Napoli Defeats Parma 3-1 In Serie A Comeback

On Sunday in Italy, Serie A club Napoli faced Parma at Ennio Tardini Stadium, where they came back to beat the home team 3-1, and in so doing moved to within one point of Inter Milan, the number two team in the Serie A standings.

While Napoli, who is third in the Serie A standings, was expected to beat Parma, a team that is on the cusp of being relegated at the end of the season, it was still an exhilarating game, and one which surprisingly was dominated by Parma throughout the first half.

When the game got underway, it soon became apparent that the home team had no intention of 'rolling over', and did very well to stave off any serious attacks. In fact, it was Parma that opened the scoring in the 29th minute courtesy of striker Raffaele Palladino.

But there is a reason why Napoli is third in the Serie A standings this season, as they proved in the second half. Just seven minutes in, Napoli was awarded an equaliser courtesy of midfielder Marek Hamsik, despite the fact that the goal was clearly offside.

However, as lucky for Napoli - or unlucky for Parma - as that goal may have been, it was just what the visitors needed to stoke the fire in their bellies, as barely four minutes later they made it 2-1 thanks to a sterling effort from forward Ezequiel Iván Lavezzi.

But just as it looked like Napoli had the match sewn up, midfielder Daniele Galloppa got himself sent off for a bad foul, reducing the visitors to 10 men, which obviously threatened to undo all their hard work. However, Napoli remained as focused as ever.

Even though Napoli was forced to change their predominantly attacking game to more of a defensive game being a man down, they still managed to launch the odd counter attack thanks to skillful combinations from Hamsik and Lavezzi and Zuniga and Cavani.

And Napoli's determination paid off in the 87th minute thanks to a well-deserved goal from winger Christian Maggio, who played like a man possessed for the most part. So the visitors returned to Napoli happy in the fact they came from behind to win 3-1.|

Because Inter Milan tied 1-1 against Brescia on the weekend, they only earned one point to Napoli's three for their win, allowing Napoli to close the gap to a single point. However, they are still six points behind Serie A leaders AC Milan, who tied 1-1 with Bari.

Here are the complete Serie A results from the weekend: