Goals by Lorenzo Insigne and Gonazalo Higuain saw Napoli to a

precious 2-1 win over Juventus on Saturday and compounded the champions’

poor start to the season days before a crucial Champions League fixture

with Sevilla.

Juventus had earned their only points from a win and two draws in

their five opening games before travelling to a Napoli side that had hit

10 goals in their past three outings, including a 5-0 Europa League win

over Club Brugge.

After conceding their third defeat of the season, Juve coach

Massimiliano Allegri admitted fighting for the title this season has

just become more difficult.

“I don’t know about our chances of winning the title now, but we’ll be fighting all the way for every point,” he told Sky Sport.

“We’re in a difficult moment, but it’s a long tournament and we have a break for international duty coming up soon.”

Napoli coach Maurizio Sarri applauded his side.

“We showed a lot of determination and character. Even after Juve’s goal we kept to our gameplan,” he said.

Allegri gambled by leaving Spanish striker Alvaro Morata on the bench

and with Mario Mandzukic sidelined through injury it meant starts for

Simone Zaza and Paulo Dybala. 

Napoli, looking for just their second league win under new coach

Maurizio Sarri, deployed their new-look 4-3-3 with Insigne, Higuain and

Jose Callejon spearheading an attack that kept the visitors on their

toes throughout a pulsating encounter at the San Paolo stadium.

While Zaza showed promise in the early exchanges, the Italy striker

was all too often ruled offside after seeing a great chance pushed to

safety by Pepe Reina.

Insigne broke the deadlock in style in the 26th minute to send the stadium into raptures.

Pouncing on a Mario Lemina error outside the area, Insigne found

Higuain with a pinpoint pass which the Argentinian fired back into the

Italian’s path and he beat Gianluigi Buffon with a low shot from outside

the area.

Napoli could have doubled their lead on the stroke of half-time after

Marek Hamsik found Faouzi Ghoulam with a defence-splitting pass but

Buffon did well to parry the Algerian’s drive across goal as Higuain

drove in at the back post.

From the highs of reaching last season’s Champions League final,

having already sealed a first league and Cup double in 20 years,

Juventus have come back to earth with a bump in recent weeks.

Despite an improved second half, the champions struggled, and mistakes proved costly too.

Higuain, who hit a brace in a 5-0 rout of Lazio last week, doubled

Napoli’s lead on the hour after Hernanes gave up possession for Juve,

the Argentinian pouncing and powering down the left flank to beat Buffon

down low.

Juventus refused to buckle and barely a minute later the visitors

reduced the arrears when Lemina latched on to Dybala’s cross from the

left to squeeze the ball past Pepe Reina from a tight angle.

Morata replaced Dybala with 20 minutes to play and soon after fired

just a metre wide of Reina’s far post after collecting Roberto Pereyra’s

ball on the edge of the area.

Juve pressed for a late equaliser, but were instead handed a third

defeat of the season that leaves them 10 points behind leaders Inter

Milan ahead of their home clash with Fiorentina on Sunday.

Roma warmed up for their Champions League clash at BATE Borisov with a

comprehensive 5-1 win over promoted Carpi to move to within four points

of Inter.

Rudi Garcia’s Serie A title challengers began their Group E campaign

with a hard-fought 1-1 home draw with defending champions Barcelona a

fortnight ago.

Days before their trip to Belarus, no less than five different Roma

players hit the net in a one-sided performance that also saw goalkeeper

Morgan De Sanctis save a penalty for the hosts.

Garcia, however, could be made to sweat on the fitness of Francesco

Totti, Seydou Keita and Edin Dzeko after all three were forced off with

suspected knocks.

“Having three players come off within 55 minutes means it was a costly victory,” said Garcia.