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Roma coach Luciano Spalletti conceded it is now going to be "very hard" for his side to overhaul Juventus in the race for the Scudetto after losing 2-1 at home to Napoli. Dries Mertens scored twice as Napoli held on for victory to move within two points of Roma and nine behind Juventus, who travel to Udinese on Sunday. Roma, who had won eight of nine Serie A matches coming into the weekend, produced a late rally with a goal from Kevin Strootman before Napoli goalkeeper Jose Reina made a superb stoppage-time save to push a deflected shot from Diego Perotti onto the crossbar. But the hosts could not find a leveller and Spalletti accepts making up the difference to Juve, which could stand at 10 points after the weekend's games, may well prove too big a task. "The championship will depend on Juventus, but it is going to be tough and very hard," Spalletti said. "When you are defeated in these clashes with direct rivals, it can overturn the morale and enthusiasm. "However, our team is strong, so are Napoli, and there are a lot of things which can happen. We are there to play, thinking in the right way, but we face problems with consistency. "There are lots of tricky games still to be played so we have to get on with it, maintaining the right mentality." Spalletti had opted to rest the likes of Mohamed Salah and Emerson Palmieri, perhaps with one eye on next week's Europa League tie against Lyon. However, the Roma coach refused to offer up fatigue as a reason behind the defeat for his squad, which suffered a midweek loss in the semi-finals of the Coppa Italia to city rivals Lazio. "We can't use tiredness as an excuse today. We all saw the way these players finished the game," Spalletti said, quoted on the club's official website. "Napoli were quicker and moved the ball about better than us in the first half. "We weren't able to find space between the lines or raise the tempo, which would have prevented them from taking up good positions and making it hard for us to regain possession. "Napoli deserved their lead in the first half because they were better than us. It was a totally different game in the second half and luck came into it a little too."
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