MILAN (AP) — Kevin De Bruyne’s goal could come at a price naples Despite this, the defending champions returned to the top of Serie A with a 3-1 win over Inter Milan on Saturday.
De Bruyne appeared to pull a muscle moments after converting a first-half penalty, immediately grabbing the back of his right thigh. The former Manchester City player appeared distraught and had to be helped off the field by two medical staff.
Scott McTominay and Frank Anguissa also scored for Napoli after the break, with Hakan Calhanoglu converting Inter’s penalty.
The result put Napoli back on winning ways after last weekend’s loss to Torino and Tuesday’s punishment. Lost to PSV Eindhoven 6-2 In the Champions League, they finished one point ahead of second-placed AC Milan. Draw with Pisa on friday.
Napoli coach Antonio Conte, who led Inter to the title in 2021, said: “For better or worse, we live the game with our players.” “Despite the difficulties, we won. We are without important players and now De Bruyne is also injured. Let’s say we haven’t had a very lucky year. Maybe someone cursed us.”
Inter, who were on a seven-game winning streak, remained in 4th place.
“Inter came to kill us. While we were in trouble, they were having great moments,” Conte added. “But we were not going to die and put in a great performance despite the difficulties, playing a tough and energetic game.”
Napoli were already suffering from injuries, but their problems were compounded when De Bruyne was sent off for taking a powerful spot-kick into the bottom corner.
The penalty was awarded after Inter midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan was adjudged to have fouled Giovanni Di Lorenzo. Mkhitaryan was also sent off with an injury.
Inter almost equalized with just seconds left in the first half as Alessandro Bastoni hit the crossbar and Denzel Dumfries clipped the post.
The visitors pushed forward after the break, but a quick counterattack saw McTominay extend Napoli’s lead to two points in the 54th minute. He bounced off the offside trap, ran into a great pass from Leonardo Spinazzola and fired the ball into the bottom corner from the edge of the area.
It was McTominay’s third goal of the week, following his two goals against PSV.
Five minutes later, Napoli defender Alessandro Buongiorno converted Lautaro Martinez’s header with his arm and Calhanoglu converted a penalty to reduce the gap.
However, in the 67th minute Anguissa produced another clinical counterattack to restore Napoli’s two-goal advantage.
Vardy celebrates
Former Leicester striker jamie vardy He scored his first goal for Cremonese in a 1-1 draw with Atalanta, and there was a big celebration.
Vardy scored in the 78th minute when he exploded in a rebound from Alessio Zervin’s shot, which the Atalanta goalkeeper made an incredible save with his feet.
The 38-year-old former England international celebrated with some acrobatics, including cartwheels and backflips.
It was Vardy’s fourth match for Cremonese, but only his second start. He signed with the Italian team in the off-season after a 13-year career with Leicester.
Marco Bresciannini scored the equalizing goal for Atalanta.
back on track
Udinese defeated Lecce 3-2, their first home win since March 1st.
Jesper Karlström, Keiynan Davies and Adam Buksa scored for Udinese, who had picked up just two points from their previous four games.
Udinese moved within three points of the top four. Como ended in a 0-0 draw against Parma, but finished in 6th place.
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