Napoli continued their Europa League success with a 2-0 away to Legia Warsaw, including a Gonzalo Higuain stunner.

They are top of the group with six points, curiously alongside minnows Midtjylland, who conquered Club Brugge 3-1 in Belgium this evening.

Napoli continued their Europa League success with a 2-0 away to Legia Warsaw, including a Gonzalo Higuain stunner.

They are top of the group with six points, curiously alongside minnows Midtjylland, who conquered Club Brugge 3-1 in Belgium this evening.

The Partenopei were brimming with confidence after 5-0 demolitions of Club Brugge and Lazio, plus a win over Juventus at the weekend, though Marek Hamsik, Lorenzo Insigne and Elseid Hysaj were rested. On the other hand, Legia boss Henning Berg was under huge pressure and threatened with the sack after an opening defeat to Midtjylland and poor domestic form. The hosts also missed midfielder Dominik Furman.

Dries Mertens tested the goalkeeper with an early effort and scuffed from a promising position, but Ivan Trickovski failed to make the most of a poor Kalidou Koulibaly back-pass by turning the angled drive off target.

Napoli thought they had taken the lead on 28 minutes, but Manolo Gabbiadini’s shot from the edge of the box beat the goalkeeper only to be cleared off the line by Michal Pazdan.

David Lopez had a powerful but fairly central snapshot saved after the restart and Napoli’s pressure finally broke through.

Mirko Valdifiori’s Pirlo-esque pass was knocked back in by Jose Callejon down the right and Mertens got in front of his marker to head in the goal. The Belgian international has scored in all three of his Europa League games against Legia Warsaw, netting twice for PSV Eindhoven.

Realising they could no longer just sit back and defend, Legia Warsaw emerged from their shell and a corner was nodded on to the bar of his own goal by Cristian Maggio.

The hosts had rested their top scorer Nemanja Nikolic, but threw him on with 10 goals in 10 games domestically this season and he immediately aimed a fierce effort that was smothered by Gabriel.

Pazdan nodded just wide from a corner, but Dusan Kuciak performed a desperate save when Allan broke clear and smashed his shot at the near post.

Allan was in a similar situation and Kuciak saved again, though he really should’ve rolled across for Callejon or Omar El Kaddouri.

Gabbiadini also tested Kuciak with an audacious attempted volley, but Gonzalo Higuain came off the bench and promptly scored a spectacular goal. He gathered on the outside left edge of the box, dribbled along it past a host of defenders to calmly unleash a ground-to-air missile into the far top corner. It was unstoppable.

Chelsea-owned Nathaniel Chalobah made his Napoli debut late on and Kuciak flew to flap a deflected Gabbiadini strike out from under the bar.

Legia Warsaw 0-2 Napoli

Scorers: Mertens 53 (N), Higuain 84 (N)

Legia Warsaw: Kuciak; Bereszynski, Rzezniczak, Lewczuk, Brzyski; Guilherme, Pazdan, Jodlowiec; Trickovski (Duda 62), Prijovic, Kucharczyk (Nikolic 62)

Napoli: Gabriel; Maggio, Koulibaly, Chiriches, Ghoulam; David Lopez, Valdifiori, Allan (Chalobah 85); Mertens (El Kaddouri 72), Gabbiadini, Callejon (Higuain 77)

Ref: Koukoulakis (GRE)

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