Rome (AFP)

Air for Juventus, a boulevard for Inter: the Bianconeri and Andrea Pirlo conquered a precious victory on Wednesday against Naples (2-1) while the leaders Nerazzuri won against Sassuolo (2-1) their tenth success of rank.

Inter Milan are heading more than ever towards their first scudetto since 2010, now 11 points ahead of AC Milan (2nd) and 12 over Juve (3rd), with nine games remaining to be played for all after these two matches. late.

To revive against Napoli, Juve relied on its sure values: Cristiano Ronaldo for the opener (13th), on a service from Federico Chiesa, and the returning Paolo Dybala (73rd) for the second goal of his left foot which has been so lacking in Juve for three months (knee injury).

"CR7" asserts in passing its domination on the ranking of scorers (25 achievements).

With 773 goals, he now also exceeds Romario (772 according to the unofficial total generally accepted) and has only Josef Bican (805), Austrian then Czechoslovak attacker from the 30s to the 50s, ahead of him in history.

But Juve can also always count on Gianluigi Buffon impeccable in front of his line, four days after the very average performance of the holder Wojciech Szczesny against Torino (2-2).

The record holder for matches in Serie A did not fold on the strong attempts of Giovanni Di Lorenzo (49th), Lorenzo Insigne (59th) then Fabian Ruiz (71st) and only bowed on a penalty at the end of the transformed match by Insigne (90th).

- Relief for Pirlo -

Despite a final final fear, Juve managed to keep this precious victory after a defeat against Benevento (0-1) and a draw against Torino.

Much to the relief of Andrea Pirlo, coach on the grill this week.

The "Maestro" thus preserves his place in the Top 4, synonymous with the Champions League, leaving the torments to Napoli of his friend Gennaro Gattuso, at the end of this match played six months late: at the beginning of October, the Neapolitans did not had not made the trip after two cases of Covid-19 in their workforce and the match, first given to the Bianconeri, had finally been rescheduled.

Inter Milan, without much ambition in the game but with a fierce desire not to let go of the scudetto more and more within reach, for its part did as usual: iron defense to contain the assaults of a Sassuolo largely dominating in the game and goals against Romelu Lukaku from the head (10th) and Lautaro Martinez from the left (67th).

This defeat is severe for Sassuolo, who could have benefited from a penalty at the start of the action of the second goal nerazzuro and reduced the score too late by Hamed Traoré (85th).

An Inter always more like his coach Antonio Conte, with now ten victories in the ten return matches.

© 2021 AFP