In a match, Roberto Gagliardini was sent off, but Giovanni Di Lorenzo’s stunner proved decisive.
Meanwhile, due to the speculation surrounding the future of Luciano Spalletti, the Scudetto celebrations have died down.
From the look of things, the former Roma and Inter coach will be leaving this summer due to a disagreement between him and his owner, De Laurentiis.
The Nerazzurri had to rotate their squad as they prepared for Wednesday’s Coppa Italia Final against Fiorentina but still produced a great performance.
Inter was the team that handed Napoli their first Serie A defeat of the season in January and remains the only side Napoli has failed to beat this term.
The hosts started in grand fashion as Piotr Zielinski’s free kick sent Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa clear, but the midfielder scuffed the finish wide. He also skimmed the upright from the edge of the area.
Andre Onana made an easy safe from Victor Osimhen’s header that was straight at him.
Roberto Gagliardini got Napoli furious due to a late lunge on Kvicha Kvaratskhelia despite already being on a yellow after just 23 minutes of action.
Osimhen couldn’t win penalty appeals for a slight Alessandro Bastoni shirt-tug. His acrobatic overhead kick also went wide, while Zielinski fired a free kick wide.
Gagliardini was eventually sent off for another mistimed tackle on Anguissa, and the second yellow card was inevitable before haNonethele10-man Inter were undeterred as they created their first real chance with Lukaku hitting the side-netting on Nicolò Barella’s slide-rule pass.
Onana was called into action early in the second half as he flew to deny Giovanni Di Lorenzo at the near post on a corner routine while Zielinski blasted over the bar.
Since they are already a man down against an opponent that can punish them for any slight mistake, Inter defended even deeper, relying only on counter rarely. Anguissa intercepted Raoul Bellanova’s roll across for Robin Gosens.
After Onana palmed a wonderful Kvaratskhelia curler out of the far top corner, Napoli continued to pour forward and broke the deadlock. Zielinski released a through pass for Anguissa, who flicked the ball up, spun around, and struck on the volley mid-turn into the bottom corner from 12 yards.
A few moments after, Napoli was denied a second goal controversially through informing Romelu Lukaky. Inter caught Napoli’s defense napping as Federico Dimarco put a low cross in from the left to Lukaku, who prodded in before the distracted Juan Jesus.
Napoli later restored their advantage with a stunning curler from captain Giovanni Di Lorenzo into the far top corner before sealing it with another with the last kick of the game.
Youth team player Gianluca Gaetano burst into tears after scoring his debut goal, beating the on-rushing Onana.
Leave a comment
Link Dafabet