Serie A, Week 5, Wednesday Wrap: Hat Tricks, Red Cards and Milan Scores at Home! Oh My!

A full day of wid-week action in Serie A saw Napoli pull even with Juventus at the top of the table, both Milan sides returned to the win column after struggling on the weekend.

Napoli 3-0 Lazio

The match of the day between the 2nd and 3rd place sides in the league turned in to a rout as Edinson Cavani scored a hat trick to lead the Partenopei past Lazio 3-0. It should have been 4-0, but Cavani skied a penalty shot late in the match that would have given him his 100th goal in Serie A competition. Lazio never really looked dangerous in the match, with their best chance of the day coming early when Miroslav Klose directed the ball past Morgan Di Sanctis with his hand. Klose owned up to his crime to the match referee and the goal was disallowed.

U.S. Pescara 1-0 Palermo

Struggling Palermo conceded a brilliant goal to Pescara's Vladimir Weiss as Pescara earned their first Serie A victory in over two decades. Palermo's pain was furthered thanks to Abel Hernandez having goals disallowed twice and Steve Von Bergen being sent off in the 35 minute. Despite being a man down, Palermo dominated the match but couldn't solve Pescara's defense.

AC Milan 2-0 Cagliari

Stephan El Shaarawy proved he could score against a side other than Udinese and eased the pressure head coach Massimiliano Allegri (at least temporarily) with two goals in Milan's win over Cagliari. El Shaarawy's opener in the 15th minute was the Rossoneri's first goal at the San Siro this season. The curse is broken! Cagliari's Daniele Conti was sent off in the 66th minute after two yellow cards in three minutes.

Roma 1-1 Sampdoria

Roma took the lead in the 34th minute thanks to club talisman Francesco Totti and looked to be in total control after Sampdoria's Enzo Maresca was sent off right at the start of the second half. However, Gianni Munari's 62nd minute strike rescued a point for the visitors as Roma wasted an opportunity to move up the table.

Catania 2-1 Atalanta

Catania earned their second straight solid home result thanks to goals from Nicolas Spolli and Pablo Barrientos. Atalanta briefly pulled even in the second half thanks to Maximiliano Moralez but couldn't hold on for the point.

Chievo Verona 0-2 Internazionale

Inter Milan bounced back from their disappointing loss on the weekend, dispatching the Flying Donkeys who put up a spirited effort. Alvaro Pereira and Antonio Cassano were the goal scorers for Inter who won despite being out shot and losing the possession battle to the visitors from Milan.

Genoa 1-1 Parma

Alessandro Lucarelli staked Parma to a lead in the 27th minute and with two minutes left in the match, the visitors looked on their way to a fantastic away victory. At least until the goal scorer Lucarelli conceded a penalty in the 88th minute that was converted by Genoa's Marco Borriello to save a point for the home side.

Torino 0-0 Udinese

After a fantastic victory over Milan on the weekend, Udinese were extremely poor in a scoreless draw at Torino. The Bianconeri only managed three shots on goal and never really looked dangerous. Fortunately for Udinese, Torino were no better.