Three goals in the space of five second half minutes helped fire Napoli to a 4-1 win over Lazio and maintain their perfect start to the season.
Both sides came into the game with undefeated records to start the new campaign and having impressed in an attacking sense in many of their early games, it was a surprise to see two defenders grab the early scoring plaudits.
Firstly, Stefan De Vrij fired the Eternal City outfit into a first half lead which they held into the break but a rare Kalidou Koulibaly goal levelled things before normal service resumed and Jose Callejon and Dries Mertens put the result beyond doubt long before Jorginho’s injury time penalty.
It was the home side who did look livelier in the early stages and Pepe Reina had to be alert to sprawl and keep out Ciro Immobile, who was heavily involved on 30 minutes as he helped the Aquile into the lead.
Following a lethal Lazio break down the field, it was the former Torino man who kept a cool head in the box to set up an unlikely teammate offering support as De Vrij lashed a volley into the back of the net.
Maurizio Sarri’s men did have two good chances to restore parity before the interval but Marek Hamsik first hit the post before Callejon, mistakenly believing he was in an offside position, took too long to get his shot away and allowed Thomas Strakosha to make the save.
Having impressed the longer the first half went on, Napoli started the second in formidable fashion and it took just nine minutes before they were rewarded with a leveller through Koulibaly as an injury to De Vrij opened the floodgates.
The ball broke kindly for the centre-back in the area following a corner kick and he made no mistake by blasting home and just two minutes later, he and his teammates were celebrating once more.
This time Hamsik found half a yard in the box and teed up Callejon who took one touch to set himself and then ruthlessly dispatched the ball into the corner.
Napoli weren’t done there though and three minutes later, added the insurance goal when Strakosha sent Mertens wide of goal onto the left flank but the Belgian beautifully spun and sent a first time shot looping over the goalkeeper into the empty net.
It remained that way until injury time, when the visitors added a fourth through a penalty kick from Jorginho, the three points being enough to make it five from five to start the campaign, condemning Simone Inzaghi’s side to their first loss.
Source: forzaitalianfootball.com