Inter Milan Go 12 Points Clear At The Top Of The Table As Napoli Hit Six Past Sassuolo
Written By Onyeka Daniel
Today, the last postponed fixtures from the 21st round in the Italian Serie A took place with Napoli going away to Sassuolo while Inter Milan welcomed Atalanta to the Giuseppe Meazza stadium. The two teams, (Inter and Napoli) alongside Lazio and Fiorentina played at the new mini-tournament of the Supercoppa Italiana in Saudi Arabia in January.
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For Napoli, they were in dire need of points after appointing their third manager of the season and facing Sassuolo looked like a match that could provide another upset after their draw against Cagliari at the weekend.
But the Serie A defending champions weren’t in the mood for any upset as they totally dominated and destroyed the home side. It was the home side that got the ball rolling in the 17th minute through U. Racic, before the Partenopei responded in the 29th minute through their centre-back, Amir Rrahmani and from there, it was Napoli all through.
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Nigerian striker, Victor Osimhen who recently returned from playing at the Afcon tournament got his team in front in 31st minute before grabbing his brace 10 minutes later and it was Italian winger, Matteo Politano who provided the assist for both goals to end the first half at 3-1.
Napoli and Osimhen continued from where they left off as play resumed and Osimhen grabbed his hat-trick in the 47th minute, but the Partenopei weren’t done yet. Four minutes later, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia finally got on the score sheet after providing the assist for Osimhen’s third goal and it was Osimhen who provided the assist for his partner.
The Georgian soon got his brace in the 75th minute to cap off an exciting result for the team and their new coach, Francesco Calzona. In the other game, Inter managed to get the better of Atalanta despite missing the likes of Hakan Calhanoglu, Marcus Thuram and Francesco Acerbi to injury.
The Nerazzurri got the ball rolling in the 26th minute, after the away side had their goal ruled out for a hand ball earlier. Italian defender, Matteo Darmian got his first goal of the season with assist from Henrikh Mkhitaryan. Lautaro Martinez doubled the lead before half time as his powerful left foot strike in stoppage time of the first half got him his 23rd Serie A goal of the season.
He could have gotten his brace in the second half when presented with a chance to score from the penalty spot in the 54th minute but his penalty was saved. His teammate, Federico Dimarco was on hand to save his blushes as he scored from the rebound to make it 3 goals. In the 72nd minute, second half substitute, Davide Frattesi added the fourth to round up the scores.
But he was substituted a minute later as he seemed to have picked up a knock. With this result, Inter now hold a 12 point lead at the top of the table after 26 round of matches played and they look well on course to win the Scudetto and add that second star to their badge with the 20th league title.
Meanwhile…
Atalanta thought they had taken the lead against Inter, but the goal was disallowed for handball in a borderline decision, as seen by examining the IFAB guidelines. Mario Pasalic intercepted a wayward Benjamin Pavard pass and Aleksei Miranchuk charged down the Alessandro Bastoni clearance, allowing Charles De Ketelaere to fire in the rebound.
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It was disallowed following a VAR On-Field Review, as Miranchuk blocked the ball with his arm. However, it was far from a clear-cut decision, even if the Russia international had his arm raised and away from the body. The IFAB guidelines have a very specific cut-off point to differentiate from the shoulder and area of the arm that is valid to control the ball and where the arm begins.
Images show that the ball struck Miranchuk more or less on that line, so it is fortunate for Inter that the footage was so clear and allowed the referee to make a decision. Naturally, any subjective decision such as handball must be taken by the referee, so VAR can only recommend an On-Field Review and not make the call themselves.
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