Napoli have one foot in the Europa League semi-final after thrashing Wolfsburg 4-1 in Germany with a Marek Hamsik brace.
The Germans had already eliminated Inter in the last round and the Partenopei had never won a competitive game in Germany, managing just five draws from 10 attempts. Juan Camilo Zuniga missed out with no room on the bench for Duvan Zapata or Jonathan de Guzman. Naldo returned from suspension, but Aaron Hunt had a knee injury.
Napoli have one foot in the Europa League semi-final after thrashing Wolfsburg 4-1 in Germany with a Marek Hamsik brace.
The Germans had already eliminated Inter in the last round and the Partenopei had never won a competitive game in Germany, managing just five draws from 10 attempts. Juan Camilo Zuniga missed out with no room on the bench for Duvan Zapata or Jonathan de Guzman. Naldo returned from suspension, but Aaron Hunt had a knee injury.
Ricardo Rodriguez curled a free kick wide and Daniel Caligiuri volleyed over from a corner, but Napoli took the lead with their first chance.
Dries Mertens crossed from the left, Higuain taking it on his chest – perhaps with the aid of an arm – and flicked the right-footed half-volley into the roof of the net.
Moments later there was a similar opportunity, this time charged down on Higuain. Pipita proved even better when acting as creator, threading through a masterful pass for Marek Hamsik to spring the offside trap and sweep past Diego Benaglio one-on-one.
It was the first time Hamsik had scored in two consecutive Napoli games since August 2013.
Naldo nodded inches over from a corner, but it was still mainly Napoli and Benaglio fingertipped a Hamsik low drive round the far post.
Andre Schurrle had a great opportunity just before the break, forcing Mariano Andujar to palm his strike on to the crossbar.
Higuain almost made it 3-0 straight after the restart, but Benaglio parried with one glove when he had sprinted away from Robin Knoche.
Wolfsburg shot themselves in the foot by Joshua Guilavogui giving the ball away in the final third, so Jose Callejon rolled across for Hamsik to tap in from six yards.
Lorenzo Insigne stung Benaglio’s gloves from distance, but Andujar performed a wonderful reaction save on Guilavogui.
Manolo Gabbiadini came off the bench and found the net within four minutes for Napoli’s fourth. Another substitute Insigne curled in the cross for his free header.
Insigne almost got a fifth, just failing to get his head to the cross, but moments later Ivan Perisic pulled back from the by-line for Nicklas Bendtner to tap into an empty net.
Gabbiadini let loose with his famous left foot and cracked his strike against the crossbar, as Napoli repeatedly threatened a fifth goal in Germany.
Wolfsburg 1-4 Napoli
Scorers: Higuain 15 (N), Hamsik 23, 64 (N), Gabbiadini 77 (N), Bendtner 80 (W)
Wolfsburg: Benaglio; Vieirinha, Naldo, Knoche, Rodriguez; Luiz Gustavo, Guilavogui (Arnold 70); Caligiuri, De Bruyne, Schurrle (Perisic 64); Dost (Bendtner 57)
Napoli: Andujar; Maggio, Albiol, Britos, Ghoulam; David Lopez, Inler; Callejon, Hamsik (Gabbiadini 75), Mertens (Insigne 60); Higuain (Henrique 86)
Ref: Lahoz (ESP)