Napoli move into top three

Napoli mov-ed joint second in Serie A on Saturday following a 3-0 home romp against Lecce to go level on points with Juventus and AC Milan, who face off Sunday in Turin.

Jose Mourinho’s Inter Milan will also be in action Sunday as they seek to extend their six-point lead at the summit with a home success over tailenders Chievo.

Napoli, whose only two scudettos came in the halcyon days of Diego Maradona in 1987 and 1990, bolstered their dreams of having a say in this season’s title race with an early Marek Hamsik penalty befoke Slovakian midfielder Michele Pazienza made it 2-0 shortly before the break.

Argentine striker German Denis bagged the third midway through the second half to wrap up the points and take Napoli onto 30 points from 16 games - four ahead of Fiorentina, who have a game in hand and host midtable Catania on sunday.

In Saturday’s other game Bologna thanked a Marco Di Vaio hattrick as they whipped Torino 5-2 to end a run of five draws. Di Vaio moved joint top of the goal charts with Diego Di Milito of Genoa as Bologna exited the drop zone with Torino dropping into the bottom three instead.

Torino were twice in front through Simone Barone and then Ignazio Abate after substitute Sergio Volpi had equalised.

ROME, Sunday, AFP