Napoli hand Juventus 1st loss to continue title charge
Napoli continued their Serie A title charge on Saturday by coming from behind to win a feverish contest with rivals Juventus 2-1 and go six points clear at the top of the pile.
Antonio Conte's side bounced back from Randal Kolo Muani's strike moments from half-time in his Juve debut. Napoli won their seventh straight match thanks to a bullet header from Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa and Romelu Lukaku's 69th-minute penalty.
Napoli are hunting a second Scudetto in three seasons and Saturday's win, and in particular their dominant performance in the second half, was another sign that they, and not Inter Milan, are the team to beat.
Six points from clashes with Atalanta and Juve in successive weeks have kept Inter at bay with the reigning champions at lowly Lecce on Sunday hoping to halve the gap that separates Simone Inzaghi's team from Napoli.
The roar that accompanied the hosts' goals and the final whistle underlined the renewed belief that supporters have in their team after watching Napoli put up a dreadful defence of the Scudetto title last season.
Juve, meanwhile, are 16 points behind Napoli in fifth after falling to their first league defeat of the season, not the position expected when Thiago Motta replaced Massimiliano Allegri as coach in the summer.
Kolo Muani gave Juve a deserved half-time lead two days after finally completing his loan move to Turin from Paris Saint-Germain, where he had been frozen out by coach Luis Enrique.
He was in the right place at the right time in the 43rd minute to spin and lash home his third club goal of the season after Anguissa challenged for the ball and sent it straight to the France forward.
But Napoli were a different team after the break. After Michele Di Gregorio somehow kept out Lukaku's close-range header the Juve goalkeeper could do nothing to stop Anguissa thumping home the leveller from Matteo Politano's cross.
And there was only going to be one winner once Lukaku calmly rolled home his ninth Napoli goal from the spot after Scott McTominay was taken out by Manuel Locatelli.
Atalanta also stay seven points off the pace in third even though Mateo Retegui's brace fired them to a 2-1 win at Como earlier on Saturday.