European roundup: Napoli go clear at top of Serie A, Real Madrid beat Sevilla
Napoli put on a dazzling display to mark the first anniversary of the death of their former player Diego Maradona as they romped to a 4-0 win over Lazio and moved three points clear at the top of Serie A.
Napoli unveiled a statue of Maradona in their stadium before the match and wore shirts featuring the player’s face. They also put on a fine tribute performance with a stunning show of attacking football, racing into a 3-0 lead inside 29 minutes thanks to goals from Piotr Zielinski and a double from Dries Mertens.
With the job done, Napoli then took their foot off the gas in the second half. But despite that, Lazio were unable to register a single shot on or off target in response. Fabián Ruiz put the icing on the cake with a fourth goal late on.
The win put daylight between Napoli and second-placed Milan at the top of Serie A, as Milan had slipped to a surprise 3-1 defeat at home to Sassuolo earlier on Sunday. Lazio dropped to eighth following their second successive league loss.
In Spain, RealMadrid came from behind to beat Sevilla 2-1 at the Bernabéu to move four points clear at the top of LaLiga.
Sevilla took the lead in the 12th minute through a header from Rafa Mir following a corner, but the home side were level within 20 minutes when Karim Benzema knocked the ball in after Éder Militão’s long-range effort had come back off the post.
With three minutes left, Vinícius Júnior completed the comeback when he crashed the ball into the top corner to give Los Blancos a sixth straight win in all competitions.
Earlier on Sunday a late goal from Yangel Herrera saw Real Sociedad suffer a 1-0 defeat at Espanyol – their first in the league since the opening weekend. Atlético Madrid took full advantage to move up to second with a 4-1 win at Cádiz, through secondhalf goals from Thomas Lemar, Antoine Griezmann, Ángel Correa and Matheus Cunha.
Lionel Messi set up all three goals as Paris Saint-Germain stretched their Ligue 1 lead to 14 points with a 3-1 comeback win away to 10-man SaintÉtienne as Neymar sustained a possible ankle injury and was taken off on a stretcher on Sunday.
PSG made the most of Timothée Kolodziejczak’s red card on the stroke of half-time as Messi fed Marquinhos for two headed goals and Ángel Di María struck to seal a clinical turnaround after Les Verts had opened the scoring through Denis Bouanga.
The result put PSG on 40 points from 15 games, with third-placed Rennes having a chance to leapfrog Nice into second when they travel to Lorient later on Sunday.
Saint-Étienne, who mounted a decent challenge despite being a man down as snow fell on the Geoffroy Guichard stadium, are now bottom of the standings with 12 points.
The game marked Sergio Ramos’s debut for PSG, almost five months after joining from Real Madrid as a free agent, and the Spaniard started in central defence alongside Marquinhos. Saint-Étienne pressed high and PSG looked to hit them on the break, with Neymar finding the back of the net early on only for the Brazilian’s goal to be ruled out for offside.
The hosts went ahead after 24 minutes when Kolodziejczak, set up by a superb Wahbi Khazri through pass, shot straight at the goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma but Banga followed up and fired home from point-blank range.
The momentum, however, swung towards PSG in a couple of minutes on the stroke of half-time. Kolodziejczak was harshly shown a straight red card for bringing down Kylian Mbappé as the France striker charged towards goal and Marquinhos headed home Messi’s perfectly executed free-kick.
Messi was at it again 11 minutes from time, whipping a fine pass behind the back of the defence for Di María, who finished with a curled effort into the far corner of the net. Marquinhos headed home again from Messi’s cross in the last minute, three minutes after Neymar was carried off after twisting his ankle.
Later in the day, Espanyol host Real Sociedad, Atlético Madrid visit Cádiz and Real Madrid play Sevilla at the Bernabéu in Spain.