Napoli 0-3 Atalanta: Champions lose further ground in race for European spots

Napoli were defeated 3-0 at home by Atalanta in Serie A on Saturday, as the Italian champions fell further behind in the race for Champions League qualification.

Aleksei Miranchuk, Gianluca Scamacca, and Teun Koopmeiners scored to give the visitors their first league victory in five games, boosting sixth-placed Atalanta to 50 points. Napoli are in seventh place, five points behind after playing one more game.

"If you win 3-0 in Napoli, you can only be satisfied. From the first half we created a lot and held the game well. Napoli also created, but overall we were superior," Atalanta coach Gian Piero Gasperini told DAZN.

Napoli players knelt before kickoff in support of teammate Juan Jesus, four days after Inter Milan's Francesco Acerbi was cleared of racially insulting the Brazilian during a Serie A match.

Napoli almost conceded inside three minutes at the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium when Miranchuk collected a fine pass from Mario Pasalic and fired a shot off the post.

He made no mistake in the 26th minute, scoring from close range after a scramble in Napoli's box.

Scamacca doubled the visitors' lead on the stroke of halftime, forcing Napoli defender Jesus into a mistake and shooting from the edge of the box past goalkeeper Alex Meret into the bottom left corner.

Napoli were missing playmaker Khvicha Kvaratskhelia due to injury, and despite dominating possession, they lacked quality in the final third.

They hit the post twice in a minute, but Atalanta sealed the win in the 88th minute with Koopmeiners' effort into the corner of the net.

The Dutch midfielder has scored 10 goals since the turn of the year, bringing his total to 13 for the season.

"The chances of going to the Champions League have shrunk, but we have to look ahead, improve and try to win games," Napoli coach Francesco Calzona said.

SportsLigue