Napoli brightened their European chances following Saturday’s 2-0 victory over Sassuolo, with Kalidou Koulibaly putting up a solid defensive display.
Goals from Elseid Hysaj and Allan were all Gennaro Gattuso’s side needed to seal all points at stake, with the unlucky visitors having three of their goals disallowed after VAR checks.
Before the encounter at the Stadio San Paolo, the Parthenopeans had gone on a run of eight games without keeping a clean slate, but that run was brought to a halt against the Black and Greens.
Albania international Hysaj profited from an assist from Piotr Zielinski to hand the Parthenopeans an eighth-minute lead. That goal was his first in the Italian top-flight and that ensured he became the 17th Napoli player to find the net this season.
Sassuolo levelled matters in the 37th minute after Filip Djuricic fired in a rebound from David Ospina’s save, however, the goal was cancelled because the initial kicker was in an offside position.
It was Francesco Caputo’s turn to have his strike disallowed by VAR four minutes into the second half with Roberto De Zerbi’s men enduring a tough evening after Domenico Berardi’s goal was ruled out for an offside.
Notwithstanding, Napoli sealed the win through substitute Allan who got a pass from Dries Mertens before releasing a brilliant first-time shot from the edge of the box which beat goalkeeper Andrea Consigli.
Koulibaly - who has been linked with Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool and Barcelona, was in action for every minute with two interceptions, two shots, 31 touches, 22 passes and a passing accuracy of 90.9 % to cap a fine evening.
His teammate, Algeria international Faouzi Ghoulamm was an unused substitute.
For the visitors, Cote d’Ivoire’s Jeremie Boga was not listed for the encounter alongside Equatorial Guinea’s Pedro Obiang and Morocco’s Mehdi Bourabia, while Hamed Traore, who got a starter’s shirt, was replaced by Giacomo Raspadori in the 73rd minute.
Thanks to this win, Napoli are now seventh on the log with 59 points from 36 games - a point behind AC Milan who occupy the Europa League last spot with two games to go.
