After five successive Serie A clean sheets, Napoli’s defence was finally breached as Lazio secured a third-straight league victory for the first time since October thanks to a Matías Vecino wonderstrike.
For runaway league leaders Napoli, the chance to open up their lead to 21 points before any of the sides chasing them kick a ball didn’t look to be much incentive to start fast.
Instead, it was Lazio doing the early leg work and the visitors were unlucky not to snatch a lead inside five minutes when Giovanni Di Lorenzo was on hand to head Vecino’s deft header off the line with goalkeeper Alex Meret beaten.
Napoli were struggling to assert any real authority on the game, but they did almost snatch the lead out of nowhere when André-Frank Zambo Anguissa’s deflected effort whistled narrowly over the bar.
It took until almost the hour mark for Napoli to spring into life in the final third, and despite usually being the man to add the finishing touches, Victor Osimhen was the creator on this occasion, teeing the ball up invitingly on the edge of the area for Piotr Zieliński who dragged his effort narrowly wide.
Luciano Spalletti’s men were made to rue that missed opportunity shortly after, as Lazio proved applied the sucker punch when Mathías Olivera’s weak header fell invitingly to Vecino, who after being denied in the first half, unleashed an absolute thunderbolt past a desperate Meret dive.
Strangely, that goal didn’t do much to spark Lazio into life, and despite Spalletti’s double substitution in the wake of falling behind, his changes didn’t seem to be having the desired effect.
That was at least until one of Napoli’s stars of the season, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, stood up a teasing delivery to the back post which Osimhen powered against the crossbar before Ivan Provedel produced a wonder-save to deny Kim Min-jae on the follow-up.
Try as they might, Napoli simply couldn’t break Lazio’s resistance, though they ought not to be too disheartened by defeat given they still look nailed on to secure a first Serie A title since 1990.
As for Lazio, this shock victory will be eye-catching for their fellow top-four chasers and was enough to lift them into second ahead of the weekend’s action.