ROME: Napoli beat 10-man visitors Carpi 1-0 and Juventus won 2-0 at second-bottom Frosinone on Sunday as the leading pair extended their Serie A winning streaks to move further ahead at the top of the table.
Napoli saw off lowly Carpi thanks to Gonzalo Higuain’s penalty for a club-record eighth consecutive league win to keep a two-point lead, while Juve in second made it 14 straight wins as goals by Juan Cuadrado and Paulo Dybala downed Frosinone.
Serie A looks like a two-horse race after Inter Milan failed to reignite their flickering title hopes as Ivan Perisic’s late equaliser salvaged a 3-3 draw at bottom club Hellas Verona.
The result leaves Inter fourth on 45 points, 11 behind leaders Napoli and nine adrift of Juve, with Fiorentina in third place on 46 after they drew 1-1 at Bologna on Saturday.
Fifth-placed AS Roma capitalised on the failure of Inter and Fiore to win as they closed within a point of the top four with a 2-1 home victory over Sampdoria that took them to 44.
Napoli fans supported defender Kalidou Koulibaly, who suffered racist abuse in a midweek win at Lazio, by wearing masks of the Senegal international, and the centre back won the decsisive 69th-minute penalty when fouled by Fabio Daprela.
Higuain converted the spot kick for his 24th goal of the season to edge a resilient Carpi side who had Raffaele Bianco dismissed for a second yellow card in a case of mistaken identity in the 56th minute.
“Winning eight games in a row had never happened before (at the club),” Napoli’s Marek Hamsik told Mediaset Premium. “We are happy to make history.”
Juve defeated relegation-threatened Frosinone after a 73rd-minute opener from Chelsea loanee Cuadrado and a delicious curling effort from Dybala in the first minute of stoppage time.
The top two meet on Saturday when Napoli travel to Turin, although Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri has refused to consider the match a title decider.
