Piotr Zielinski opened the scoring before Dries Mertens netted a brace before the break, and then Fabian Ruiz completed the drubbing with Napoli's fourth of the night.
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Napoli thrashed Lazio 4-0 in the Serie A fixture at Stadio Diego Armando Maradona on Sunday to move to the top of the points table. It was a special night for Napoli as they unveiled a life-size statue of the iconic Diego Armando Maradona, a year on from his death. The hosts opened the scoring early in the match through Piotr Zielinski before Dries Mertens scored a brace to take a 3-0 lead going into the break. Five minutes from time, Fabian Ruiz completed the drubbing with Napoli’s fourth of the night.
Napoli were without their main striker Victor Osihen who has been sidelined for three months with multiple facial fractures. Within seven minutes of kick-off, the hosts got their noses in front as Danilo Cataldi failed to clear Hirving Lozano’s ball into the box. Zielinski pounced on to the loose ball and smashed it past Pepe Reina with ferocity.
Three minutes later Mertens doubled Napoli’s lead. Ruiz played an overhead ball to Lorenzo Insigne on the left flank. The Italian playmaker laid it off to Mertens, who beat the defender with a dummy before slotting the ball past Reina with a curler from 12 yards out.
Meanwhile at the other end, Napoli goalkeeper David Ospina had to make a sensational diving effort to keep out Luis Alberto’s first-time volley from Sergej Milinkovic Savic’ cross. On the returning corner, Francesco Acerbi’s header struck the crossbar. However the hosts tripled the lead in the 29th minute.
Once again it was a brilliant finish from Mertens. Lozano laid the ball to Mertens on the edge of the box, and the Belgium forward’s first time right-footed strike looped over the goalkeeper and into the far top corner.
Napoli continued to play positively in the second half as Mario Rui tested Reina with a low curler. In the 85th minute, Ruiz unleashed a brilliant left-footed curler from outside the box that went past Reina and into the bottom corner.
The win helped Napoli to 35 points from 14 games, three points ahead of second placed AC Milan. while Lazio are placed at 8th spot with 21 points.
Luciano Spalletti praised Napoli’s attitude when dominating Lazio 4-0. ‘The players wanted it to last as long as possible, because they were thoroughly enjoying their football. We don’t want to just play for the result.’
“It is our best performance, especially as it comes after a couple of performances that were not up to our standards, so it means something that we beat a big club like Lazio this way,” Spalletti told DAZN.
“Mertens brings that quality to the finishing, but it would be reductive just to praise him. The whole team was wonderful, it had been a long time since we had this possession football with short, quick passes.
“Zielinski found the quality within his power and technique. You’d have to really be looking for a needle in a haystack to find someone who wasn’t great tonight.”
“We were impeccable on the choices, on where to circulate the ball and Lazio struggled to close us down. It could’ve become a different game, which we saw recently when we didn’t make the right decisions, but I saw great stuff tonight.”
