(Football news) Napoli continued their brilliant form in the league as goals from Giovanni Di Lorenzo and Victor Osimhen handed them a 2-0 win over Salernitana on Saturday as they took one step closer to ending their 33 year-wait to win the Scudetto. Napoli controlled the match and were never really threatened by Salernitana’s showing. Osimhen thought he had scored in the 35th minute but he was ruled to have been offside by VAR.
Napoli eventually took the lead in the first-half stoppage time when a cross from inside the box fell to Di Lorenzo, who fired the ball in. Osimhen expertly finished a half chance and doubled the lead in the 48th minute when he tipped in a rebound from Eljif Elmas’ shot which hit the post. Napoli are sitting comfortably on the top of the standings with 50 points from 19 games, 12 points ahead of second-placed AC Milan, who play Lazio on Tuesday. While Salernitana are under the threat of getting relegated as they are in 16th place with only 18 points.
A goal from Tommaso Baldanzi earned Empoli a surprise 1-0 win over 10-man Inter Milan in Serie A which subsequently ended Simone Inzaghi side’s seven-match unbeaten. Empoli, whose previous victory against Inter was in April 2006 as this result helped them move up to ninth place with 25 points from 19 games. Inter meanwhile remained third with 37 points and one point behind AC Milan who travel to Lazio today.
Inter convincingly won against their city rivals AC Milan 3-0 to win the Italian Supercup but yesterday they were left disappointed as they were reduced to 10 men when captain Milan Skriniar was sent off five minutes before the half time whistle. He was shown a second yellow card after a reckless tackle on Francesco Caputo. Inter before half time went close to scoring but Federico Dimarco’s first-time strike from a tight angle was blocked by Empoli goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario, while Lautaro Martinez sent his shot above the bar.
Empoli after the red card came out in the second half with a renewed vigour as they created chances and eventually found the back of the net in the 66th minute through Baldanzi after a swift counter-attack. The 19-year-old substitute scored from a powerful low shot to beat Onana, who failed to stop the ball despite guessing the right way. Edin Dzeko could have equalised nine minutes later but his first-time shot from inside the box went wide as Stefan de Vrij hit the bar with a header shortly after but Empoli held on for a famous victory.
“In the first half hour we did great things, we had courage and zero fear,” Empoli coach Paolo Zanetti told DAZN. “Winning at the San Siro is a dream and my players managed to make it come true.”
Inzaghi blamed the defeat on being a man down and victory celebrations following their Supercup triumph impacting their preparations for Monday’s match. “The numerical inferiority has done a lot (of damage). Perhaps (if we had) 11 (players on the pitch) things would have changed. Excessive celebrations after the Super Cup? In reality they were very restricted because as soon as we got back, we trained right away.
