De Bruyne goes off after scoring in Napoli win, Vardy celebrates 1st Cremonese goal with backflip

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.

“I live the game with my players, for better or for worse,” said Napoli coach Antonio Conte, who also steered Inter to the title in 2021. “We won despite the difficulties, we have important players absent and now De Bruyne has also been injured. Let’s say it’s not a very lucky year, maybe someone has cursed us.”

Inter, which had been on a seven-match winning run, was left in fourth.

“Inter had come to kill us, they were coming off a great moment, while we were in difficulty,” Conte added. “But we have no intention of dying and we played a tough and vigorous match, putting in an excellent performance despite the difficulties.”

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.

Vardy celebrates

Former Leicester striker Jamie Vardy celebrated in emphatic style after scoring his first goal for Cremonese, which drew 1-1 against Atalanta.

Vardy struck in the 78th minute, blasting in the rebound after Atalanta goalkeeper had made an extraordinary save with his foot to parry Alessio Zerbin’s effort.

The 38-year-old former England international celebrated acrobatically with a cartwheel and a backflip.

It was Vardy’s fourth game for Cremonese but only his second start. He signed for the Italian team in the offseason after a 13-year career at Leicester.

Marco Brescianini leveled for Atalanta.

Back on track

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 to within three points of the top four. Como was sixth after it was held to a 0-0 draw at Parma.

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