Roma halt Napoli, opening title race News

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Roma halt Napoli, opening title race

By Daily Sports on March 4, 2018

Napoli's 10-match winning streak in Serie A came to an end on Saturday when they slumped to a shock 4-2 home defeat to AS Roma as the leaders suffered just their second league loss this season.

The result kept Napoli on top of the table but their lead is now just one point after Juventus earlier defeated Lazio courtesy of an injury-time strike from Paulo Dybala.

Juventus, crucially, also have a game in hand – at home against Atalanta in 10 days' time.

"There were a lot of positives in this game," insisted Napoli coach Maurizio Sarri whose only other league loss this season had been at home to Juventus in December.

"We had 27 shots so we are just trying to figure out how Roma scored so easily. We are sorry for our great crowd but the tifosi know that we always give our maximum."

When Lorenzo Insigne gave Napoli the lead from close range after six minutes it seemed the evening would be straightforward.

But Turkey's Cengiz Under levelled just a minute later with a deflected shot.

That set the stage for Edin Dzeko to carve out a little bit of personal history.

He made it 2-1 in the 26th minute with a header from an Alessandro Florenzi cross before he curled in a terrific left-foot strike from the edge of the area in the 79th minute for 3-1.

That goal allowed the Bosnian striker to become the first player to score at least 50 goals in three of Europe's major leagues – Italy's Serie A, the German Bundesliga and the Premier League in England.

Diego Perotti made it 4-1 ten minutes from time after pouncing on a lazy clearance from on-loan Roma left-back Mario Rui. © AFP

•Photo shows Paulo Dybala.

Source Daily Sports

Posted March 4, 2018