Napoli made it three victories in a row with goals from Giovanni Di Lorenzo, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Romelu Lukaku and Alessandro Buongiorno in Cagliari, as the strikers also assisted each other.
After his sensational debut off the bench against Parma, Lukaku got his first start for Antonio Conte’s side and Kvaratskhelia shook off an ankle knock. The Sardinians missed Matteo Prati and started Gianluca Gaetano against his old club.
See how it unfolded on the Liveblog.
The visitors opened the scoring in fortunate fashion, because Lukaku laid it off for Giovanni Di Lorenzo on the edge of the area and the finish was heading for the far bottom corner, until a big deflection off Yerry Mina completely wrong-footed Simone Scuffet at the near post instead.
Cagliari fought back immediately, forcing Alex Meret into a save with the fierce Paulo Azzi strike, while Sebastiano Luperto made a decisive block on the Lukaku tap-in from Andre Frank Zambo Anguissa pull-back.
Play was halted for seven minutes from the 25th after the 400 Napoli fans and Cagliari supporters started throwing objects at each other over the barriers, seemingly sparked by a banner from the host ultras.
Meret got down to palm a Roberto Piccoli free header off the line from a corner and Gaetano’s volley was deflected, but in stoppages the offside flag was up as Mina fired against the crossbar.
After the restart, Meret made a stunning reaction save on the Sebastiano Luperto diving header, with Luvumbo then firing the rebound across the face of goal.
Meret made an even more incredible fingertip save to push the looping, dipping long-range Razvan Marin scorcher onto the crossbar on 56 minutes.
Napoli survived the scare and doubled their lead when Lukaku’s through ball sent Kvaratskhelia running to drill into the into the bottom corner.
Cagliari fell apart and gifted the third goal moments later, as Scuffet was trying to play out from the back only to pass straight to Kvaratskhelia, who set up Lukaku for the easiest of finishes from 12 yards.
With a comfortable lead, Antonio Conte gave Scott McTominay and Billy Gilmour their debuts. It was Alessandro Buongiorno who added the fourth with the last kick of the game, nodding in a David Neres corner, meaning yet another assist for the super-sub.
Cagliari 0-4 Napoli
Di Lorenzo 18 (N), Kvaratskhelia 66 (N), Lukaku 70 (N), Buongiorno 93 (N)
Player statistic
| 18' |  |
Giovanni Di Lorenzo (Assist: Romelu Lukaku) | ||
| 42' |  |
Stanislav Lobotka |
| 57' | |
Romelu Lukaku | ||
| 66' | |
Khvicha Kvaratskhelia (Assist: Romelu Lukaku) | ||
| 70' | |
Romelu Lukaku (Assist: Khvicha Kvaratskhelia) | ||
| Yerry Mina | |
75' | ||
| 90+3' | |
Alessandro Buongiorno (Assist: David Neres) |
Match statistic
One team played well but couldn’t score. The other was poor and had goalscorers. Cagliari super unlucky.