Chievo 2 - 0 Napoli: Chievo stun Mazzarri

Posted Wednesday, February 02, 2011 by PA

Napoli missed the chance to cut the gap on leaders AC Milan at the top of Serie A as goals from Davide Moscardelli and Gennaro Sardo consigned them to a 2-0 defeat against Chievo in Verona.

Walter Mazzarri's team had gone into the game in good form after a 4-0 win over Sampdoria on Sunday, and hoped to capitalise on Milan's slip when they were held at home by Lazio on Monday.

But Napoli were undone by an improving Chievo team who snapped a run of four without a win with a 3-0 win in Brescia at the weekend, and immediately set about attacking their visitors.

Davide Mandelli shot narrowly wide before Moscardelli opened the scoring in the 20th minute when he trapped the ball in the box and fired home with a left-foot shot on the turn.

Christian Maggio came close to an equaliser for the visitors five minutes later but Chievo were in control with Luca Rigoni forcing a save out of Morgan De Sanctis and Moscardelli mis-hitting in front of an open goal.

Any hopes Napoli had of forcing their way back into the game were over five minutes after the break when Sardo seized on a poor clearance to race towards goal, beating two defenders before slotting past keeper De Sanctis.

Sergio Pellisier and Marek Hamsik both came close to grabbing a third for the home side but the best chance fell to Moscardelli who blasted over the bar after being set up by Kevin Constant in the box.

end