Napoli 3 - 0 Inter Milan: Napoli ease past Inter Milan to reach sixth in Serie A

Posted Saturday, December 03, 2016 by PA

Napoli scored twice in the opening five minutes en route to a 3-0 victory over Inter Milan at the Stadio San Paolo.

The hosts swiftly grabbed the lead through Piotr Zielinski's second-minute strike and captain Marek Hamsik then doubled the advantage three minutes later.

Lorenzo Insigne added a third six minutes after the break - his fourth goal in three Serie A games - as Napoli moved up to sixth in the table.

Stefano Pioli's Inter, brought back down to earth after registering their maiden win under him last time out by defeating Fiorentina 4-2, remain eighth.

Zielinski notched his first goal for the club he joined over the summer when he connected with a knockdown from Jose Callejon, who had been picked out by a lovely delivery from Hamsik.

Zielinski then produced a fine through-ball for Hamsik and the skipper drilled a low shot past Samir Handanovic.

Inter looked shell-shocked for a while and vulnerable to conceding again, before beginning to threaten through their captain Mauro Icardi, who fired one effort off-target and was twice thwarted by Jose Reina.

With Napoli then back on the front foot just before the interval, Hamsik cracked a strike goalwards from outside the box that Handanovic batted away.

And after Ivan Perisic fired wide of Reina's goal early in the second half, Insigne made it 3-0 with a clever left-footed finish that was teed up by Raul Albiol.

Handanovic produced a subsequent save to deny Hamsik, with his opposite number Reina then doing well to get down and block an Antonio Candreva attempt.

Perisic tried his luck on a couple of further occasions, but could not convert.