Napoli win delays Inter's title celebrations
Napoli cruised to a 4-0 win at home to Cremonese, a result which means Serie A leader Inter Milan will have to wait at least another week to celebrate the title win and leaves the visitors in serious relegation trouble.
With its title defence all but over, Napoli was still keen to impress after a dismal performance last weekend when it failed to register a single shot on target in a 2-0 home loss to Lazio.
"After Lazio, we spoke, I coach intelligent guys and they understood what didn't work," Napoli boss Antonio Conte said before kick-off.
"Today we have to get back on track."
Conte's men duly obliged.
Scott McTominay was denied by the onrushing keeper Emil Audero in an early attack but his opening goal quickly came in the third minute.
McTominay collected Kevin De Bruyne's pass, took one touch to control before rifling a low shot to the bottom corner of the net for his ninth league goal of the season.
Napoli created plenty of chances before doubling its lead on the stroke of half-time with an own goal.
Rasmus Hojlund slipped as he got his shot away but the ball took a wicked deflection off Filippo Terracciano to wrongfoot Audero and Napoli finished the game off in stoppage-time before the break.
After McTominay made an acrobatic pullback from the byline to keep the ball in play, De Bruyne battled to win possession from Youssef Maleh in the area and drilled his shot beyond Audero.
Napoli continued where it left off after the interval. Goalkeeper Vanja Milinkovic-Savic threw the ball to Alisson Santos, who ran the length of the pitch unchallenged before firing home from the edge of the area.
Amir Rrahmani rattled the Cremonese crossbar and Audero denied McTominay from the penalty spot late on as Napoli failed to add to its goal tally, but Conte, and the home fans, will be more than happy with an impressive performance.
Napoli is second in the standings on 69 points, nine behind Inter, which is away to Torino on Monday (AEST) and three points ahead of AC Milan, which hosts Juventus.
Cremonese is third from bottom, level on 28 points with Lecce, which is in the safety zone ahead of a trip to Hellas Verona this weekend.
Verona is second from bottom on 18 points and looks to be Serie B bound along with bottom club Pisa.
