ROME

Napoli in all probability needs Serie A by no means stopped. The rhythm will not be damaged. That his opponents usually are not given time to meet up with his fast-paced sport.

The south membership took their first house defeat of the season on Wednesday, and the Italian league has resumed after a 7½-week hiatus and year-end break for the World Cup.

Edin Džeko scored near the hour, goalkeeper André Onana made a giant save within the 90 and Inter Milan beat Napoli 1-0 at San Siro to restart the Serie A title race.

“Beating Napoli is a superb achievement,” mentioned Inter coach Simone Inzaghi. “It ought to give us nice motivation.”

The one different sport Napoli have misplaced this season was towards Liverpool within the Champions League on 1 November.

All of Napoli’s closest rivals have gained.

Defending champions AC Milan beat Salernitana 2-1 to shut to 5 factors, Juventus beat Cremonese 1-0 for his or her seventh straight win, advancing inside seven factors, and 2021 champions Inter are actually eight factors behind in fourth place.

Having two extra vital video games towards Juventus and Roma this month doesn’t bode nicely for Napoli.

Whereas Napoli forwards Khvicha Kvaratshelia and Victor Osimhen did not make an affect, Inter took the lead when Džeko made an ideal cross from Federico Dimarco.

Onana then intercepted a firing missile from Giacomo Raspadori to keep up the benefit.

Nearly each week earlier than the break, dribbling grasp Kvaratskhelia was performing, this time it was Inter midfielder Nicolo Barella. simply above the bar.

“We could not transfer the ball with the identical high quality as traditional,” mentioned Napoli coach Luciano Spalletti. “A couple of gamers have been out of form.”

OCHOA’S OUT

Mexican goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa made an unforgettable Serie A debut for Salernitana.

Even when it wasn’t sufficient to cease the defending champion Milan from profitable.

Milan midfielder Sandro Tonali scored a purpose within the early hours and set one other purpose in 5 minutes of additional time for Rafael Leão, whereas Federico Bonazzoli scored a late purpose for Salernitana.

In any other case, nearly the whole lot was about Ochoa, 37, who fortunately turned down Milan to placed on a robust efficiency for Mexico of their fifth World Cup.

Ochoa set the tone at the beginning when he pulled out his left boot to cease Leão’s shot in a 1v1 state of affairs after which made a fast reflex save on Milan ahead Olivier Giroud. After taking part in for France within the World Cup remaining.

Nevertheless, Ochoa was solely ready to take action a lot when Tonali’s intermediate ball put Leão again within the purpose and the Portuguese worldwide dribbled across the goalkeeper earlier than dropping the ball from a pointy angle into an empty internet.

Ochoa stopped Tonali 5 minutes later, however the Milanese obtained one other alternative when the protection did not clear the goal and hit the goal with a robust shot.

In complete, Ochoa made 9 saves, whereas his Milanese counterpart, Ciprian Tatarusanu, made no saves.

“Ochoa confirmed what folks have been saying about him: he is a participant with persona, so it is an enormous win,” mentioned Salernitana coach Davide Nicola.

JUVENTUS LINE

Arkadiusz Milik scored with a free kick in further time, and scandal-ridden Juventus gained 1-0 with out conceding Cremonese for the seventh consecutive purpose.

But it surely was removed from simple for Bianconeri as Cremonese hit the board twice and Juventus struggled to beat the wonderful goalkeeper Marco Carnesecchi.

Juventus have been rocked by scandal through the break after the membership’s board resigned en masse and the Turin prosecutor’s workplace requested an indictment over allegations of false accounting.

ABRAHIM SECURITY

Roma beat Bologna 1-0 with an early penalty kick from Lorenzo Pellegrini after being fouled on Paulo Dybala and retained a header benefit to Tammy Abraham’s late purpose line.

Roma are on par with fifth-placed Lazio, who misplaced the purpose benefit in a 2-1 loss in Lecce.

Ciro Motionless gave Lazio an early lead with their 189th Serie A purpose, elevating him to ninth place on the all-time checklist, breaking the tie with Alessandro Del Piero, Alberto Gilardino and Giuseppe Signori, who every scored 188 factors. .

Lecce responded with targets from Gabriel Strefezza and Lorenzo Colombo.

BACK TO ATALANTA

Atalanta got here two targets behind in a 2-2 draw at Spezia, and Mario Pašalić set a purpose earlier than kicking the equalizer to keep up type after serving to Croatia end the World Cup in third place.

Additionally below menace of relegation, Sampdoria gained 2-1 in Sassuolo with targets from Manolo Gabbiadini and Tommaso Augello, prompting Samp coach Dejan Stanković to level to the sky in obvious reminiscence of his former teammate Siniša Mihajlović, who died final month after a protracted battle with leukemia. brought on. .

Torino and Hellas Verona drew 1-1.

THE RETURN OF PABLO MARI

Spanish defender Pablo Marí was a substitute within the second half of Monza’s 1-1 draw with Fiorentina to have fun his return after recovering sooner than anticipated from a knife assault at a shopping center in October.

Earlier than every sport, a minute’s silence was held to commemorate Pelé, the soccer nice who handed away final week.

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Andrew Dampf at: https://twitter.com/AndrewDampf

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Extra AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/Soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

This story was initially printed 4 January 2023 09:24.