MILAN (AP) — Napoli missed the chance to go top of Serie A ahead of the highly anticipated clash between league leader Inter Milan and title rival Atalanta later Sunday.
Napoli could only draw 0-0 at relegation-threatened Venezia and moved level on points with Inter but behind the defending champion on goal difference.
The first tiebreaker in Serie A is head-to-head, but Inter and Napoli have drawn both the matches between them 1-1.
Third-placed Atalanta is three points further back and all three sides could end the weekend level if Gian Piero Gasperini’s side beats Inter in Bergamo later.
The fight for the final Champions League place is also tight, with just six points separating six teams in the race for fourth place after more misery for Juventus, which lost 3-0 at Fiorentina.
Napoli almost got off to the perfect start in Venice but Giacomo Raspadori’s effort came off the left post in the fourth minute.
Venezia also had plenty of chances, with their best coming three minutes from the break. Alex Meret did well to parry from Kike Pérez and Daniel Fila’s follow-up was cleared off the line by Napoli defender Amir Rrahmani.
Napoli went even closer on the stroke of halftime but Ionut Radu pulled off a superb save to grasp Romelu Lukaku’s header on the goalline.
It was a fourth straight draw for Venezia — with two of those coming against Atalanta and Lazio — but it remained in penultimate position in the standings, five points from safety.
Motta under pressure
Juventus coach Thiago Motta is under even more pressure after his team slipped out of the top four, shipping seven goals in two matches and scoring none.
Robin Gosens and Rolando Mandragora scored within two minutes of each other in the first half and Albert Guðmundsson added another after the break as Fiorentina moved to within five points of the top four.
Juve’s season was already in tatters after a dismal 4-0 loss at home to Atalanta last weekend. The Bianconeri had also been eliminated from the Champions League and Italian Cup.
Motta’s former team, Bologna, replaced Juventus in fourth after an impressive 5-0 drubbing of sixth-placed Lazio.
Seventh-placed Roma beat Cagliari 1-0.
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Daniella Matar, The Associated Press
