Monza 1-4 Napoli: Hojlund ends goal drought in Serie A thrashing

Rasmus Hojlund scored for the first time since September 5 for Napoli as they thrashed Monza 4-1 in Serie A.

Matteo Politano, Rafa Marin and Kevin De Bruyne also got on the scoresheet as Massimiliano Allegri watched on from the stands at U-Power Stadium, serving the first match of his two-game ban.

Napoli needed just 10 minutes to break the deadlock as Giovanni Di Lorenzo played Hojlund in behind the Monza defence, and the Dane made no mistake with his sliding finish at the near post.

Politano pounced on a poor pass from Ricardo Mangas but saw his shot blocked by Saba Goglichidze, while Vanja Milinkovic-Savic bailed out Di Lorenzo at the other end after the Napoli captain was dispossessed by Gustavo Varela.

Monza were level two minutes before the break through Varela, who glanced a header into the far corner from Jay Robinson's cross, but Napoli restored their lead in the 48th minute after Politano capitalised on a heavy touch from Mangas before curling into the bottom-left corner.

Milinkovic-Savic was called into action again, this time getting low to his right to keep out Manga Foe Ondoa's volley, and Napoli made the most of that reprieve as Marin flicked Politano's corner past Noel Tornqvist in the 62nd minute.

De Bruyne then came off the bench to add further gloss to the scoreline five minutes later, finishing through the legs of the Monza goalkeeper following a brilliant throughball from Noa Lang, while Scott McTominay flashed a potential fifth past the left post.

Hojlund helps ease pressure on Allegri

The pressure was growing on Allegri ahead of this fixture after they squandered the lead twice against Roma off the back of a defeat against Venezia, but Hojlund, another who has been heavily criticised, opened the scoring in an important win.

Hojlund scored for the first time since MD3 against Inter, while he also led Napoli in shots on target (two), touches in the box (four) and aerial duels won (3/4), and his goal comes at an important time.

Napoli face Juventus and Lazio in Serie A either side of a Champions League encounter with Porto, and the Partenopei will need their striker firing on all cylinders if they are to continue turning their season around.

Despite the four goals and three points, with Napoli also winning the expected goals (xG) battle 1.37 to 0.73, there will be some concern for Allegri after Stanislav Lobotka was stretchered off in the 17th minute with a suspected ankle injury.

Varela, meanwhile, became the second-youngest player (21 years and 271 days) to score at least eight goals in his first eight appearances in the history of Serie A, after Otello Torri (eight in eight games with Novara between 1936 and 1937 at 19y 364d).