Scott Mctominay and Romelu Lukaku led Napoli's indictment when the Antonio Conte degradation-threatened Empoli team sent 3-0 to close to Inter in the Serie A-Title Race.
Match report
Inter beat Cagliari 3-1 on Saturday to extend their lead on top of six points, but Napoli closed that gorge back to three with a dominant victory on Monday.
Napoli only needed 18 minutes to open the score while Lukaku fought for free in midfield and it played to Mctominay, whose low shot on the vast hand of Devis Vasquez bounced and in the corner of the net.
Lukaku turned from the provider to Scorer in the 56th minute when he held a Mathias Olivera and finished cool.
And the Belgian in combination with McTominay again five minutes later, while the former midfielder of Manchester United put a header to the cross of Lukaku home.
12+10-Romelu #lukaku is one of the two players in the BIG-5 European Leagues 2024-25, alongside Mohamed Salah (27G+18A), to reach the double digits for both goals and assists: 12 goals and 10 assists for the #Napoli-Spits. Precious.#Napoliempoli pic.twitter.com/arnmwynxd
– OPTAPAOLO (@OPTAPAOLO) April 14, 2025
While Napoli is to the title, Empoli stare over the barrel of relegation. They are 19th, two points of safety with six more games left.
Data Debrief: Lukaku Elite still
The three target contributions from Lukaku mean that this season he was only the second player in Europe's top five competitions to reach double digits for both goals and assists.
He has now scored 12 times and has taken another 10 goals. Mohamed Salah (27 goals and 18 assists in the Premier League) is the only other player who has reached double digits in both statistics.
In fact, no one has succeeded in offering more than one assist this season in a single match in a top five European competition than Lukaku (Three) – he is in that respect to Omar Marmoush, Son Heung -Min and Salah.
The 31-year-old, who celebrated his 100th Serie A victory, is now involved in at least 20 goals in a league campaign for the first time since the 2020-21 season, when he played for Inter.
Match -Events
0 'The game is about to start!
15 'Match event for Napoli vs Empoli
18 'goal! Napoli 1-0 Empoli (Scott Mctominay)
27 'Highlight of Napoli vs Empoli
52 'Highlight of Napoli vs Empoli
53 'Match event for Napoli vs Empoli
56 'goal! Napoli 2-0 Empoli (Romelu Lukaku)
59 'Match event for Napoli vs Empoli
61 'goal! Napoli 3-0 Empoli (Scott Mctominay)
67 'Highlight of Napoli vs Empoli
76 'Match event for Napoli vs Empoli
80 'Match event for Napoli vs Empoli
87 'Highlight of Napoli vs Empoli
Line-ups
Napoli XI: Lukaku, Juan, Lobotka, Politano, Rrahmani, Meret, Pasquale Mazzocchi, M.Olivera, Neres, Mctominay, Gilmour
Subs: Spinazzola, Simone Scuffet, G.Simeon, Billing, Okafor, Giacomo Raspadori, Cyril Ngonge, Rafa Marín, Luis Hasa, Claudio Turi
Empoli XI: A.Grassi, Liam Henderson, Emmanuel Gyasi, Pezzella, Devis Vásquez, Liberato Cacace, Esposito, Jacopo Fazzini, Mattia Viti, Saba Goglichidze, Luca Mariucci
Subs: Silvestri, the Sciglio, Viktor Kovalenko, T. Ebuehi, Sambia, Federico Brancolini, Lorenzo Colombo, Jacopo Seghetti, Jacopo Bacci, Ismael Konate, Thomas Campaniello, Lorenzo Tosto Tosto Tosto, Loren
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