Cavani, Dzemaili star in eight-goal thriller
AC Milan‘s defender Daniele Bonera, midfielder Riccardo Montolivo and forward Stephan El Shaarawy celebrate at the end of the Serie A football match between Chievo and AC Milan at the Bentegodi Stadium in Verona on March 30, 2013. AC Milan won 1-0.
ROME (AFP): Uruguayan international Edinson Cavani put his travel nightmares behind him and came off the bench to score a brace in a 5-3 win over Torino that sent Napoli back into second place in Serie A on Saturday.
Leaders Juventus had earlier taken their lead over Napoli to 12 points after a comfortable 2-1 win over Inter Milan at the San Siro dropped the Nerazzurri to sixth place.
AC Milan then provisionally jumped up into second thanks to a 1-0 win away to ten-man Chievo.
However, Napoli overcame a patchy first half to see Swiss midfielder Blerim Demaili score a sensational hat-trick before Cavani’s late double sealed victory in the closing stages.
Juvenus are now nine points ahead of Napoli with Milan a further two points adrift and Fiorentina, despite a 2-1 reverse away to Cagliari, fourth one point ahead of Lazio.
Juventus’ coach Antonio Conte gestures with a ball during the Italian serie A football match between Inter Milan and Juventus, on March 30, 2013, at the San Siro stadium in Milan. Juve won 2-1.
Despite most pundits claiming Juve have on hand on the title, coach Antonio Conte said nothing is won yet.
“It’s another step in the right direction,” said Conte, who led Juventus to the title last year in his first season in charge.
“But Napoli and Milan won’t wait for us if we slip up, so we have to keep on winning.”
Napoli started with star striker Cavani on the bench after the Uruguayan’s midweek arrival from South America following World Cup qualifying was delayed due to flight problems.
However, the visitors opened the scoring in sensational fashion after just 10 minutes when Dzemaili met Lorenzo Insigne’s low corner 25 metres out with a first-time drive that gave Jean-Francois Gillet no chance.
Torino levelled against the run of play on the half hour.
A corner caused confusion in the Napoli box and when the ball broke free to the left of goal Brazilian Vitor Barretto pounced to score his first Serie A goal since November 2010.
Inter Milan’s Argentinian forward Rodrigo Sebastian Palacio celebrates after scoring during the Italian serie A football match between Inter Milan and Juventus, on March 30, 2013, at the San Siro stadium in Milan. Juve won 2-1.
Napoli spurned the chance to take the lead when Marek Hamsik missed from the penalty spot.
However, the visitors were soon back in front when Dzemaili scored his second with a sliding shot from the edge of the area.
Torino then levelled 2-2 in the 74th minute thanks to Jonathas’s penalty after the ball had come off the hand of Cavani and took a shock lead four minutes later through Riccardo Meggiorini.
Only two minutes later, however, Dzemail put Napoli level when Juan Zuniga’s cutback was left untouched until the Swiss hit another first-timer from 20 metres that Gillet couldn’t save.
Cavani, who had replaced Insigne just after the hour, then gave Napoli the lead with a superbly-hit free kick which snuck inside Gillet’s post four minutes later.
And Serie A’s top scorer sealed the win with a 22nd league goal of the season when he rose to meet Pablo Armero’s cross to beat Gillet with a looping header on the stroke of full-time.
Napoli coach Walter Mazzarri was happy with the points, but said: “We’ve grown as a team compared to last year, but a more mature team would have held onto it’s 2-0 lead until the end.
“Instead, we have to make life difficult for ourselves.”
With only a two-point difference, the battle for coveted second place is now on.
And former Fiorentina midfielder Riccardo Montolivo warned it won’t get any easier in the final matches of the season.
“We have to stay focused until the end of the season as we’ve already played our joker card and we have make sure we don’t slip up,” said Montolivo, who poked home Milan’s winner after one of several Mario Balotelli free kicks was parried in the 25th minute.
Milan face Fiorentina away next and Montolivo added: “I played for seven seasons in Florence so it won’t be just another game for me but in my mind the aim is to get the points to play in the Champions League next season and we need to get those points against Fiorentina, Napoli and Juventus.”