Napoli go top as Inter lose in Serie A

Dec 16, 2017 - 10:15 PM Napoli won 3-1 at lacklustre Torino on Saturday to go top of Italy's Serie A as Inter Milan lost by the same margin to Udinese to notch up their first league defeat of the season.

Napoli's Kalidou Koulibaly nodded in for an early opener in Turin before Piotr Zielinski leapt past the defence to stun Salvatore Sirigu and captain Marek Hamsik netted the third in the top right corner to put the game beyond doubt within half an hour.

The hosts, who were unbeaten in their past six outings, pulled one back via striker Andrea Belotti on 63, but were unable to achieve anything more.

Napoli now lead the Serie A on 42 points from 17 games, while Inter stay on 40 and could see champions Juventus (38) move past them when they visit Bologna on Sunday.

Also on Saturday, Udinese moved into 11th position on 21 points after beating Inter in Milan 3-1. The guests, who have now won three of the four games played under new coach Massimo Oddo, took a 14th-minute lead when Silvan Widmer squared for Kevin Lasagna, only to see league top scorer Mauro Icardi volley in off Antonio Candreva one minute later.

Inter came close with efforts from Borja Valero, Marcelo Brozovic, Ivan Perisic and Candreva in the first half, but were stunned on 61 minutes as Rodrigo De Paul converted a penalty awarded after a video review of Davide Santon's handball.

Milan Skriniar's header against the bar was the only telling chance for the Nerazzurri before Antonin Barak tapped in a cross from Jakub Jankto in the 77th to wrap up matters for Udinese.

"There's sorrow like with all defeats," Inter boss Luciano Spalletti said after the game. "We're not used to it anymore so there's even more sorrow."

"But in the end we brought it on ourselves because we weren't able to control the ball, we made errors and we were timid in our decision making."

Late Saturday, fourth-placed Roma clinched a 1-0 home win against Cagliari with a goal in stoppage time.

The Rome Giallorossi still have a game in hand and they sit level on points with Juve before visiting them next week in Turin. Cagliari, meanwhile, are now 14th on 17 points.

Seven games are due to be played in Italy's top flight on Sunday.

Source: AAP