SSC Napoli extended their lead at the top of Serie A to 18 points thanks to a 2-0 victory over a struggling Empoli side in the battle of the Azzurri, despite being down to ten men after a Marco Rui red card.
Despite having just one Serie A (SA) loss to their name in 2023, Empoli were in for an uphill struggle against title favourites Napoli at the Stadio Carlo Castellani.
Napoli were on an impressive seven-game win streak in SA and had one foot in the UEFA Champions League Quarter-Finals after beating Eintracht Frankfurt 2-0 during the week.
It didn’t take long for the visitors to score their 57th league goal of the season when Piotr Zieliński’s fizzed cross was unfortunately turned into his own net by Ardian Ismajli for 1-0.
Napoli’s talisman Victor Osimhen then got in on the action to score in his ninth successive start and make it 19 goals in 20 league games after he pounced on a spilled Guglielmo Vicario save to make it 2-0 inside 30 minutes.
Kim Min-jae came inches away from adding to his two SA goals this season by using all of his six foot and three inches to rise highest at a corner and crash a powerful header against the crossbar, keeping Empoli narrowly in the contest.
Empoli had a first half to forget, failing to pose any real threat and managing only one shot on target.
In this fixture last season, Empoli had staged a brilliant second-half comeback from two goals down to win 3-2, however this season, they were facing a very different Napoli side who had only conceded 15 SA goals all season.
Moreover, the hosts were lucky not to be further behind on the hour mark when Osimhen had a goal ruled out for the tightest of offsides.
Mário Rui had a moment of madness to give Empoli a puncher’s chance at getting back into the game with only 20 minutes remaining when he was caught by VAR stupidly kicking out at Francesco Caputo, leaving Giovanni Ayroldi no choice but to brandish a straight red card for serious foul play.
Osimhen should have wrapped up the game for Gli Azzurri with moments remaining but uncharacteristically scuffed his effort wide from close to range to see the game finish 2-0.
