Nikola Kalinic scored twice in five minutes to help Fiorentina come back from two goals down to draw 2-2 against Empoli in a Tuscan derby.
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Napoli maintained their impressive form with a 2-0 win at Verona to send them top of Serie A. The two teams are seven points from safety. “The important thing is that Napoli win games”.
Nevertheless, with the players looking more comfortable and the team as a whole finding a balance having conceded few goals which in turn allows their strikers to make decisive contributions, the southern giants have undoubtedly proven their title credentials.
Empoli took the lead in the 18th minute, although Marko Livaja was clearly offside when he latched onto Riccardo Saponara’s through ball and fired inside the near post.
The impact was nearly immediate, Croatia marksman Kalinic reducing arrears with a finely-taken header from just outside the six-yard box that Lukasz Skorupski could only swipe at in the 56th minute.
Kalinic could have secured his second hat-trick of the season, after his triple in a 4-1 win at Inter Milan, 13 minutes from the end but saw his first-timer from eight yards out glance off the top of the crossbar.
Lazio ended their three-game losing run with a 1-1 draw against Palermo, as Antonio Candreva’s 69th minute penalty cancelled out Edoardo Goldaniga’s earlier strike.
“Higuain played in the heat, made a long journey and he seemed very exhausted”, Napoli coach Maurizio Sarri said in his pre-match news conference on Saturday.
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An unmarked Insigne broke the deadlock in the 67th minute, with Higuain’s close-range second following soon after.
