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Roma shock leaders Napoli

Napoli's 10-match winning run in Serie A came to an end when they slumped to a shock 4-2 home defeat by AS Roma yesterday morning (Singapore time), as the leaders suffered just their second league loss this season.

The result kept Napoli on top of the table, but their lead is now just one point after Juventus defeated Lazio 1-0, courtesy of an injury-time strike from Paulo Dybala earlier.

Juventus, crucially, also have a game in hand - at home against Atalanta in nine days' time.

"There were a lot of positives in this game," insisted Napoli coach Maurizio Sarri, whose only other league loss this season had been at home to Juventus in December.

"We had 27 shots, so we are just trying to figure out how Roma scored so easily."

When Lorenzo Insigne gave Napoli the lead from close range after six minutes, it seemed the outing would be a straightforward affair.

But Turkey's Cengiz Under levelled just a minute later with a deflected shot.

That set the stage for Edin Dzeko to carve out a little bit of personal history.

He made it 2-1 in the 26th minute with a header from an Alessandro Florenzi cross before he curled in a terrific left-foot strike from the edge of the area in the 79th minute for 3-1.

That goal allowed the Bosnian striker to become the first player to score at least 50 goals in three major European leagues - Italy's Serie A, the German Bundesliga and the Premier League in England.

Diego Perotti made it 4-1 in the 80th minute, after pouncing on a lazy clearance from on-loan Roma left-back Mario Rui.

Dries Mertens pulled one back for Napoli in time added-on, but the three points allowed Roma to move into third place in the table.

Argentina striker Dybala marked his comeback after a month on the sidelines by scoring a last-gasp winner in Juve's 1-0 victory at Lazio in a perfect boost ahead of their Champions League clash at Tottenham. - AFP

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