Napoli's Top of Serie A Lead Strengthened by Victory over AC Milan

Napoli extended their lead at the summit of the Serie A standings to seven points after securing a convincing 2-0 victory over AC Milan on Tuesday. Antonio Conte's rejuvenated squad dominated the match from the opening whistle, with Romelu Lukaku netting an early goal and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia scoring a stunning strike in the first half. Napoli now boast an impressive 25 points, while defending champions Inter Milan trail behind on 18 points but have the opportunity to narrow the gap as they face Empoli on Wednesday. AC Milan's third loss of the season sees them languishing in eighth place, a significant 11 points adrift of the pacesetters.

Belgian striker Lukaku scored his fourth goal of the season since joining the 2023 Italian champions in the summer when he broke the deadlock on five minutes.

He raced onto a pass from Frank Anguissa, held off a defender and slotted coolly past Mike Maignan in the AC Milan goal.

Napoli goalkeeper Alex Meret was forced twice into action before the half-hour to maintain his side's lead.

As the clock ticked down to half-time, Georgian winger Kvaratskhelia doubled the visitors' lead.

Picking the ball up on the left wing, he drove suddenly inside on his right foot past Youssouf Fofana and rifled a shot from distance into the far post beyond the dive of Maignan.

Alvaro Morata thought he had given Milan a lifeline two minutes after the break with a powerful header.

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However, upon VAR review he was shown to have been offside in the build-up to the goal and it was disallowed.

The hosts continued to search for a way back into the encounter and only a fine reflex save by Meret to deny Rafael Leao in the 83rd minute kept Napoli's two-goal cushion intact.

Earlier, goals in either half by Riccardo Orsolini and Jens Odgaard sent Bologna up to 10th in the table with a 2-0 win at Cagliari.

Lecce climbed off the foot of the table by beating nine-men Verona 1-0 thanks to a Patrick Dorgu goal on 51 minutes.

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The away side lost Jackson Tchatchoua to a red card five minutes before half-time, then Reda Belahyane was given his marching orders inside the final 10 minutes for a second bookable offence.

(This story has not been edited by staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)