Serie A | Juventus 3-0 Napoli: Old Lady crush decimated Champions

Juventus propelled themselves back into the Scudetto race after beating decimated Napoli, as Jonathan David, Kenan Yildiz and Filip Kostic pounced on defensive errors around penalty appeals.

The Bianconeri had a mixed week, beaten 1-0 by Cagliari and then defeating Benfica 2-0. Dusan Vlahovic, Daniele Rugani and Arek Milik were still injured, but Francisco Conceicao replaced Fabio Miretti. Vanja Milinkovic-Savic added to the Partenopei injury crisis, so Alex Meret had his first game since September 28, as David Neres, Matteo Politano, Amir Rrahmani, Pasquale Mazzocchi, Kevin De Bruyne, Andre Frank Zambo Anguissa and Billy Gilmour missed out. New buy Giovane was on the bench after Tuesday’s dismal 1-1 draw with 10-man Copenhagen, but Noa Lang and Lorenzo Lucca left.

See how it all unfolded on the Liveblog.

Eljif Elmas had an early effort charged down and Francisco Conceicao’s cross-shot flashed just wide, but Khephren Thuram came so close on 18 minutes when his right-foot curler from inside the area bounced off the frame of the goal.

Antonio Vergara’s low drive was smothered, but Juventus found the breakthrough when Manuel Locatelli dinked a ball over the top, David held off Leonardo Spinazzola to chest and prod home from close range. He was kept onside by Juan Jesus.

It was almost 2-0 moments later when Yildiz found Conceicao unmarked from 10 yards, but while he beat Meret, Alessandro Buongiorno got back for a desperate goal-line clearance.

Locatelli tested Meret from outside the box, while Napoli had penalty appeals rejected for Gleison Bremer’s tussle with Rasmus Hojlund, as they had their arms around each other.

David tested Meret after the restart, while Hojlund drilled wide under pressure from Bremer after a Spinazzola effort was charged down.

Giovane only completed his transfer last night, but made his debut for the final 20 minutes in Turin.

However, Juventus doubled their lead when a terrible Juan Jesus defensive pass was intercepted by substitute Fabio Miretti, sending Kenan Yildiz through to beat the on-rushing Meret.

Romelu Lukaku made his first appearance of the season after that serious thigh injury in August.

Juve added a third, the Thuram through ball bouncing off Buongiorno and falling kindly for Kostic to drill his long-range daisy-cutter into the bottom corner.

Lukaku threatened a goal on his comeback, but shinned the tap-in when Hojlund pulled back from the left.

Juventus 3-0 Napoli

David 22 (J), Yildiz 77 (J), Kostic 86 (J)