Serie A: Milan and Napoli both stay unbeaten and on top as Juventus lose their second match in a row

(Football news) AC Milan extended their unbeaten away record to 15 games as Napoli narrowly got past Salernitana, both teams can equal the record for the best start in Serie A if they go onto win their matches next week. Juventus suffered their second successive loss to Hellas Verona as they are pretty much out of the Scudetto race, Inter won to consolidate their third position in the table.

AC Milan won 2-1 against AS Roma, Stefan Poli’s side put on a splendid performance to make it five victories in a row. In the first half Milan dominated from the get go as Zlatan proved that age is just a number with a brilliant free kick in the 25th minute, he scored his 400th club goal and his 150th Serie A goal. In the second half Milan were putting immense pressure on Roma as this pressure resulted in a penalty after Zlatan was brought down in the box, Franck Kessie stepped up and cooly converted the penalty to a give deserved 2-0 lead but in the 66th minute Theo Hernandez got his second yellow card and was sent off. After the sending off Roma completely dominated possession but couldn’t really make inroads, Stephen El Shaarawy scored late on to restore some hope but it was too late to make a comeback.

With this result Milan go level on points with Napoli, they have got 31 points from 11 matches as AS Roma stayed 4th but are 5 points behind Inter. Ibrahimovic, talking about his free-kick which clocked at 101km/h said, “Every now and then, I pull a surprise! You must always give it a go, as failure is part of success, so you keep trying. It usually goes quicker! At least 200kmh! I think I must be slowing my shot in old age,".

Stefan Poli on the victory said, “These matches give us strength, conviction and morale. We have to ride this positive moment, staying very focused. We are always very positive, in our attitudes, among them and in the difficulties. I don’t know, there are very strong teams. Inter are the favourites, Napoli are very strong and I don’t think Juve are out of the game. Last year in the head-to-head matches, we knew we had to do something exceptional, I’m not saying it was a miracle but… This year, however, we are more aware of being a strong team that can play with our mentality, we are convinced we can win. The important thing is to always believe in it.”

Napoli scraped through a 1-0 victory over Salernitana, Luciano Spalleti before the match had some injury concerns as both of their talisman Insigne and Osimhen both started on the bench. In the first half Napoli didn't look threatening as neither side had a shot on target, but in the second Napoli took the lead through Piotr Zielinski after Mario Rui’s shot deflected into his path and calmly converted to maintain their unbeaten record in the Serie A. With 20 minutes to go Koulibaly and Salernitana midfielder Grigoris Kastanos got sent off. After this result Napoli got 31 points from 10 matches.

Juventus lost 2-1 against Hellas Verona as Allergri’s side are under immense pressure. In the first half two goals in five minutes from Simeone was enough for them to put the final nail in the coffin as Weston McKennie grabbed a late consolation goal. With this result Juventus drop down to 9th place after having only 15 points with them as this result all but puts an end to their title credentials. Inter won 2-0 against Udinese after a second half brace from Joaquin Correa was enough for them to get three points as they opened up a five point lead over AS Roma and have the opportunity to close the gap with their rivals next week when they face AC Milan.

Also read: Bundesliga: Bayern went back to winning ways as Dortmund maintained pressure on them

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