Napoli three points clear at Italian League summit after win over Lecce

Napoli maintained their lead at the top of Serie A on Tuesday after the champions won a hard-fought contest at lowly Lecce 1-0 and moved three points ahead of AC Milan, who drew 1-1 at Atalanta, and Roma.

Andre-Frank Anguissa headed home the only goal in the 69th minute to ensure Napoli followed up on their tempestuous win over Scudetto rivals Inter Milan at the weekend.

Napoli are on 21 points from nine league fixtures, three ahead of Milan and Roma, who host Parma on Wednesday evening and have an inferior goal difference.

“These matches are never easy, especially after a big game against Inter in which we expended a huge amount of physical and mental energy,” said coach Antonio Conte.

Anguissa’s fourth goal of the season, which came after a brilliant individual effort against Inter, gave Napoli a second win in a matter of days and further steadied the ship after a rocky recent run of results.

If it had not been for giant goalkeeper Vanja Milinkovic-Savic, Napoli might not have claimed all three points, as the Serbian penalty specialist threw himself to his right to keep out Francesco Camarda’s spot kick 11 minutes after the break.

Conte had to do without a clutch of key players in his 250th Serie A match as coach. The absentees included Kevin De Bruyne who, according to team manager Gabriele Oriali, will be out of action for at least three months with a hamstring injury.

De Bruyne underwent an operation on his injured hamstring in his native Belgium on Wednesday, the Serie A club announced.

“As planned, Kevin De Bruyne underwent surgery on Wednesday in Antwerp, following a high-grade tear of the biceps femoris in the right thigh,” Napoli said in a statement.

“The operation went well. De Bruyne, who was assisted during the operation by the head of Napoli’s medical staff, Dr. Raffaele Canonico, will now begin the first post-surgery phase of rehabilitation in Belgium.”

De Bruyne, 34, has scored four times since joining Napoli following his departure from Manchester City in the summer, three times from the penalty spot and once with a free-kick.

De Bruyne injured himself scoring Napoli’s opening goal from the penalty spot against Inter and will be a big loss. Conte will also be without Cameroon midfielder Anguissa during the Africa Cup of Nations.

Milinkovic-Savic was playing after starting goalkeeper Alex Meret suffered a foot fracture in training earlier this month, while Romelu Lukaku is yet to feature in Napoli’s title defence.

Napoli battle on: Two other players key to last year’s four Serie A championship triumph -- Amir Rrahmani and Stanislav Lobotka -- have already missed chunks of the campaign.

“Let’s not forget that it’s since the start of the season that we’ve had to make a virtue of necessity,” added Conte.

“We’ve lost so many important players to injury, but no-one seems to be talking about it.”

Rrahmani and Rasmus Hojlund started Tuesday’s win on the bench, good news for Napoli with tricky fixtures against Como and Bologna sandwiching the visit of Eintracht Frankfurt in the Champions League next Tuesday.

Lecce stay 16th on six points, two above the relegation zone after a fifth defeat of the season for Eusebio Di Francesco’s spirited team.

Ademola Lookman scored his first goal for Atalanta since being brought back into the fold by coach Ivan Juric following a following a protracted attempt to force a move to Inter Milan.

Nigeria forward Lookman, who only made his first start of the season earlier this month, lashed home Atalanta’s leveller in the 35th minute in Bergamo, cancelling out Samuele Ricci’s early, deflected half-volley which gave the Italy midfielder his first goal for Milan.

Milan who sit third, level on 18 points with second-placed Roma after a third draw in four matches, one earned also thanks to a brilliant Mike Maignan save from Davide Zappacosta’s long-range effort with five minutes remaining.

Massimiliano Allegri’s team host Roma on Sunday night. Atalanta are the division’s only remaining unbeaten team but a fifth straight league draw draws have the Bergamo-based club eight points behind Napoli in seventh.

Agence France-Presse