Lukaku fires Napoli six points clear at Atalanta

Belgium striker Lukaku nodded home his eighth Napoli goal from Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa's perfect cross in the 78th minute to give Antonio Conte's team a statement win in Bergamo. Matteo Politano and Scott McTominay also scored for Napoli who have 50 points from 21 matches and have made it clear that they are now the team to beat in this year's title race after scoring three times from their only shots on target.

"I can't say whether it's my most important goal (for Napoli) but the win is important. We showed tonight that we're a top team," said Lukaku to Sky. Napoli are gunning for a second Scudetto in three seasons and await the response from champions and closest challengers Inter Milan - who also have a game in hand - against struggling Empoli on Sunday.

A sixth straight win is the perfect boost Napoli need for another massive clash with Conte's old team Juventus, in Naples, this time next week. "It's another test for us, to see where we are," added Lukaku. "It's easy after a win like tonight's to get slack and not keep going. We can't do that, we need to continue playing the way we're playing."

Lukaku also dealt a blow to Atalanta's unprecedented title bid, as the provincial upstarts fell to their first league defeat since late September. Gian Piero Gasperini's team took the lead in the 16th minute through Serie A's leading scorer Mateo Retegui and looked on the way to a huge win once Ademola Lookman levelled the scores nine minutes after half-time. But Atalanta are now seven points off the title pace in third after failing to win in four matches, with their previous three all drawn.

Atalanta also have Champions League football to contend with and face Sturm Graz and Barcelona in the next 10 days, while Napoli have no European distractions due to their disastrous title defence last season. "It's difficult to digest this defeat for how the match went, for how we played," said Gasperini. "We got nothing from this match but we played with great quality against an undoubtedly good team. We can only get stronger from this." 

 

January 18, 2025

Juve sink sorry Milan

Goals in five second-half minutes from Samuel Mbangula and Timothy Weah gave Juventus a deserved win in Turin which pushed Thiago Motta's side up to fourth, a point ahead of Lazio who are at Verona on Sunday. Unbeaten Juve snapped a run of three straight draws which had taken their tally of league stalemates to 13, with Saturday's win just their eighth in 21 fixtures in Italy's top flight. "The boys are growing, match after match, and getting to the point that they can put in a performance like the one they did tonight," said Motta. That's because they all work really hard every day... today's win is the reward."

Milan stay eighth and are now six points from the top four, albeit with a game in hand at Bologna which was postponed due to flooding in October and is yet to be rescheduled. Sergio Conceicao's team had chances to open the scoring through Tijjani Reijnders and Rafael Leao in an entertaining first half but didn't show up for the second period of a match full of incidents.

The Portuguese called Milan's collapse after the break "unjustifiable" and said that "when there's no desire it's very difficult for me". I'm the one that has to turn this situation around," added Conceicao. Bologna continued their resurgence with a straightforward 3-1 home win over Monza, with strikes from Santiago Castro, Jens Odgaard and Riccardo Orsolini moving Vincenzo Italiano's team up to sixth on 33 points, four points behind Juve.

 

January 19, 2025