Napoli
joined Juventus at the top of Italy's Serie A after an Edinson Cavani hat-trick
blew away Lazio in a 3-0 victory at the Stadio San Paolo.
The hosts' fourth win in five league games takes them to 13 points,
with only a missed penalty from Cavani denying Walter Mazzarri's side from
taking top spot outright in the Italian championship.
The Uruguayan became the league's top scorer with five goals after
racing to his hat-trick in just over an hour but he blazed a 75th minute
spot-kick over the bar.
Napoli, who remain unbeaten, now share an identical record of
eleven goals scored and two conceded with reigning champions Juventus, who drew
0-0 at Fiorentina on Tuesday.
Lazio -- whose German striker Miroslav Klose earned praise after
admitting to match officials that he had used his hand when bundling the ball
home early on -- suffered their second loss in as many games after starting
their campaign with three straight wins.
Meanwhile, AC Milan relieved some of the pressure on embattled
coach Massimiliano Allegri when beating ten-man Cagliari 2-0 at the San Siro to
move tenth in the table.
Allegri watched from the sidelines as he served a touchline ban
issued after he made heated protests to officials during Sunday's defeat at
Udinese but he would have been delighted to see striker Stephan El Shaarawy
grab a double -- and was further boosted by the return of Brazil's Robinho
after a month-long injury.
Both Allegri and Milan went into the game knowing that a win was
imperative after defeats in their opening games at the San Siro stadium --
against Sampdoria and Atalanta -- had led to the club's worst home start to a
season in over 80 years.
The win also meant that one of Milan and Inter, who share the San
Siro, had finally won a game -- at the tenth time of asking -- after the
installation of a new partially-synthetic pitch over the summer.
Having suffered a shock home defeat against Siena on Sunday, Inter
responded by moving up to fourth after winning 2-0 at Chievo, thanks to goals
from Alvaro Pereira and Antonio Cassano.
In the Italian capital, Sampdoria protected their unbeaten record
as they recovered from going behind to a first half Francesco Totti goal to
draw 1-1 at Roma and take third spot, three points behind the leaders.
Elsewhere, Catania beat Atalanta 2-1, Geno drew 1-1 with Parma,
Torino and Udinese played out a goalless draw while Pescara beat ten-man
Palermo 1-0 thanks to a late strike from Wladimir Weiss.
There was just one game in Spain where Atletico Madrid went second in
La Liga, and six points clear of city rivals Real, after winning 4-2 at Real
Betis.
Colombian striker Radamel Falcao scored twice to overtake Lionel
Messi at the top of La Liga's scoring charts, with Atletico's thirteen points
now just two fewer than Barcelona.
In Germany,
Szabolcs Huszti and Didier Ya Konan kept Hanover among the league leaders,
scoring or assisting in all four goals as the team beat Nuremberg 4-1 at home.
Bayern Munich top the Bundesliga after winning their opening five
games, but Hanover moved third as Konan's brace and one from the Hungarian
Huszti took their points tally to ten for the season.
Hamburg moved out of the bottom three after drawing 2-2 at Borussia
Monchengladbach, with former Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Rafael van der Vaart
opening the scoring for the visitors.
Cnn.com, September 26, 2012
No comments:
Post a Comment