Napoli draw with Parma in Serie A

Napoli, who moved onto 66 points in second place, are now six points behind Inter, who could extend the gap to nine points and move a step closer to sealing the title if they beat Como later this evening, with six rounds remaining in the season.

The southern club started in the worst possible way, conceding in the very first attack, just 33 seconds after kick-off, when Parma’s goalkeeper launched a long ball to Frenchman Nesta Elphege, who cleverly set it up for his Brazilian teammate Gabriel Strefezza with a precise header.

Despite being far from goal, Strefezza managed to beat the Napoli defence and fired a superb curling shot into the net past Serbian goalkeeper Vanja Milinković-Savić.

Napoli needed some time to recover before taking complete control in the second half and equalising through Scottish midfielder Scott McTominay (60).

Antonio Conte’s side, who had been on a run of five consecutive victories before the draw with Parma, failed to regain momentum and settled for a disappointing result that hampered their hopes of a third league title in four years.

Parma are now level with Genoa on 36 points each, with the latter taking another step towards securing top-flight survival after a dramatic 2–1 win over Sassuolo earlier.

Both teams ended the match with ten players in the second half following a verbal altercation between players in the tunnel leading to the dressing rooms.

Ghanaian substitute Caleb Ekuban scored the winning goal for Genoa six minutes from time in front of a large and enthusiastic crowd at the Luigi Ferraris Stadium, who saw their team move nine points clear of the relegation zone in 13th place.

Icelandic midfielder Mikael Ellertsson of Genoa and Domenico Berardi of Sassuolo were both sent off after a confrontation that broke out immediately after the half-time whistle, with the hosts leading through Ukrainian Ruslan Malinovskyi (18), before Canadian Ismaël Koné equalised after the break (57).