winless run which has left them eighth ahead of their trip to Napoli on Saturday. – AFP/Reuters