MILAN: Napoli continued their tit-for-tat battle with Juventus at the top of Serie A by crushing third-placed Lazio 4-1 on Saturday to reclaim top spot from the champions with their eighth league win in a row.

Maurizio Sarri’s team also boosted their credentials as Italy’s most entertaining team, recovering from an early goal down to level at the end of the first half and then blowing Lazio away.

Napoli, who have 63 points from 24 games, moved one ahead of Juve who briefly went top after beating Fiorentina 2-0 on Friday and have also won their last eight league games.

The pattern was the same as the previous two weekends when Juve played first, won and went top only to be pulled back by their rivals. Juve will also play first for the next four rounds of matches, a situation which has drawn complaints from Napoli coach Maurizio Sarri.

“It was a win earned with heart and soul,” said Napoli goalscorer Jose Callejon of his side who are targeting a third Serie A title and first since 1990. “We are working together to achieve the dream. We’ll give our all to the end. We’ve had this dream in our minds since the first day of pre-season training and must continue like this.”

Earlier, AC Milan’s revival under Gennaro Gattuso showed no signs of stopping as they won 4-0 at relegation-threatened SPAL, extending their unbeaten run to eight matches in all competitions, while Crotone and Atalanta splashed their way to a 1-1 draw.

Lazio dropped 16 points behind the leading pair after failing to capitalise on a flying start at the San Paolo Stadium when defender Stefan de Vrij got between the Napoli defence to nudge Ciro Immobile’s cross past Pepe Reina in the third minute.

The visitors looked dangerous until Callejon sprung the offside trap to latch on to Jorginho’s inspired through ball and fire past Thomas Strakosha to level two minutes before halftime.

Napoli’s second came from an unfortunate Lazio own goal as Brazilian defender Wallace tried to intercept a Callejon centre on 53 minutes only to send the ball past his own goalkeeper Thomas Strakosha.

Lazio were reeling two minutes later when left-back Mario Rui scored with a long-range effort which took a lucky deflection off Piotr Zielinski, with the Polish midfielder setting up Dries Mertens, back after an ankle injury, for the fourth and his 15th goal in Serie A this season after 72 minutes.

Patrick Cutrone, a Milan product who was preferred in the starting line-up to 38 million euro signing Andre Silva, put Milan ahead with a close-range goal in the second minute after SPAL goalkeeper Alex Meret parried Alessio Romagnoli’s header.

The 20-year-old struck again in the 65th minute from another rebound before midfielder Lucas Biglia and substitute Fabio Borini completed the scoring, leaving Milan seventh on 38 points and behind Sampdoria on goal difference.

Atalanta are a further point behind Milan after snatching a point in atrocious conditions on a rain-sodden pitch.

Rolando Mandragora put Crotone ahead with 10 minutes left but Argentine defender Jose Luis Palomino equalised two minutes from time with his first Serie A goal since joining Atalanta from Bulgarian champions Ludogorets Razgrad last year.

Published in Dawn, February 12th, 2018