April 30, (THEWILL) – Napoli ended a dismal Serie A run as they cruised to a 6-1 pummeling of Sassuolo to consolidate third position in the league standings on Saturday at the Diego Maradona Stadium in Naples.
Dries Mertens scored twice, while Kalidou Koulibaly, Victor Osimhen, Hirving Lozano, and Amir Rrahmani also scored in a rout by Napoli, who led 4-0 after just 21 minutes.
However, Sassuolo’s Maxime Lopez, scored a late consolation goal in the latter minutes of the game that did nothing to the result for the mid-table team in the end.
Napoli was still hurting from last week’s 3-2 loss to Empoli, in which it led 2-0 before conceding three goals in the final ten minutes.
The match began with Napoli demonstrating that they had a point to prove when Koulibaly headed the opening in from a corner. Another Lorenzo Insigne corner and another header by Osimhen, this time off the underside of the crossbar, doubled the lead in just the 15th minute.
Two minutes later, Osimhen had one set up as well. Mertens won the ball in midfield and threaded it through to Osimhen, who rolled it across the field for Lozano to tap in from six yards.
Mertens scored his first goal in the 21st minute and added another early in the second half after a one-two with Fabián Ruiz.
Amir Rrahmani scored Napoli’s sixth goal 10 minutes from time after Osimhen had a goal called out for offside.
Luciano Spalletti’s side were vying for the Serie A title against the two Milan teams until recently when a sequence of two defeats and a draw saw its Scudetto hopes vanish.
With the win over Sassuolo, they are now four points behind league leaders AC Milan, who play Fiorentina on Sunday, and four points ahead of Juventus, who play Venezia.
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.
