Napoli's slim hopes of snatching the Serie A title from Juventus evaporated with a 2-0 defeat at Inter Milan on Saturday,

Mauro Icardi provided Inter with the early lead before Marcelo Brozovic added a second goal shortly before half-time.

In just the fourth minute, Icardi raced onto a lofted through ball from Gary Medel and brought the ball down expertly with his left foot before a neat lofted finish with his right to go one up, with Pepe Reina and his defence left incensed at the lack of an offside flag.

The lead was doubled on the brink of half-time when Stevan Jovetic found space and Icardi beat the offside trap once again before teeing up Brozovic, who lifted the ball beyond Reina in similar fashion to the opener.

Juventus can move nine points clear with a victory over relegation-threatened Palermo on Sunday.

Inter boosted their chances of qualifying for the Champions League, moving within three points of third-placed Roma ahead of their game at Atalanta.

Carpi grabbed a vital win in their relegation battle as they came from behind to beat 10-man Genoa 4-1.

The Biancorossi had suffered back-to-back defeats in the league, leaving them level on points with 18th-placed Palermo, but three goals in the space of five minutes moved them clear of the bottom three.

Leonardo Pavoletti opened the scoring in the 34th minute, but Armando Izzo's sending-off in the 45th minute proved the catalyst for a turnaround in first-half stoppage time.

After Izzo was dismissed for a second yellow card Antonio Di Gaudio's acrobatic strike and Lorenzo Lollo's goal put Carpi 2-1 in front before the break.

Lorenzo Pasciuti slotted home four minutes into the second half before Stefano Sabelli rounded off an impressive win from close-range late on.

Andrea Belotti's penalty deep into stoppage time gave Torino a 1-0 win over Bologna.

Toro recovered from back-to-back defeats to climb to 10th in the table after Belotti picked himself off the floor to calmly stroke home his 10th goal of the season.

Bologna, who are now without a win in their last eight games, could have taken the lead as Emanuele Giacherini hit a post and Juan Camilo Zuniga forced a save out of Daniele Padelli.

However the visitors claimed the win in the third minute of time added on when Domenico Maietta was adjudged to have dragged Belotti down and the striker made no mistake from the spot.

Source:
courtesy of ESPNFC

by PA Sport

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