MILAN, Saturday - Inter Milan suffered an unexpected first league defeat of the season on Saturday, going down 3-1 at home to midtable Udinese, and were knocked off the top of Serie A by Napoli after they won by the same score at Torino.
In the day’s other game, AS Roma missed a second-half penalty but still beat Cagliari 1-0 with a stoppage-time goal by Federico Fazio, awarded after a consultation with the video assistant referee (VAR).
VAR was also used at the San Siro to award a second-half penalty to Udinese which Rodrigo De Paul converted in what proved to be the turning point as Inter were finally beaten in their 17th game of the campaign.
The referee initially signalled a goal kick but changed his mind and gave handball against Davide Santon after consulting the VAR.
Inter’s defeat opened the door for Napoli to move back to the top of Serie A with 42 points from 17 games, two clear of Inter. Roma’s win took them level on 38 points with third-placed Juventus, who visit Bologna on Sunday.
Napoli captain Marek Hamsik equalled Diego Maradona’s club record of 115 goals as his side raced to a 3-0 lead after half an hour, suggesting that their recent scoring troubles are behind them.
After failing to score in their last two league games, Napoli quickly refound their touch when Kalidou Koulibaly headed them in front after four minutes.
Jorginho sent Piotr Zielsinki clear of Torino’s defence for the second after 25 minutes and Hamsik fired home from Dries Mertens’ pass to finish off a flowing move on the half hour. Andrea Belotti pulled one back for Torino just after the hour.
Udinese’s win over Inter was their third in four games under coach Massimo Oddo who replaced Luigi Delneri last month, lifting them clear of the danger zone and up to 11th.
– Agencies
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