MILAN (AP) — Kevin De Bruyne’s goal could prove costly for Napoli despite it setting the defending champion on the way to a 3-1 win over Inter Milan and back to the top of Serie A on Saturday.
De Bruyne appeared to pull a muscle as he converted a first-half penalty, immediately clutching the back of his right thigh. The former Manchester City player looked distraught and had to be helped off the field by two medical staff.
Scott McTominay and Frank Anguissa also scored for Napoli after the break, either side of an Inter penalty converted by Hakan Çalhanoğlu.
The result got Napoli back to winning ways — after last weekend’s loss at Torino and Tuesday’s chastening 6-2 defeat at PSV Eindhoven in the Champions League — and lifted it a point above second-placed AC Milan, which drew against Pisa on Friday.
Inter, which had been on a seven-match winning run, was left in fourth.
Napoli was already struggling with injuries and its problems got worse when De Bruyne was forced off after firing his spot-kick powerfully into the bottom corner.
The penalty had been awarded after Inter midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan was adjudged to have fouled Giovanni Di Lorenzo. Mkhitaryan also went off injured.
Inter came close to levelling the match in the dying seconds of the first half as Alessandro Bastoni hit the crossbar and Denzel Dumfries clipped the post.
The visitors continued to pour forward after the break but McTominay doubled Napoli’s lead in the 54th minute following a rapid counterattack. He sprung the offside trap to run onto Leonardo Spinazzola’s fine pass and drive it into the bottom corner from the edge of the area.
It was McTominay’s third goal this week after his brace against PSV.
Çalhanoğlu reduced the deficit five minutes later with a penalty after Napoli defender Alessandro Buongiorno charged down a Lautaro Martínez header with his arm.
However, Anguissa restored Napoli’s two-goal advantage in the 67th when he finished off another clinical counterattack.
Udinese beat Lecce 3-2 for its first home win since March 1.
Jesper Karlström, Keinan Davis and Adam Buksa scored for Udinese, which had picked up just two points in its previous four matches.
Udinese moved up to eighth, three points off the top four. Como was sixth after it was held to a 0-0 draw at Parma.
Atalanta was playing at Cremonese later.
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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