Football
PA Sport 6y

Napoli beat Bologna to leapfrog Juve in Serie A; Milan edge Lazio

Dries Mertens scored twice as Napoli beat Bologna 3-1 to reclaim top spot in the Serie A table from reigning champions Juventus.

Following a 2-0 Bianconeri victory over Chievo on Saturday night, long-time leaders Napoli needed a quick response but instead former Inter Milan striker Rodrigo Palacio gave Bologna a first-minute lead.

Bologna defender Ibrahima Mbaye obliged with the equaliser as he put through his own net in comedy fashion just four minutes later.

Adam Masina fouled Jose Callejon to concede a penalty that Mertens tucked away eight minutes before the break and just before the hour, the Belgian winger turned home an assist from Lorenzo Insigne.

Third-placed Lazio slipped further behind the top two after their six-game unbeaten run was ended by a 2-1 defeat at AC Milan.

Milan midfielder Giacomo Bonaventura scored the winner at San Siro, heading home a minute before the break to earn Gennaro Gattuso's men a third successive victory.

Italy Under-21 forward Patrick Cutrone had earlier nodded Milan ahead before they were quickly pegged back by a fine finish from Lazio midfielder Adam Marusic.

In Sunday's late kick-off, fifth-placed Roma were left to rue a first-half penalty miss as they were beaten 1-0 at home by Sampdoria.

Alessandro Florenzi squandered the 39th-minute spot-kick at Stadio Olimpico, seeing his effort tipped over the crossbar by goalkeeper Emiliano Viviano after the ball was handled by Sampdoria's Poland defender Bartosz Bereszynski.

And the sixth-placed visitors made the Giallorossi pay when Colombian forward Duvan Zapata bagged the winner 10 minutes from time.

Sunday's shock result came in Florence, where lowly Hellas Verona pulled off a 4-1 triumph that featured a brace from Juve loanee Moise Kean.

Jagos Vukovic got the ball rolling in Tuscany and Kean, still just 17, bagged either side of the break to take the game away from mid-table Fiorentina. They did reply through Gil Dias but Alex Ferrari confirmed a joyous end to Verona's four-game losing streak.

In the early game, a last-gasp Alberto Paloschi header saw strugglers SPAL force a 1-1 draw with Inter Milan, who had gone ahead early in the second half through a Francesco Vicari own goal.

Hellas and SPAL remain in the relegation zone despite positive results, but they will just be grateful they are not basement boys Benevento, who were thrashed 3-0 at Torino.

Iago Falque fired a third-minute opener and once Benevento lost goalkeeper Vid Belec to a red card the floodgates were open and improving Torino pulled further clear thanks to Mbaye Niang and Joel Obi.

Elsewhere, Udinese shook off the dismissal of Samir to edge past Genoa 1-0 with a goal from Valon Behrami and Crotone and Cagliari shared the points from a 1-1 draw at Stadio Ezio Scida.

Marcello Trotta gave Crotone the upper hand before the half-hour mark but Cagliari reacted to a red card for Fabio Pisacane by levelling through Luca Cigarini deep into first-half stoppage time.

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