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·4 Januari 2025

Serie A | Fiorentina 0-3 Napoli: Dominant display for top spot

Napoli put in a dominant performance against an increasingly deflated Fiorentina, as David Neres, Romelu Lukaku and Scott McTominay made them sole Serie A leaders.

The Partenopei had the opportunity to go clear at the top of the table, as Atalanta and Inter are in Saudi Arabia for the Supercoppa Italiana, but Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Matteo Politano and Alessandro Buongiorno were all out injured. The Viola had slipped down the standings after back-to-back defeats, but clawed their way back to a 2-2 draw at Juventus. Danilo Cataldi was not at 100 per cent, with Lucas Martinez Quarta and Cristiano Biraghi frozen out pending transfers, so Raffaele Palladino switched to a three-man defence.

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See how it unfolded on the Liveblog.

Mathias Olivera had the ball in the net on 15 minutes, but was offside before the give and go with Romelu Lukaku inside the penalty area.

David De Gea got down to parry a strike from Leonardo Spinazzola, who was moved into the trident attack, and Napoli were pinning the hosts back.

The deadlock was broken when David Neres started the run from midfield, combined with Lukaku to hold off Fabiano Parisi and Luca Ranieri, firing into the roof of the net from a tricky angle with his weaker right foot.

Fiorentina had equalised on 35 minutes, but the goal was controversially disallowed by the referee for handball. Moise Kean certainly controlled the Riccardo Sottil cross with his chest, but it might’ve bounced onto his wrist before firing in from 10 yards. VAR footage was not extremely clear, but the original call had to stand.

After the restart, Matias Moreno got into a terrible muddle at the by-line when trying to prevent a corner, getting robbed by Andre Frank Zambo Anguissa and bringing down the midfielder for a penalty. Lukaku waited for De Gea to pick a side during a stuttering run-up before rolling it the other way.

FLORENCE, ITALY – JANUARY 4: Romelu Lukaku of SSC Napoli celebrates after scoring a goal during the Serie A match between Fiorentina and Napoli at Stadio Artemio Franchi on January 4, 2025 in Florence, Italy. (Photo by Gabriele Maltinti/Getty Images)

Fiorentina kept pushing, but saw a triple opportunity denied first by Alex Meret on the Rolando Mandragora volley, then with the aid of Amir Rrahmani for the Lucas Beltran follow-up, eventually Beltran’s header skimmed the upright.

Instead, they were penalised for two costly errors. First Dodo slipped to let Anguissa sprint away down the left, then Pietro Comuzzo intercepted his cross for Lukaku, only to lay it off perfectly for McTominay to drill in undisturbed from 12 yards.

Sottil was the last to give in, his curler flashing inches past the far post, but Fiorentina now have just one point from the last four Serie A rounds.

There were concerns for Napoli when Mathias Olivera limped off with a calf issue, though it might’ve just been cramp.