Napoli extend lead at top of Serie A with win at Milan

Napoli grew their lead at the top of the Serie A table to seven points with a 2-0 win at AC Milan on Tuesday.

Antonio Conte’s resurgent side wrapped the match up inside the first half, courtesy of an early Romelu Lukaku goal and a sensational strike by Khvicha Kvaratskhelia.

Napoli sit on 25 points, with champions Inter Milan on 18 but with the chance to reduce the gap when they visit Empoli on Wednesday.

Conte can no longer brush off talk of a Scudetto title triumph, a return to European football is still the main objective.

After their dismal title defence last season left Napoli without any European action in this campaign, Conte continues to try to balance the expectations at the club.

“Scudetto? No one is hiding. We see realistically what we are doing this year,” he told DAZN.

“After 10 games it has something of the incredible and unexpected, not even the craziest would have predicted it. But we remain with our feet on the ground.

“We know what our goal is, which is to return to Europe. But there are five or six teams that have the same idea. Winning in Naples would be something incredible. We have given ourselves three years. We are rebuilding something and it takes time.”

After such an impressive start, Conte knows it will be hard to stop the Napoli supporters thinking of another title success.

“We try to feed the dreams of the fans, but we need to have balance,” Conte added. “Our fans followed us with passion even today, it is right that they dream. We have to be prepared when there is some setback. We want to make the Neapolitan fans proud of this team.”

A third defeat of the campaign leaves AC Milan in eighth place, 11 points behind the leaders.

Belgian striker Lukaku scored his fourth goal of the season since joining the 2023 Italian champions in the summer when he broke the deadlock on five minutes.

He raced onto a pass from Frank Anguissa, held off a defender and slotted coolly past Mike Maignan in the AC Milan goal.

Napoli goalkeeper Alex Meret was forced twice into action before the half-hour to maintain his side’s lead.

As the clock ticked down to half-time, Georgian winger Kvaratskhelia doubled the visitors’ lead.

Picking the ball up on the left wing, he drove suddenly inside on his right foot past Youssouf Fofana and rifled a shot from distance into the far post beyond the dive of Maignan.

Alvaro Morata thought he had given Milan a lifeline two minutes after the break with a powerful header.

However, upon VAR review he was shown to have been offside in the build-up to the goal and it was disallowed.

The hosts continued to search for a way back into the encounter and only a fine reflex save by Meret to deny Rafael Leao in the 83rd minute kept Napoli’s two-goal cushion intact.

Milan coach Paulo Fonseca believes winning the title is still a possibility.

Fonseca was asked if the Scudetto remained the objective and the Portuguese was clearly not giving up at this stage of the season, with Milan hampered by the absence of several players including the suspended Theo Hernandez and Tijjani Reijnders.

“I can’t say the opposite. Especially seeing how we played, how the team responded to a difficult moment and how it showed unity even without important players,” Fonseca told DAZN.

Earlier, goals in either half by Riccardo Orsolini and Jens Odgaard sent Bologna up to 10th in the table with a 2-0 win at Cagliari.

Lecce climbed off the foot of the table by beating nine-men Verona 1-0 thanks to a Patrick Dorgu goal on 51 minutes.

The away side lost Jackson Tchatchoua to a red card five minutes before half-time, then Reda Belahyane was given his marching orders inside the final 10 minutes for a second bookable offence.

Agencies