Fiorentina
have leapfrogged Napoli into second place in Serie A with a convincing 3-0 home
win over Udinese on Sunday.
Croatian
midfielder Milan Badelj scored on 26 minutes as his deflected shot wrong-footed
Orestis Karnezis, who stood no chance when Josip Ilicic took a penalty on 62
and Gonzalo Rodriguez nodded home four minutes from time.
"Today
we played a very difficult match against an in-form team and we had to put in a
very intense performance," Fiorentina coach Paulo Sousa said.
La Viola
have 32 points from 15 games, Inter Milan lead on 33 after beating Genoa 1-0 on
Saturday, while Napoli remain on 31 and failed to go top after losing 3-2 at
Bologna.
Home
striker Mattia Destro and Napoli's Gonzalo Higuain scored a brace apiece as the
combative strugglers prevailed in a pulsating game opening the Sunday
programme.
"It
was a bitter defeat, but it can help us grow," Napoli coach Maurizio Sarri
said. "Unfortunately there was the risk of arriving mentally drained and
the fear turned into reality because probably we would have won this game 20
days ago.
"We
came from a game against Inter (winning 2-1) that drained our energies and we
should have recharged our batteries. Unfortunately today the episodes were
against us, but we allowed Bologna too much room." In Florence, Nikola
Kalinic missed an early chance but was later floored by Emmanuel Badu which
allowed Ilicic to seal the game from the spot.
The guests'
best chance went begging when Silvan Widmer nodded a free kick against the post
on the half hour.
At the
Renato Dall'Ara, visiting Napoli soon found themselves two goals down.
Destro
took a long pass from Amadou Diawara and got the better of Raul Albiol to fire
in on 14 minutes. Keeper Pepe Reina was again helpless seven minutes later when
Luca Rossettini headed in unmarked from a corner.
Napoli's
first chance was a saved header from Lorenzo Insigne on 33 minutes, followed by
a Jose Callejon shot that came off the right post after deflections from Marios
Oikonomou and Mirante.
Destro
made it three on the hour with a low shot that saw Reina fumble as he dived to
his left, before Napoli striker Gonzalo Higuain struck twice on 87 and 90
minutes to stay top of the scoring charts on 14 goals.
Elsewhere,
Atalanta beat Palermo 3-0 despite the dismissal of Giulio Migliaccio, Chievo
had Simone Pepe sent off late in a 2-0 win at Frosinone and Verona, with new
coach Luigi Delneri on the bench, lost 1-0 at home to Empoli.
Later
action saw Sassuolo drub Sampdoria 3-1 with Francesco Acerbi, Sergio Floccari
and Lorenzo Pellegrini securing the win before the break.
Roma drew
1-1 at Torino Saturday, staying on fourth on 28 points as champions Juventus
won 2-0 at Lazio Friday to move on 27
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