Napoli made short work of Verona, a 3-0 victory sending them through to the Coppa Italia quarter-finals against Inter.
The Partenopei have lost only one of their last 21 fixtures in all competition and showed how important this tournament was to them by fielding star striker Gonzalo Higuain with Pepe Reina in goal. There had been numerous shocks in the Coppa so far and Verona hoped to ignore their status at the bottom of the Serie A table to cause another upset.
Napoli made short work of Verona, a 3-0 victory sending them through to the Coppa Italia quarter-finals against Inter.
The Partenopei have lost only one of their last 21 fixtures in all competition and showed how important this tournament was to them by fielding star striker Gonzalo Higuain with Pepe Reina in goal. There had been numerous shocks in the Coppa so far and Verona hoped to ignore their status at the bottom of the Serie A table to cause another upset.
It took just four minutes to break through, as Higuain burst down the left and pulled across from the by-line for Omar El Kaddouri to tap in undisturbed.
Pipita had the ball in the net moments later, but was correctly flagged offside, but Dries Mertens turned on the turbo and dribbled past a series of players to fire the finish under Ferdinando Coppola.
Higuain should’ve made it 3-0, but attempted a lob when clear on goal and it was plucked out of the air. Verona were unlucky not to pull one back before half-time, as 18-year-old Luca Checchin’s curler from the edge of the box thumped the crossbar.
Coppola picked up a back-pass, but Higuain blasted the indirect free kick over, then the goalkeeper performed a desperate save from point-blank range on the Argentine.
Mohamed Fares brought down Mertens during another mazy run for a penalty, but Marek Hamsik fired the spot-kick against the upright.
Moments later Napoli did get their third goal, as El Kaddouri rolled across the face of goal for Jose Callejon to tap in.
Napoli 3-0 Verona
Scorers: El Kaddouri 4 (N), Mertens 12 (N), Callejon 75 (N)
Napoli: Reina; Maggio, Chiriches, Koulibaly, Strinic; Allan (Chalobah 66), Valdifiori, David Lopez (Hamsik 49); El Kaddouri, Higuain (Callejon 71), Mertens
Verona: Coppola; Bianchetti, Moras (Winck 77), Helander, Pisano; Checchin (Zaccagni 60), Hallfredsson; Jankovic, Siligardi (Greco 46), Fares; Wszolek
Ref: Irrati
Missed penalty: Hamsik 73 (N)