In a seesaw encounter at the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium in Naples, Atalanta emerge victorious. Napoli lose Serie A top spot!
Napoli relinquished the lead to lose 3-2 at home to Atalanta on Saturday, falling from first place in Serie A, to third, as the gap between the top four sides was reduced to just four points.
Luciano Spalletti’s hosts came back from a goal down and went in front early in the second half. However, the visitors from Bergamo staged a fightback of their own to hand out Napoli’s second defeat of the season.
The result sees Gli Azzurri, who had led been top of Serie A since week four, remain on 36 points, two adrift of new leaders, AC Milan, one behind Inter Milan and two ahead of Gian Piero Gasperini’s Atalanta.
Ruslan Malinovskyi fired a left-footed shot into the top corner, to put the visitors in front after seven minutes. Piotr Zieliński then smashed home an equaliser near the end of a pulsating first-half.
Just after the break, Dries Mertens broke the away side’s offside trap and netted with a cool finish, for the Belgian striker’s fifth goal in four Serie A games.
Atalanta responded impressively. Duván Zapata’s header off the Napoli upright was a warning sign, before Merih Demiral latched onto a through ball, raced towards goal, and struck an equaliser into the roof of the net in the 66th minute.
Swiss international, Remo Freuler, then guided the away side’s winner into the bottom corner five minutes later, from Josip Iličić’s intelligent lay-off.
Andrea Petagna had a decent chance in the box before the final whistle, but the Napoli striker blasted over and his side went down.
