Hamsik equals Maradona’s Napoli record of 115 goals

Italian football ● Inter’s unbeaten start ends with home defeat against Udinese

Marek Hamsik equaled Diego Maradona's all-time record of 115 goals for Serie A team Napoli yesterday.

Hamsik reached that tally by scoring after 30 minutes in Napoli's 3-1 win at Torino.

"It's a good accomplishment, especially as a midfielder, 115 goals is a good number," Hamsik said.

Dries Mertens controlled the ball in the area and picked out Hamsik, who volleyed into the top right corner for Napoli's third goal.

It has taken the Slovenia midfielder 11 seasons to reach that tally, while Maradona set that mark in seven seasons with Napoli.

The win put Napoli back at the top of the Italian league.

Argentina great Maradona led Napoli to its only two Serie A titles, in 1987 and 1990.

Kalidou Koulibaly had headed Napoli into the lead in the fourth minute and Piotr Zielinski doubled the visitors' tally in the 25th.

Andrea Belotti netted a consolation for Torino shortly after the hour mark.

Inter Milan's undefeated start to the season was brought to an unlikely end yesterday as the Nerazzurri were defeated 3-1 at home by Udinese and went on to lose top spot in Serie A.

Inter captain Mauro Icardi had canceled out Kevin Lasagna's opener but Udinese put in an impressive second-half performance and took the lead through Rodrigo De Paul's penalty before Antonin Barak sealed the result.

"We're obviously disappointed to have lost," Inter coach Luciano Spalletti said. "Maybe it hurts a bit more because it's been a bit of time since our last defeat and we're not used to it anymore.

"It's nothing to do with tiredness. The players seemed physically fine to me even in the second half when we made a lot of mistakes. The difference was we played the ball badly in the second half and made a lot of silly mistakes."

Udinese moved 10 points clear of the relegation zone as its revival under new coach Massimo Oddo continued. Oddo has won three league matches after losing to Napoli in his opening game.

"What has changed since my arrival? No one has a magic wand. We do our work but then it's the lads who go out onto the pitch," Oddo said. "There's still a lot of work to do but we are taking giant steps.

"This team never gives up and always gives everything ... I think that winning at San Siro against Inter, which was first and unbeaten, is more due to how good my team was and not that Inter played badly."

Udinese took the lead in the 14th minute when Silvan Widmer cut inside from the right, dribbled in the area and rolled the ball across for Lasagna to tap in.

However, Inter was back on level terms within a minute as Icardi volleyed home Antonio Candreva's cross.

Inter dominated the rest of the first half and came close to taking the lead on several occasions but Oddo turned things around at the break, and it was Udinese which was stronger in the second period.

The visitors almost took the lead immediately after the restart but Inter goalkeeper Samir Handanovic somehow managed to deflect Lasagna's effort over the bar from point-blank range.

Icardi also came close to doubling his tally but he headed a corner over the bar.

Minutes later Udinese was awarded a penalty for handball — after video review showed the ball had not crossed the line before Widmer's cross was handled by Davide Santon.

De Paul sent his spot-kick straight down the middle to give Udinese the lead in the 61st.

Milan Skriniar almost leveled shortly after but his header came off the bar.

Udinese wrapped up all three points 13 minutes from time when Barak finished off a brilliant counterattack by heading in Jakub Jankto's cross.

VAR was the protagonist in Roma’s last-gasp victory over Cagliari, as it awarded a penalty – that Diego Perotti saw parried – and a Federico Fazio winner.

The spot-kick was awarded via VAR after the referee originally booked Edin Dzeko for simulation, but he watched the footage and instead ruled Alessio Cragno had made contact with his ankle.

Cragno made up for the situation anyway, as he stood still until the last second to parry Perotti’s penalty, his second save of the season.

The Giallorossi created precious few scoring opportunities, as the trident of Perotti, Dzeko and Patrik Schick didn’t work.

Deep into stoppages, Aleksander Kolarov whipped in a free kick and Cragno punched it on to Fazio’s chest for the ball to ricochet back into the net from six yards.

The celebrations were cut short and there were tense moments in the Olimpico, as they waited for the referee to view the VAR footage. Eventually, he ruled that there was no intentional handball and awarded the goal. Yesterday Today Napoli Inter Juventus AS Roma Lazio Sampdoria AC Milan Atalanta Torino Fiorentina Udinese Bologna Chievo Cagliari Sassuolo Genoa Crotone Spal Verona Benevento PW D L F A Pts 17 13 3 1 38 11 42 17 12 4 1 34 13 40 16 12 2 2 41 14 38 16 12 2 2 28 10 38 15 10 2 3 36 19 32 15 8 3 4 30 22 27 16 7 3 6 23 21 24 16 6 5 5 23 20 23 17 5 8 4 23 25 23 16 6 4 6 26 19 22 16 7 0 9 26 25 21 16 6 3 7 19 20 21 16 5 6 5 17 26 21 17 5 2 10 16 28 17 16 4 2 10 10 28 14 16 3 4 9 14 22 13 16 3 3 10 12 32 12 16 2 5 9 15 28 11 16 2 4 10 14 32 10 16 0 1 15 8 38 1 Palermo Bari Parma Frosinone Empoli Cittadella Cremonese Venezia Salernitana Spezia Carpi Perugia Novara Avellino Cesena Brescia Entella Pescara Foggia Ternana Pro Vercelli Ascoli PW D 19 9 8 19 10 2 19 9 4 19 7 10 19 8 6 18 8 4 19 6 10 19 6 10 19 5 11 19 7 5 19 6 7 19 6 5 18 6 5 19 5 7 19 5 7 18 5 6 19 4 9 18 5 6 19 4 7 19 2 12 19 4 6 19 3 7 L F A Pts 2 26 16 35 7 33 26 32 6 27 17 31 2 31 23 31 5 37 29 30 6 29 22 28 3 27 20 28 3 21 17 28 3 29 26 26 7 21 20 26 6 17 23 25 8 32 31 23 7 22 21 23 7 27 30 22 7 31 38 22 7 17 20 21 6 23 27 21 7 30 36 21 8 29 39 19 5 27 33 18 9 22 31 18 9 17 30 16 Today Renate-Pordenone

Serie C - Group C

Friday Today

Marek Hamsik celebrating his record goal aginst Torino