Leao nets two in Milan's shock rout of Napoli
Rafael Leao scored two brilliant goals as Milan stunned Serie A leader Napoli with a crushing 4-0 victory at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona.
Leao netted either side of a close-range strike from Brahim Diaz, opening the scoring with a lobbed one-on-one finish before doubling up with a powerful effort on the break.
With Serie A's leading marksman Victor Osimhen out injured, Napoli applied plenty of pressure but lacked cutting edge, and Alexis Saelemaekers added some gloss with a fine solo goal for the Scudetto holder.
The result saw Milan take advantage of Inter's loss to Fiorentina by going third in the table, and Stefano Pioli will hope it represents a sign of things to come ahead of the teams' upcoming Champions League quarter-final tie.
Giovanni Simeone – starting in place of Osimhen – missed the first clear chance when he fired over from 12 yards out, but it was Milan who struck first after 17 minutes.
Leao raced onto Diaz's throughball before dinking an impudent finish over Alex Meret, silencing the home crowd and ending his 11-game goal drought at club level.
Things got even better for the Rossoneri eight minutes later, with Diaz sitting Mario Rui down after controlling Ismael Bennacer's left-wing cross before finishing high into the roof of the net.
Mike Maignan made strong saves to thwart Piotr Zielinski and Rui as Napoli looked to hit back, while Olivier Giroud went close to finding the bottom-right corner after the interval.
Despite Napoli dominating possession, Milan went further ahead when Leao capped a lightning break by tricking his way past Amir Rrahmani and lashing into the top-right corner.
With Napoli all at sea defensively, Saelemaekers added a memorable strike of his own, dancing through several Partenopei challenges before prodding beyond Meret after 67 minutes.
