Earlier, Bojan, Pablo Osvaldo and Simplicio were on target
as fourth-placed AS Roma beat Atalanta 3-1.
After an end-to-end start at Inter the game turned
dramatically on an incident four minutes before the break when Joel Obi was
handed a second yellow card for bundling over Christian Maggio on the edge of
the box.
Julio Cesar saved Marek Hamsik's resulting penalty but
defender Hugo Campagnaro followed up to give Napoli the lead.
Ranieri was sent off for remonstrating with the referee as
the teams trooped off at halftime.
"He ruined a beautiful game," the Inter coach told
Sky Sports. "He was not on his game. What he could get wrong, he did get
wrong.
"The boys gave their all and should not have been
punished in this way. I don't normally complain about these things but today
was an exceptional occasion." In a more subdued second period wing back
Maggio added a second goal on 57 minutes, lifting the ball over Julio Cesar,
before Hamsik slotted home the third with a quarter of an hour to go to seal
Napoli's first victory at the San Siro in 17 years.
Inter have only four points from five games while Napoli,
who finished third last season, go two points clear of Juventus, Udinese and
Roma ahead of Sunday's main program.
The hosts, without Wesley Sneijder and Diego Milito, edged
the opening exchanges at the San Siro with Diego Forlan going closest to
scoring after fizzing a low 25-meter drive just wide on 13 minutes.
Despite missing striker Edinson Cavani through injury,
Napoli enjoyed plenty of possession in a refreshingly open start and Colombian
left back Juan Zuniga headed weakly wide with a back-post header after 19
minutes.
The home crowd then started to jeer when Campagnaro put
Napoli in front.
The visitors made it 2-0 when Giuseppe Mascara played an
innocuous ball over the top of the Inter defense for the energetic Maggio to
outpace substitute Yuto Nagatomo and beat Julio Cesar.
With a disjointed Inter leaving huge gaps at the back,
Hamsik ran on to Ezequiel Lavezzi's slide-rule pass to ensure Napoli ended a
run of eight straight defeats at Inter.
Napoli coach Walter Mazzarri, who turned 50 on Saturday,
thanked his players.
"It's a beautiful present the boys have given me,"
he said. "For the penalty I don't know if it was a mistake or not, I have
to see the replay.
"But I do know Napoli played a great game and deserved
to win. We've had decisions go against us so I hope there won't be too much
said about it." At the Stadio Olimpico, Roma resisted a second half
fightback from promoted Atalanta to earn Luis Enrique's side their second
successive win.
Spanish striker Bojan opened the scoring on 20 minutes,
grabbing his first goal in the Giallorossi shirt with a left-foot shot.
Argentine forward Pablo Osvaldo doubled the lead with a cool
finish just after the half-hour as Roma dominated the opening period.
The second half was a different story after Argentine
forward German Denis halved the deficit with a back-post header from a
well-worked corner on 48 minutes.
The home side were then made to defend for long stretches
until midfielder Simplicio played a delightful one-two with Miralem Pjanic
before finishing neatly on 81 minutes.
"It was a difficult game against the in-form side in
the league," Luis Enrique told Sky Sports after Roma's first home win of
the season.
"The Denis goal meant we had some difficult moments but
we were able to survive. We're improving but we need more patience to be able
to dominate possession throughout the match." Atalanta, docked six points
for match fixing, stayed on four points after suffering their first defeat of
the season.
