Milan, Feb. 13 (BNA): On his 22nd birthday, Khvisha Kvaratskhelia scored in the 22nd minute to help Napoli top Serie A by 16 points.
Victor Osimhen and Elif Elmas sealed up the points in the second half as Napoli beat Cremonese 3-0 to avenge their Coppa Italia defeat, the Associated Press reports.
Inter Milan can reduce the gap with Napoli to 13 points by defeating Sampdoria on Monday. Cremonese remained bottom of Serie A, 11 points off safety.
Cremonese pulled off a huge upset when they beat Napoli on penalties in the Coppa Italia last month. Then he went on to eliminate Roma and reached the semi-finals for only the second time in his history.
But they haven’t won the league all season and their chances of getting anything from Sunday’s game in the 22nd minute have dwindled.
Defender Leonardo Cernicola attempted to head a cross wide from a corner kick but it fell to Kvaratskhelia, who cut inside from the left, carved some space and drilled into the far corner.
Osimhen has scored in his last five matches and made it six in a row with perhaps the easiest of his 17 league goals this season. Cremonese goalkeeper Marco Karnicki managed to get a hand from Giovanni Di Lorenzo’s header from a corner kick but Kim Min-jae’s header turned into an assist for Osimhen to practically tap on the line.
Elmas scored home in the 79th minute, angled into the far bottom corner, eight minutes after he came off the bench.
Disallowed targets
Still suffering from a huge points penalty, Juventus moved closer to last place in the European qualifiers in Serie A with a 1-0 victory over fierce rivals Fiorentina.
Adrien Rabiot scored the only goal of the game in the first half and both teams had goals ruled out for offside, including a late equalizer for Fiorentina.
Juventus, who suffered a 15-point penalty last month for a false accounting, moved within one point of seventh-placed Turin and the Europa League. Fiorentina, who could have catapulted the Bianconeri with a win, were five points behind.
Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri decided to unleash the superstar trio of Angel Di Maria and former Fiorentina players Dusan Vlahovic and Federico Chiesa.
The game was fiery from the start but it took until the 34th minute for the deadlock to be broken.
A cross was deflected but only to Di Maria on the right side of the area and he returned the ball to Rabiot for a shot at the back post. Fiorentina goalkeeper Pietro Terraciano kicked the ball wide but goal-line technology told the referee it had already crossed.
Believing he had doubled his team’s lead on the hour mark, Vlahović made a huge display of not celebrating against his former side but the goal was ruled out as he was marginally offside on Philip Kostić’s through ball.
Gaetano Castrovilli equalized with one minute left. After reviewing the goal on the pitch screen, the referee decided that Luca Ranieri was offside and interfering with play during preparation.
The fastest goal
Destiny-Odoje scored the fastest goal in Serie A this season, but it wasn’t enough for his side to win as Udinese drew 2-2 against Sassuolo.
Udoji scored after just 25 seconds, but it was almost immediately ruled out as Matheus Henrique equalized in the sixth minute.
The kick had been deflected off Jaka Bijol but the Udinese defender made up for it on the 28th when he slid in to induce Lazar Vujadin Samardžić to curl the free kick into the net.
However, Sassuolo equalized again at the end of the first half as Udinese defender Nehoen Perez turned the ball into his own net.
Udinese progressed equally with Torino on points. Monza won 1-0 at Bologna to leave both teams a point clear of Udinese.