Napoli beat Lazio to keep sight of Juventus

AFP  |  Milan 

Napoli beat 10-man 2-1 to close the gap on leaders Juventus to six points and consolidate second place in

Napoli have 47 points from 20 games and are now seven ahead of third-placed who were held to a goalless draw at home by on Saturday.

But it was a damaging defeat for who drop out of the places into fifth at the expense of city rivals Roma.

Eusebio Di Francesco's Roma are one point ahead of who host seven-time reigning champions Juventus next weekend.

Napoli were without suspended defender Kalidou Koulibaly, and forward

But Carlo Ancelotti's side could have won by a larger margin with Milik and both hitting the woodwork early.

Spanish forward Callejon scored his first goal this season after 34 minutes with forward Milik's superb free-kick three minutes later giving the Pole his seventh goal in eight games.

pulled one back for Lazio after 65 minutes at the San Paolo stadium, but the visitors were struggling as they played the last 20 minutes a man down after was sent off for a second yellow card.

"We were missing a lot of players, but you really couldn't tell at all, which shows our strength in depth," said Ancelotti.

"We had moments of difficulty, some of which we could have dealt with better and there were some naive errors, but overall there was a lot of quality."

Earlier Colombian forward scored four goals as ambitious northerners Atalanta thrashed struggling Frosinone 5-0 to bring his tally to 13 in the last seven league games.

The side from Bergamo are just two points off the final berth. In Florence, Sampdoria held 10-man 3-3 in a game between hopefuls.

Colombian forward bagged a brace on his first appearance for since his loan move from Sevilla, with getting a double to join on top of the goal scoring charts with 14 this season.

The side from Genoa are eighth -- one point off the berths, with three points behind in tenth.

Juventus -- fresh from winning a record eighth trophy in midweek against AC Milan thanks to Ronaldo's goal in -- take on lowly Chievo on Monday as Gennaro Gattuso's AC Milan travel to Genoa.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

First Published: Mon, January 21 2019. 09:50 IST