Lorenzo Insigne ended his goal drought as Napoli beat Sampdoria 3-0 on Saturday to keep Serie A leader Juventus within its sights.
Arkadiusz Milik and Insigne scored quickfire goals in the first half and Simone Verdi added a late penalty as second-placed Napoli moved to eight points behind Juventus, which hosts Parma later.
There was to be no record for former Napoli forward Fabio Quagliarella, who was looking to beat Gabriel Batistuta’s 1994 feat of scoring a goal in a 12th consecutive Serie A match.
Napoli was looking to recover from a league draw against AC Milan and an Italian Cup exit to the same team, and it took the lead in the 12th minute.
Marek Hamsik floated a lovely ball onto the right flank to Jose Callejon, who rolled the ball across for Milik to smash in.
Callejon set up Napoli’s second just 70 seconds later with a throughball for an Insigne snapshot into the bottom left corner.
It was Insigne’s first goal in any competition since early November.
The result after that rarely looked in doubt but Napoli extended its lead with a Verdi penalty in the final minute after Joachim Andersen was penalized for handball. The referee initially awarded a free kick on the edge of the area but amended his decision on video review.
Sampdoria remained sixth, ahead of the rest of the weekend’s fixtures.
EMPOLI COMEBACK
Francesco Caputo scored twice as Empoli came back from two goals down in a relegation battle against last-placed Chievo Verona.
Empoli remained 17th, four points above the bottom three and nine points above Chievo.
___
