Napoli remained three points at the top of Serie A Saturday after a hard victory of 1-0 in Lecce while the Rivals of the Title Inter Milan defeated Verona by the same score before their confrontation in the semi-final of the Champions League with Barcelona. Antonio Conte’s team is a step closer to a second league title in three seasons thanks to the well-hit free kick of Giacomo Raspadori in the 24th minute of a match which was briefly arrested by the fiery protest of fans at home against the League after the death of a beloved club physio.
Napoli needs seven points of their last three games of the season against Genoa, Parma and Cagliari to guarantee a fourth league crown after their fourth consecutive victory without conceding a goal.
And this assumed that the champions by reigning won the three games of the final league in Torino, against Lazio and at the 10th Center of Como, which previously won a fifth consecutive victory in Serie A for the first time in their history with a 1-0 success in Parma.
“I cannot deny that it was a big step (towards the title),” said Conte to Dazn.
“I was worried about this match against a difficult team and in a particular atmosphere. I have a team that can find a way to win in all kinds of situations … But we cannot be complacent.”
Meanwhile, Lecce remains a place and the point above the relegation area and will fall into the last three if Empoli beat Lazio on Sunday.
Anger
The match seemed briefly canceled early when the supporters launched a dam of lighting rockets and firecrackers to the field, forcing the match to be arrested for seven minutes.
Fans protest against Serie’s reaction to their longtime physio Graziano Fiorita suddenly dying last week at the age of 47.
The death of Fiorita struck Lecce hard and the club was rabid at the League, deciding to postpone the match of last weekend in Atalanta by one day rather than a later date to help the players and the staff of the club.
The Serie A Hymn was hue and whistled by the crowd of 29,000, and after a tense minute for fans of Fiorita noisily called the “Sons of Bitches” league.
Lecce was clearly fired by the atmosphere and gave Napoli a match, even if they gave a off-off in the second minute when Romelu Lukaku was tried off-game millimeters after turning Matteo Politano at home.
But neither of the two teams had a lot of chance beyond that, with Kialonda Gaspar who was heading for the bar in the 38th minute while Lecce pushed a leveling and raspadori flashing far before half-time.
Inteide Verona
The penalty of Kristjan Asllani’s ninth minute ended up deciding on the discreet victory of Inter against Verona, which did not offer little against a range of second strings selected by Simone Inzaghi.
The Inter gives the impression of knowing that their Defense of Scudetto is likely to end with failure and that Inzaghi made 10 modifications compared to the team which attracted 3-3 to the Barca in the middle of the week, with the second stage of its confrontation at the last four Tuesday.
And his bet borne fruit with three points in a moderate San Siro and all his key players, beyond the already injured captain Lautaro Martinez and the French defender Benjamin Pavard, ready to face the Catalan giants.
Inzaghi’s assistant, Massimiliano Farris, suggested, however, that Martinez could still be available to face Barça while his hamstring injury taken up in the first exciting step is perhaps not as bad as it is afraid.
“I would not say that we are optimistic or non -optimistic … We will have to see how our captain recovers himself,” said Farris who led Inter on Saturday with Inzaghi suspended.
On Thursday, Captain of Inzaghi and Captain of Turkey Hakan Calhanoglu reproduced suspensions of a match for having contacted the ultras of Inter, which is prohibited by the Italian FA.
This decision came due to evidence of discovery of a large -scale criminal investigation into ultras inter and AC Milan which led to 19 arrests in September.
(With the exception of the title, this story has not been published by NDTV staff and is published from a unionized flow.)
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