Milan, Nov 23: David Neres provided two goals and an assist to help Napoli beat Atalanta 3-1 and move top of Serie A on Saturday.
It was the first time Neres had scored since January.
Napoli is a point ahead of Inter Milan, Roma and Bologna but could be overtaken on Sunday when Roma visits Cremonese and Inter hosts Milan in a city derby. Milan is also only three points behind Napoli.
Bologna won 3-0 at Udinese earlier, while sixth-place Juventus was held to a 1-1 draw at bottom club Fiorentina.Napoli was without a win in November having drawn in Serie A and the Champions League before losing to Bologna before the international break.
It took the lead in the 17th minute when Neres raced away from his marker and kept his cool to slot into the far bottom corner.
He had waited 11 months for that goal but only had to wait another 21 minutes before scoring again, firing home a smart pass from Scott McTominay.Neres then turned provider on the stroke of halftime with a cross from the right for Noa Lang to head in his first goal for Napoli since joining from PSV Eindhoven in the offseason.
Substitute Gianluca Scamacca pulled one back seven minutes into the second half but it proved little more than a consolation for Atalanta and new coach Raffaele Palladino.
Pobega scores doubleBologna winger Riccardo Orsolini, the league’s leading scorer, recovered from a rare penalty miss to set up Tommaso Pobega for the first of his two goals.Bologna struggled to break Udinese down but was given a golden chance shortly before halftime when Udinese defender Kingsley Ehizibue blocked Pobega’s shot with his elbow.However, Maduka Okoye saved the resulting penalty from Orsolini – who had scored 15 of his 16 previous spot kicks.
Orsolini thought he had redeemed himself minutes later but his would-be goal was ruled out for offside.
Bologna broke the deadlock in the 54th minute. Orsolini knocked down a cross-field pass and cut inside before rolling it across for Pobega to drill into the bottom left corner.
Worse was to come for Udinese six minutes later as Okoye’s terrible pass was intercepted by Pobega to score his second of the game.
Udinese did not learn from that and got into another mess trying to play out from the back in stoppage time, allowing Federico Bernardeschi to sweep into an empty net.Former players shineJuventus was held to its third straight draw as it struggled to deal with Fiorentina and a fired-up Moise Kean.
The 25-year-old Kean, who started his career at Juventus, was returning from a shin injury and he was Fiorentina’s most threatening player in the first half, during which he hit the crossbar.
Juventus took the lead in the sixth minute of stoppage time with a fierce, 25-yard shot from Filip Kostic.
There had been so much time added on because play had to be halted because of racist chanting directed at former Fiorentina forward Dusan Vlahovic. (AP)
