Napoli are two points clear at the top of the Serie A table with an eighth consecutive victory in all competitions, but they only truly broke Cremonese in the final stages.

With Atalanta held 2-2 by Udinese earlier today, it was a huge opportunity for the Partenopei to go clear. Victor Osimhen was still injured and Piotr Zielinski rested after a muscular twinge, while newly-promoted Cremonese were looking for their first win of the season. Vlad Chiriches and Jack Hendry weren’t fully fit, but there was a big shake-up in attack.

There were suggestions Amir Rrahmani would be rested for this game, but instead he started and after 100 seconds surged forward from defence to smash a rocket against the crossbar.

Cremonese also rattled the frame of the goal, Luca Zanimacchia thumping the near post after a Felix Afena-Gyan dummy let the cross through.

Kvicha Kvaratskhelia cut inside from the right and had his heel clipped by Matteo Bianchetti for a penalty, which was calmly converted by Matteo Politano.

Kvaratskhelia’s angled drive flashed across the face of goal, while Kim Min-jae got back to rescue Rrahmani, as Cyriel Dessers had already got past him.

Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa fired over from a tricky angle when he should’ve rolled it back. At the dawn of the second half, Ionut Radu made a desperate double save on Giacomo Raspadori and the Anguissa rebound from point-blank range.

However, moments later Cremonese equaliser, as Pablo Ascacibar badly scuffed his shot from the D, but it turned into an accidental assist for Dessers to fire in from nine yards.

David Okereke had a shot charged down and on the resulting corner Dessers volleyed off target, while Okereke hit the side-netting from a tricky angle.

Raspadori fired straight at Radu, while Quagliata and Soualiho Meite blasted over from the edge of the box, then Bianchetti made a decisive interception on Giovanni Simeone.

However, Napoli restored their advantage when Mario Rui whipped a perfect ball to the back post for the towering header of Cholito Simeone.

Rrahmani had to come off after seeming to sprain an adductor when anticipating Okereke at the near post at full stretch.

Cremonese kept pushing to the final whistle, with Daniel Ciofani’s header over, but Napoli added a third in stoppages. Kvaratskhelia was clear on goal and drew out Radu, only to very generously roll across so Hirving Lozano could tap into the empty net.

It was nearly 4-1 moments later, an astonishing Radu fingertip save turning Lozano’s effort over from a cheeky dinked Simeone assist. On the resulting corner, they did get a fourth, Giovanni Di Lorenzo’s cross from the right finding a Mathias Olivera header.

Cremonese 1-4 Napoli

Politano pen 26 (N), Dessers 47 (C), Simeone 76 (N), Lozano 93 (N), Olivera 95 (N)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Tickets Kit Collector