April 24, (THEWILL) — Antonio Conte’s Napoli returned to winning ways on Friday, routing Cremonese 4-0 at Stadio Diego Armando Maradona to climb to second in the Serie A table. The result puts them 11 points clear of fifth-placed Como with four matches left this season.
Scott McTominay broke the deadlock in the third minute, drilling into the bottom-left corner from the edge of the box after collecting a Kevin De Bruyne pass inside. The Scottish midfielder had been denied by Emil Audero just a minute before finding the net.
Rasmus Hojlund doubled the advantage on the stroke of half-time, his effort deflecting off Filippo Terracciano before trickling in. Napoli added a third in stoppage time, De Bruyne intercepting from Youssef Maleh inside the area and finishing after McTominay acrobatically kept Alisson Santos’ cross in play.
Seven minutes after the restart, Vanja Milinkovic-Savic fed Santos, who drove forward from inside his own half before wrong-footing Audero to complete the scoring.
Billy Gilmour’s long-range effort was kept out by Audero, and Amir Rrahmani headed a corner against the crossbar. McTominay’s 83rd-minute penalty, awarded after Alberto Grassi handled inside the box, was then saved low to the goalkeeper’s left. The victory ended Napoli’s two-match winless run in the Italian top flight.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
