Title-chasing Napoli were left provisionally top of Serie A thanks to superior goals difference Sunday after a Nikola Kalinic-inspired Fiorentina were held 2-2 by Empoli in Florence. Earlier, Gonzalo Higuain hit his 10th goal of the campaign to take the lead in Serie A's scoring charts and fire Napoli one-point clear of Fiorentina after a 2-0 win at struggling Verona.
But Fiorentina maintained their hopes in what continues to be a thrilling battle for this season's scudetto and were unlucky not to go two points clear after spurning a series of late chances at the Artemio Franchi.
Inter Milan, in fourth at just one point off the pace, will return to the top of the table with a win over Frosinone at the San Siro in Sunday's late game.
In the meantime, Napoli will enjoy at least a few hours as the new Serie A leaders, although Fiorentina also have 28 points and Roma are one adrift in third place after being held 2-2 at Bologna on Saturday.
Napoli coach Maurizio Sarri applauded his side's "patient" approach against a defence-minded Verona.
"The win was largely down to us being patient, because it's easy to lose your head playing against a team like that," said Sarri. "At times their formation was a 6-3-1. We did well to keep moving the ball around and eventually tire them out.
Empoli travelled to Florence looking for their fourth win in six league outings and were well on their way after taking a 2-0 half-time lead thanks to goals from Marko Livaja and Marcel Buchel.
Paulo Sousa had rested his most potent strike pair, Kalinic and Josip Ilicic, with one eye on Thursday's Europa League clash against the coach's former club, FC Basel.
But the canny Portuguese handler soon changed tack, Kalinic and Federico Bernardeschi replacing Mario Suarez and Ante Rebic in the second half.
Comments
Comments are closed.