Juventus spurned the chance to return eight points clear as they fell 2-1 at home to UC Sampdoria, who rallied from a goal and a man down, while Edinson Cavani starred for SSC Napoli.
Juventus missed the chance to restore their Serie A lead to eight points as they slumped to a 2-1 loss at home to ten-man UC Sampdoria, on a day when Edinson Cavani notched a hat-trick in SSC Napoli’s 4-1 defeat of AS Roma.
Looking to respond to second-placed S.S. Lazio’s win against Cagliari Calcio on Saturday, Juve were given an early boost by Sebastian Giovinco’s 24th-minute penalty, Claudio Marchisio having been fouled by Gaetano Berardi. Berardi was cautioned for that challenge and he received his secondyellow card just seven minutes later, but, instead of building on their numerical advantage, Antonio Conte’s men were undone by Emmanuel Icardi’s second-half double.
ACF Fiorentina were also beaten as they fell 2-0 at home to Pescara Calcio, Jonathas opening the scoring on 57 minutes before Mervan Çelik made sure of the result in added time. It likewise proved a miserable start to 2013 for FC Internazionale Milano, Antonio Di Natale finding the net twice in Udinese Calcio’s 3-0 success. The Nerazzurri also lost Juan to a 65th-minute red card.
Those results allowed SSC Napoli to jump back up to third as they swept aside Roma 4-1, Edinson Cavani scoring three times for the hosts and Christian Maggio rounding things off. Pablo Osvaldo hit the sole response for Roma, who had Miralem Pjanić sent off with 16 minutes left.
Elsewhere, AC Milan moved within seven points of the top three with a 2-1 win against AC Siena, Bojan Krkić and Giampaolo Pazzini notching their goals. There were victories too for Parma FC and AC Chievo Verona, 2-1 against US Città di Palermo and 1-0 against Atalanta BC respectively, while Genoa CFC moved out of the bottom three by downing Bologna FC 2-0.