Soccer Football - Serie A - Torino v Napoli - Stadio Olimpico Grande Torino, Turin, Italy - January 7, 2024 Napoli's Amir Rrahmani, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and teammates look dejected after the match REUTERS/Massimo Pinca
TURIN (Reuters) -Napoli's Serie A title defence suffered another setback as they lost 3-0 at Torino on Sunday, with strikes by Antonio Sanabria, Nikola Vlasic and Alessandro Buongiorno moving the hosts into the top 10.
With only one win in their last six league games, Napoli fell to ninth in the standings with 28 points, trailing leaders Inter Milan by 20 and only one point ahead of Torino at the halfway stage of the season.
The hosts pounced on the advantage once Napoli were reduced to 10 men when second-half substitute Pasquale Mazzocchi, recently signed from Salernitana, was sent off for a high-boot challenge on Valentino Lazaro just five minutes into his debut.
"It is not the most beautiful victory," Torino head coach Ivan Juric told DAZN.
"With the sending-off it all became a bit easier today, but I have experienced many beautiful matches at the helm of Toro.
"Even in Florence (in a 1-0 loss to Florentina) we dominated without being able to win it; today it went well... we had a good match, we have to keep working like this and the guys have to keep believing in their means."
Torino's methodical offensive finally broke through just before halftime when Ivan Ilic's free kick took a deflection from Duvan Zapata and fell to Sanabria for a quick finish.
"Perfect week with renewal and goals, I am very happy to have extended with this club," said Sanabria, who signed a two-year contract extension on Thursday.
"I felt great here from the first day, the people immediately transmitted their love to me."
The hosts doubled their lead early in the second half when Vlasic got the ball from Zapata and dribbled his way into an opening before finding the corner of the net.
Torino sealed their first win over Napoli since 2015 when Lazaro's corner kick was headed home by Buongiorno, making it 3-0 shortly after the hour mark.
Napoli will look to turn things around when they host bottom side Salernitana on Saturday, while Torino will hope to continue their momentum at Genoa.
(Reporting by Chiranjit Ojha in Bengaluru, editing by Pritha Sarkar and Christian Radnedge)
