Serie A race hots up with Juventus victory

Dec 23, 2017 - 10:31 PM Medhi Benatia scored against his old club to help Juventus beat title rivals Roma 1-0 on Saturday and move to within a point of leaders Napoli in one of the tightest Serie A races in years.

Earlier, Napoli fought back to beat Sampdoria 3-2 in a match in which Marek Hamsik became the club's all-time leading scorer with his 116th.

Juventus moved four points above Inter Milan, who had a penalty saved in a 1-0 loss at Sassuolo.

Roma remained fourth, seven points behind Napoli but with a game in hand.

Juventus broke the deadlock in chaotic fashion following a 19th-minute corner.

Roma goalkeeper Alisson did brilliantly to keep out Giorgio Chiellini's header and turned Benatia's attempt from the rebound onto the bar but couldn't keep out the Morocco defender's follow-up.

Benatia spent a season at Roma before leaving for Bayern Munich in 2014.

Another former Roma player was in goal for Juventus, with Wojciech Szczesny standing in for the injured Gianluigi Buffon. He did well to deny Stephan El Shaarawy from close range as well as keeping out Patrik Schick's effort right at the death.

Hamsik surpassed Diego Maradona's long-standing goalscoring record for Napoli.

The Slovakia midfielder, who scored the first of his 116 goals for Napoli in August 2007, fired what proved to be the winner in a topsy-turvy 3-2 triumph over Europa League-chasing Sampdoria.

Gaston Ramirez had put Samp ahead at the San Paolo, with Fabio Quagliarella restoring their lead from the penalty spot after Allan had equalised.

Lorenzo Insigne levelled from a Dries Mertens pass after the half-hour mark, with Hamsik soon tucking away a second assist from the Belgian to relegate Maradona to second place in the scoring charts.

"I am happy about the goal record, but even more about the win, which was crucial for us," Hamsik said.

Inter Milan would have hoped to keep in touch with Napoli by winning at Sassuolo, but instead they went down 1-0 no thanks to a Diego Falcinelli strike in the 34th minute.

Mauro Icardi had an opportunity to grab a point, but his penalty after the break was saved by Andrea Consigli and Inter remained in third place.

At San Siro, AC Milan's disappointing campaign took another turn for the worse as Atalanta claimed a 2-0 success through Bryan Cristante's first-half effort against his former club and Josip Ilicic's strike.

The seven-time European champions are now lingering in 11th on the table.

Lazio and Ciro Immobile called time on their respective lean spells by hammering Crotone 4-0.

After a first half of toil, Jordan Lukaku opened the scoring by tucking away Immobile's pass.

Italy striker Immobile then found his 16th league goal of the season, ending a four-game drought. Substitute Senad Lulic provided the assist and scored one himself before Felipe Anderson added the fourth in stoppage time.

Source: AAP