Napoli Pile Pressure on Serie A Leaders AC Milan with Win at Atalanta

Rome, Napoli have gone level on points with the Italian Serie A leaders AC Milan after beating Atalanta 3-1 at the Gewiss Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

Lorenzo Insigne and Matteo Politano put the Partenopei two goals ahead before Marten de Roon halved the deficit. Then, in latter stages of the match, Eljif Elmas scored to make sure of the win for Napoli.

Napoli were without Victor Osimhen, Giovanni Di Lorenzo and Amir Rrahmani for the trip to Bergamo, but they were given a golden opportunity to take the lead in the opening period of the first half after Atalanta goalkeeper Juan Musso brought down Dries Mertens in the area.

Initially a penalty was not awarded, but after a VAR review the referee pointed to the spot. Then, Lorenzo Insigne stepped up and emphatically fired past Musso to put Napoli 1-0 ahead in the 14th minute.

Luciano Spalletti’s side have been one of the most creative teams from set pieces this season, and they showed that once again in the 37th minute. From a free-kick, Insigne chipped the ball over the top of the defence into an area for Matteo Politano to attack, with the winger then sending a volley into the back of the net.

There was a penalty shout for Atalanta early in the second half as Luis Muriel went down under contact from Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa, but the referee adjudged that it was the Colombian who first made contact with the Cameroon international.

La Dea continued to push forward in search of a goal and they were rewarded in the 58th minute, as Aleksey Miranchuk’s cross was headed into the back of the net by Marten de Roon.

Yet, just as Atalanta tried to push for an equaliser, a Napoli counter-attack resulted in their third goal. Kalidou Koulibaly picked out Hirving Lozano, who carried the ball forward before finding Eljif Elmas, with North Macedonian keeping his composure to send his shot under Musso.

This victory bring Napoli up to 66 points, level with Serie A leaders AC Milan, who host Bologna on Monday night, the Spanish MARCA newspaper reported.

Source: Oman News Agency