Napoli kept its title hopes alive with a 4-2 win over Udinese on Wednesday as champion Juventus’ path to a seventh consecutive Serie A title was stalled 1-1 at Crotone.
Nigerian forward Simy grabbed the equaliser for relegation-threatened Crotone after 65 minutes with a spectacular overhead bicycle kick with shades of that scored by Cristiano Ronaldo in the Champions League in Turin last month.
Napoli came from behind twice to cut the gap on Juventus to four points with five games remaining including next Sunday’s top of the table clash between the two teams in Turin.
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Perfect response
Manchester United gave the perfect response to Jose Mourinho’s criticism as it got back on track with a 2-0 win against Bournemouth in the Premier League on Wednesday.
Goals from Chris Smalling and Romelu Lukaku sealed the points at Dean Court after Mourinho made seven changes in the aftermath of United’s shock defeat to struggling West Bromwich Albion on Sunday.
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That limp surrender had gifted the Premier League title to Manchester City, prompting Mourinho to accuse his players of complacency.
The United manager followed through on his threat to drop his under-performing stars, with Lukaku, Alexis Sanchez and Juan Mata among the big names left out of the starting line-up ahead of Saturday’s FA Cup semifinal against Tottenham.
Real held
In La Liga, Cristiano Ronaldo’s superb back-heel late in the game earned Real Madrid a point in a 1-1 draw with Athletic Bilbao at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium.
The Portuguese forward flicked Luka Modric’s low drive into the back of the net in the 87th minute with a deft touch, his 24th league goal of the season cancelling out a first-half chipped goal from Inaki Williams for the visitors.
The results : Premier League: Bournemouth 0 lost to Manchester United 2 (Smalling 28, Lukaku 70)
La Liga : Espanyol 0 lost to Eibar 1 (Lomban 32); Valencia 1 (Rodrigo 69) lost to Getafe 2 (Remy 16, 49); Real Madrid 1 (Ronaldo 87) drew with Athletic Bilbao 1 (Williams 14).
Serie A : Benevento 0 lost to Atalanta 3 (Freuler 21, Barrow 49, Gomez 67); Sampdoria 1 (Zapata 90+3) bt Bologna 0; Crotone 1 (Tochukwu Nwankwo 65) drew with Juventus 1 (Sandro 16); Torino 1 (De Silvestri 70) drew with AC Milan 1 (Bonaventura 9); Roma 2 (Under 17, Zukanovic 52-og) bt Genoa 1 (Lapadula 61); SPAL 0 drew with Chievo 0; Napoli 4 (Insigne 45+2, Albiol 64, Milik 70, Tonelli 75) bt Udinese 2 (Jankto 41, Ingelsson 55); Fiorentina 3 (Veretout 16, 31-pen, 54) lost to Lazio 4 (Alberto 39, 73, Caceres 45, Anderson 69); Verona 0 lost to Sassuolo 1 (Lemos 38) .