Roma win at Napoli to stay on Inter's tail

By Mark Meadows

MILAN (Reuters) - In-form AS Roma maintained the pressure on Serie A leaders Inter Milan with a confident 2-0 win at Napoli on Sunday.

Simone Perrotta's early finish and Francesco Totti's second-half penalty put second-placed Roma six points behind Inter, who beat Reggina 2-0 on Saturday having suffered their first defeat of the league campaign at Napoli last weekend.

Roma, who dumped Real Madrid out of the Champions League in midweek to progress to the quarter-finals, went ahead after just two minutes when Totti took advantage of a defensive mistake to play in Italy midfielder Perrotta.

The captain extended their lead in the imposing San Paolo atmosphere with a spotkick on 49 minutes after Brazilian defender Cicinho had gone down easily in the box.

Mid-table Napoli, who beat Juventus at home as well as Inter, had the ball in the net twice in the second half but Marek Hamsik's strike was disallowed for offside and Maurizio Domizzi was booked for handling the ball.

"My lads were on their game straight away and made the match easier. These points are very important because Napoli were very strong," Roma coach Luciano Spalletti told Sky.

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