Naples did not tremble: while Inter had returned to a point thanks to their victory in Venice (1-0) on Sunday afternoon, Antonio Conte’s team dominated Verona 2 to 0 in the evening and regained his distance at the top of the Italian Championship. Napoli took their revenge on Verona who had clearly beaten them 3-0 at the opening of the 2024-25 season for Conte’s return to Serie A.
After only five minutes of play, Giovanni Di Lorenzo gave his team the advantage with a curling shot, with the involuntary help of Verona goalkeeper Lorenzo Montipo who propelled the ball from his back into his own goal which was pushed back by his right post .
Napoli, deprived of its Georgian striker Khvicha Kvaratskhelia who asked to leave the club, possibly to join PSG, doubled the lead thanks to Frank Anguissa (61), for his third goal in a month. “We don’t think about the title, we just think about winning the next (match),” insisted the Cameroonian defender.
Thanks to this 14th victory of the season, already one more than during his catastrophic 2023-24 season, the leader pushed Inter back to four points.
Pavard returns with Inter
The reigning champion was content with the minimum on the field of promoted and poorly ranked Venice thanks to Matteo Darmian (16th). This sixth victory in a row allowed Inter to turn the page on their cruel defeat last Monday in the final of the Italian Super Cup against their great rival, AC Milan (3-2) after leading 2- 0.
“It wasn’t easy after this final lost like this, my players were tired, we had a lot of absentees, but they played very well,” underlined Simone Inzaghi. If the Nerazzurri coach was still deprived of three of his executives (Francesco Acerbi, Hakan Calhanoglu and Henrikh Mkhitaryan), he was able to bring in Benjamin Pavard, in the 75th minute, for his return after a month and a half of absence (stretching of the biceps femoris of the left thigh).
Inter, who took 2nd place after another misstep by Atalanta, held in check by Udinese (0-0) on Saturday, could quickly put Napoli under pressure again. The Nerazzuri play one of their two late matches against Bologna on Wednesday.
Two months after his arrival, Patrick Vieira is changing the course of the season at Genoa, which won for the first time in more than 200 days at home against promoted Parma (1-0). Genoa, which has only lost once under Vieira, is now 11th, one point behind 10th, Roma, who snatched a miraculous draw from Bologna in added time (2-2).
Related News :