Napoli, December 5 (BNA): Napoli gave up its lead to lose 3-2 at home to Atalanta, and fell from first to third, with the gap between the top four teams in the Italian Serie A narrowing to four points.
Hosts Luciano Spalletti recovered from a goal down and took the lead early in the second half, but the visiting side Bergamo managed to come back on their own and inflict their second league defeat of the season for the hosts, Reuters reported.
With this result, Napoli, who has been leading the title race since the fourth week, retained a score of 36 points, two points behind the new leader Milan, one point behind Inter Milan and two points over fourth-placed Atalanta.
Ruslan Malinovsky hit a shot in the top corner to put the visitors ahead after seven minutes, but Peter Zielinsky scored the equalizer near the end of the first half at high speed.
Then Dries Mertens ran into the offside trap and poked at a quiet end to score his fifth goal in four league games early in the second half, but Atalanta responded superbly.
Duvan Zapata’s header from the post as a warning sign before Merih Demiral ran into a through ball to equalize in the 66th minute and then led the winner Remo Froeller into the bottom corner five minutes later.