The Albany Gazette - Devastating Juve deal hammer blow to Napoli's Serie A title defence

Jonathan David, Kenan Yildiz and Filip Kostic netted in Turin as Juve, revitalised under Luciano Spalletti, moved back into fifth spot with a statement win over their fierce rivals.

Juve are level on 42 points with fourth-placed Roma but will move into the Champions League positions should the capital club lose to AC Milan in the day's late fixture.

"We played really well and had fun... today we were great," Yildiz told DAZN.

"We had fun on the pitch and with our fans today, let's hope we can keep going like this."

Napoli only lead Juve and Roma by a point and are also looking over their shoulders at Como who are a further two points behind in sixth following their six-goal hammering of Torino on Saturday.

Roma will move above Napoli into third as long as they don't lose to second-placed Milan who are trying to cut the six-point gap separating them from local rivals Inter.

Napoli now turn their attentions to Wednesday's visit of Chelsea which will decide whether Antonio Conte's team stay in the Champions League.

Conte has been dealt a difficult hand with injuries, and the only positive news from an awful evening for Napoli was the return of Romelu Lukaku who played his first minutes of the season as a substitute.

"I can't criticise the lads, they gave everything," said Conte to Sky.

"Sometimes you managed to overcome the hurdles, sometimes you don't... We know what the situation is (with injuries), but you can't cry about it, you've got to keep going."

- Troubled Napoli -

Belgium striker Lukaku was set to be introduced just as Yildiz effectively sealed the points in the 77nd minute, coolly rolling home Juve's second after a Napoli defender sloppily gave the ball to Fabio Miretti.

That was the pivotal moment of the match as Napoli were well in the game, even if they created next to nothing, after David netted the opener midway through the first half.

Jovic stuck the knife in with four minutes remaining, rifling home a powerful low finish which gave the hosts a margin of victory which didn't truly reflect the balance of play.

Former Napoli man Giacomo Raspadori scored on his full debut for Atalanta as the Bergamo club thumped Parma 4-0 to bounce back from a painful midweek defeat to Athletic Bilbao.

Gianluca Scamacca, Marten de Roon and Nikola Krstovic scored the other goals in a comfortable victory for Raffaele Palladino's team who next weekend face high-flying Como.

Bologna are 10 points away from Como, who are in the Conference League spot, after throwing away a two-goal lead to lose 3-2 at Genoa who pulled six points clear of the relegation zone with a stunning comeback.

Daniele De Rossi's Genoa were trailing by two shortly after half-time through a Lewis Ferguson strike and Sebastian Otoa's own goal, but the match was turned on its head by Bologna goalkeeper Lukasz Skorupski's near-comical red card.

Skorupski came charging out of his area to try to clear the ball but ended up wafting his foot past it and clattering into Vitinha, leaving his team down a man for over half an hour.

Genoa profited thanks to three incredible goals, starting with Ruslan Malinovskiy's thumping free-kick in the 62nd minute and finishing in stoppage time with a curling distance finish from Junior Messias.

(K.Jones--TAG)