Napoli was shamed in the Serie A on Wednesday evening. In-house, the team of trainer Luciano Spalletti received a visit from Spezia, which was too strong with 0-1. It was the fourth time in the last five Serie A matches that the Neapolitans failed to win. At the same time, AC Milan did excellent business visiting Empoli. I Rossoneric won convincingly 2-4. Internazionale, 46 points, will enter the winter break as the list leader, followed by AC Milan (42) and Napoli (39).
Napoli – Spezia 0-1
Napoli had an extremely unfortunate evening at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona, where they fell behind in the 37th minute, despite the considerable dominance in the field. Simone Bastoni delivered a twisting free kick in the penalty area. Juan Jesus tried to process the ball into a corner, but instead he headed the ball into his own goal: 0-1. The pressure on Spezia’s goal was further increased in the second company, although Napoli’s attacking spirit did not yield a valid hit. Hirving Lozano thought to score five minutes after the break on a pass from Matteo Politano, who, however, turned out to be offside in the build-up to the equalizer. Andrea Petagna’s goal was also disallowed. The replacement for Dries Mertens made a pushing error just before nodding in. Napoli eventually did not recover from the blow from the first. At Spezia, goalkeeper Jeroen Zoet had to settle for a place on the bench as usual.
Napoli doesn’t look good! ?? The former Serie A leader has already lost three games in a row and is again trailing low-flyer Spezia ??#ZiggoSport #NapoliSpezia #Switch pic.twitter.com/jjuQEBKcAm
— Ziggo Sport Football (@ZS_Voetbal) Dec 22, 2021
Empoli – AC Milan 1-4
The first chance of the match was scored by Empoli. In the second minute of play
Nedim Bajrami hoped to give his team a surprising lead right away, but his attempt from the edge of the box went just wide of the mark. AC Milan was careful with his first opportunity. Alexis Saelemaekers crossed Olivier Giroud, who, with his back to the goal, put the ball in front of Franck Kessié. The midfielder shot in flawlessly: 0-1. The home side showed resilience and tied the score six minutes later.
In a vain attempt to work the leather out of his own sixteen, Kessié played on the eager Bajrami. The attacker suddenly took the ball out of the air and passed goalkeeper Mike Maignan: 1-1. Kessié made up for his unfortunate moment on the stroke of the halftime signal. The Ivorian was played in the penalty area by Saelemaekers, after which he struck with the left and goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario gated: 1-2. Afterwards, the Milan victory was still in danger, but the lead was no longer relinquished. After more than an hour of play, Alessandro Florenzi took care of the liberating 1-3. Empoli’s wall was not well positioned, so the right-back could suddenly shoot in from the free kick. Theo Hernández even scored the 1-4 with a nice volley in the 69th minute. Nevertheless, the final chord was played by Empoli, who came to 2-4 thanks to a used penalty from Andrea Pinamonti.
| No. | Team | m | W | G | V | +/- | Pnt |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Internazionale | 19 | 14 | 4 | 1 | 34 | 46 |
| 2 | AC Milan | 19 | 13 | 3 | 3 | 18 | 42 |
| 3 | Napoli | 18 | 12 | 3 | 3 | 22 | 39 |
| 4 | Atalanta | 19 | 11 | 5 | 3 | 14 | 38 |
| 5 | Juventus | 19 | 10 | 4 | 5 | 10 | 34 |
| 6 | AS Roma | 19 | 10 | 2 | 7 | 10 | 32 |
| 7 | Fiorentina | 19 | 10 | 2 | 7 | 9 | 32 |
| 8 | Lazio | 19 | 9 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 31 |
| 9 | empoli | 19 | 8 | 3 | 8 | -4 | 27 |
| 10 | Bologna | 19 | 8 | 3 | 8 | -4 | 27 |
| 11 | Torino | 19 | 7 | 4 | 8 | 4 | 25 |
| 12 | Hellas Verona | 19 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 2 | 24 |
| 13 | Sassuolo | 19 | 6 | 6 | 7 | -1 | 24 |
| 14 | Udinese | 18 | 4 | 8 | 6 | -2 | 20 |
| 15 | sampdoria | 19 | 5 | 5 | 9 | -8 | 20 |
| 16 | Venice | 19 | 4 | 5 | 10 | -16 | 17 |
| 17 | special | 18 | 3 | 4 | 11 | -21 | 13 |
| 18 | Genoa | 19 | 1 | 8 | 10 | -18 | 11 |
| 19 | Cagliari | 19 | 1 | 7 | 11 | -23 | 10 |
| 20 | Salernitana | 18 | 2 | 2 | 14 | -31 | 8 |