Serie A league leaders Napoli last evening suffered a humiliating 0-4 defeat to AC Milan.
Napoli’s only other losses in the Italian league this season both came by scores of 1-0 to inter Milan in January and Lazio a month ago.
The visitors opened the scoring through Rafael Leao and added further goals through Leao, who got his second, Brahim Diaz and Alexis Saelemaekers
AC Milan came into the game on a poor run of form, losing two in three games but their win pushed them into third place and they will be hoping to maintain their form.
Napoli coach Luciano Spalletti admitted that his side was outplayed by AC Milan.
“We performed below our level,” admitted Spalletti during the post-match interview. “Milan put in a great performance. They started strong, they took advantage of all the situations we gave them.”
No Osimhen, No Party for Napoli
Napoli were missing star striker Victor Osimhen, who returned from the international break with an injury, and it showed in a lackluster performance.
Osimhen who is the leading goal scorer in Serie A with 21 goals, played in two of Nigeria’s Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against Guinea-Bissau at home and away.
Before the international break, he scored a brace against Torino in Serie A.
However, Spalletti feels that the international break affected his team negatively.
“In these teams there are many players who give everything for the national team…… the trips and it may be that they come back a little tired. Oliveira came back with a problem, Osimhen came back with a problem. We were a little unlucky for this round with the national teams,” he said
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Milan moved up to third place in the table, while Napoli’s third defeat of the season keeps them 16 points clear of Lazio as the title race heats up.
Gli Azzurri will travel to Lecce on Friday for their match number 29th of the season.
