Italy Roundup: Napoli hands Juventus rare Serie A loss

Napoli snapped a remarkable Juventus run and slowed the coronation cruise control displayed by The Old Lady with a 2-0 home win on Sunday.

Juve posted a remarkable 20W-2D-0L mark in its previous 22 matches, but Napoli came to play with a goal in each half and strong defending. Jose Callejon and Dries Mertens scored for Napoli, which is far off the title chase, though the Juve loss gives a modicum of hope to AS Roma. Carlos Tevez was not suspended for Juve, with Dani Osvaldo getting the slot in Tevez’s absence.

I Lupi scored a controversial win over Sassuolo, now in severe relegation trouble after goals from Mattia Destro and Michel Bastos paced Roma to a 2-0 win. Sassuolo was given a penalty kick in the first half, only to have the call shockingly reversed by official Nicola Rizzoli. Our own Kyle Bonn has a recap of that ordeal here.

Roma has a match-in-hand on Juve, though even that 11-point lead dropping to eight at mid-week wouldn’t be a major cause for concern. Juve still has to visit Stadio Olimpico on May 11, but a few more wins will make the third-consecutive Scudetto all but in the bag.

Fiorentina gave some leeway to Inter Milan in the race for fourth place by sleepwalking to a scoreless draw at 12th place Sampdoria. Despite a combined 36 shots between the two clubs, no one put one across the line. Inter tangles with Livorno on Monday. Both Livorno and Catania are searching for Monday points in their quest to escape the drop zone. A Livorno win would do the trick, though three points for Catania against Udinese would still find them three points from safety.

Elsewhere

• AC Milan 3-0 Chievo — Chievo’s relegation troubles are real; Kaka’s two goals backed Mario Balotelli’s single tally as all goals were scored before the clock struck 54.
• Bologna 0-2 Atalanta — Giuseppe De Luca and Marcelo Estigarribia struck twice in four first-half minutes to lift the visitors’ quest for Europe.
• Verona 3-0 Genoa – 10-men? No problem for Hellas Verona, with a late brace from Luca Toni making the score line defy game play. Marco Donadel also scored for the hosts, who saw a second yellow given to Michelangelo Albertazzi just before half.
• Torino 2-1 Cagliari – Road woes continue for Cagliari (0W-7D-8L away from home) as goals from Alessio Cerci and Omar El Kaddouri lead Torino to win.
• Lazio 3-2 Parma– Plenty of drama in Rome, as Antonio Candreva’s stoppage-time winner offseat an own-goal equalizer to keep the hosts in European contention.
• Udinese vs. Catania – Monday
• Livorno vs. Inter Milan — Monday

Standings

Team	GP	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Home	Away	PTS
Juventus	31	26	3	2	67	22	45	15-0-0	11-3-2	81
Roma	30	21	7	2	58	15	43	12-3-0	9-4-2	70
Napoli	31	19	7	5	59	32	27	10-4-2	9-3-3	64
Fiorentina	31	15	7	9	49	33	16	8-3-4	7-4-5	52
Inter Milan	30	12	12	6	47	31	16	7-7-2	5-5-4	48
Parma	30	12	11	7	49	37	12	6-7-2	6-4-5	47
Atalanta	31	14	4	13	37	39	-2	10-2-3	4-2-10	46
Lazio	31	12	9	10	40	40	0	8-4-3	4-5-7	45
Verona	31	13	4	14	46	52	-6	9-2-5	4-2-9	43
Torino	31	11	9	11	45	40	5	7-5-4	4-4-7	42
AC Milan	31	11	9	11	47	43	4	7-4-4	4-5-7	42
Sampdoria	31	11	8	12	40	43	-3	6-5-5	5-3-7	41
Genoa	31	10	9	12	34	39	-5	7-4-4	3-5-8	39
Udinese	30	10	5	15	33	42	-9	7-2-5	3-3-10	35
Cagliari	31	7	11	13	29	41	-12	7-4-5	0-7-8	32
Chievo	31	7	6	18	26	46	-20	5-2-8	2-4-10	27
Bologna	31	5	11	15	24	48	-24	3-7-6	2-4-9	26
Livorno	30	6	6	18	32	56	-24	4-4-7	2-2-11	24
Sassuolo	31	5	6	20	29	61	-32	4-1-11	1-5-9	21
Catania	30	4	8	18	23	54	-31	4-6-5	0-2-13	20

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