Szczesny the hero as Roma thwart dominant Napoli

On-loan Arsenal goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny produced a series of fine stops as Roma held on for a scoreless draw at Napoli that boosted the scudetto hopes of leaders Inter Milan on Sunday.

Inter had stretched their lead over Fiorentina to four points with a 4-0 away win at Udinese on Saturday although La Viola can reduce the arrears when they face champions Juventus in Sunday's late game.

Napoli remain third and are now four points off the pace, while Roma are seven points behind Inter in fourth spot, although Rudi Garcia's men will be overtaken by Juventus if the Bianconeri win in Turin.

Roma travelled to the San Paolo as underdogs on account of their poor record at Napoli's legendary stadium as well as their ongoing crisis.

The Giallorossi's last victory in Naples came in December 2011 and with one win from their last five league games their recent league form paled in comparison to Napoli's, who suffered only their second defeat of the campaign away to Bologna last week.

Roma, however, upset the formbook to make a bright start with Mohamed Salah firing a yard wide of Pepe Reina's far post and Edin Dzeko seeing his header whistle just wide of the upright.

But Napoli were soon into their stride and could consider themselves unlucky after seeing Lorenzo Insigne fire over from a tight angle and Gonzalo Higuain come close with a close-range volley.

Insigne blasted over for the second time soon after as Higuain screamed for service and the Argentinian would end the match frustrated after failing to add to his league-leading tally of 14 goals.

Szczesny looked on nervously as a cross was driven across his area four minutes after the restart but it evaded everyone, including Higuain, who was stationed in front of the far post.

From then on, the Pole was kept on his toes as Napoli's formidable three-man attack produced chance after chance only to come up short.

Moments after that scare Szczesny came out bravely to thwart Higuain as he prepared to tee up for Insigne's delivery and then Jose Callejon's header from Faouzi Ghoulam's cross flew over.

Higuain flirted with offside when he ran on to a through ball that posed enough danger to force Szczesny to come rushing out of his goal.

The Pole mistimed his sliding challenge but before Higuain cold tee up his shot Kostas Manolas came to the rescue.

Higuain almost turned provider on the hour when he set up Hamsik, who held off Manolas to fire inches wide of Szczesny's far post with the keeper at full stretch.

With 18 goals conceded in 15 games, Roma's defence has been their weakest link this term but Manolas was alert to the danger again as Higuain rose to meet a great delivery from the right.

On a rare attack Roma had the ball in the net when Daniele De Rossi rose to head Antonio Rudiger's cross from deep on the right touchline past Reina, but the ball was adjudged to have gone out of play.

Napoli finished with a flurry but were thwarted on each occasion by Szczesny, whose heroics last week allowed Roma to hang on for a scoreless draw against BATE Borisov and qualify for the last 16 of the Champions League.

Hamsik should have done much better when he was sent clear by Higuain but saw Szczesny parry his first shot and spread himself wide when the Slovakian picked up his own rebound.

Szczesny produced the goods minutes later to parry Dries Mertens' close-range effort, with Omar El Kaddouri firing the rebound wide with his shin
Source: AFP