Serie A, Napoli 2-0 Atalanta: Kvaratskhelia wonder goal brings Scudetto ever closer

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Naples, March 12: Khvicha Kvaratskhelia hit a stunning winner as Napoli beat Atalanta 2-0 to move 18 points clear again at the top of Serie A.

The 11th goal of the Georgian's debut Serie A season came in the 60th minute, with his twinkle-toed run into the penalty area followed by an explosive finish.

Fed the ball by Victor Osimhen, Kvaratskhelia still had plenty of work to do and left Atalanta captain Rafael Toloi bamboozled by his shimmying footwork, with the defenders collectively powerless to prevent a masterpiece.

Amir Rrahmani's looping header in the 77th minute made the points safe, as Eljif Elmas sent a corner from the right into the danger zone and the centre-back did the rest.

With first-choice goalkeeper Alex Meret injured in the warm-up, Napoli fielded on-loan back-up Pierluigi Gollini, who faced his parent club. The home side were not obviously jolted by that loss and dominated the first half, but they could not find a breakthrough before the interval.

Matteo Politano saw an early effort turned wide for a corner, while Kvaratskhelia had three goal attempts that brought no reward.

Atalanta won 3-2 in this fixture last season, coming from behind to win as Napoli on that occasion slipped from first to third place. But such was their lead in the standings this time, Napoli knew they would stay comfortably top whatever the result, regardless of last week's defeat to Lazio giving the chasing pack a sliver of hope.

Kvaratskhelia smashed over the bar from the edge of the penalty area early in the second half, with Napoli creating plenty of half-chances. Osimhen spurned a more clear opening when the Serie A top scorer headed wide from Politano's right-wing cross.

But then came Kvaratskhelia's special strike, a goal of quality that is rarely surpassed. He was player of the month in Serie A for February, and this underlined his blossoming talent.

Duvan Zapata and Luis Muriel went close as Atalanta chased a leveller, Gollini defying the visitors with necessary saves from both forwards, but Rrahmani's header killed off the contest.