Napoli brushed aside Genoa 2-0 at the Stadio San Paolo in Serie A action on Sunday evening.
Goran Pandev’s sizzler opened the scoring before Blerim Dzemaili added on to his hat trick from last Saturday with another tally in this one.
Andrea Bertolacci released a powerful shot to the right side of the goal after two minutes, but Morgan De Sanctis got across well and stopped it on the dive.
Napoli managed to expose some weak Genoa defending shortly after that and got chances from Pandev and Pablo Armero, which were saved by Sebastien Frey.
Eventually the hosts get the breakthrough in the 18th minute. Edinson Cavani won a ball in the air, which fooled Andreas Granqvist, leaving a little space for Pandev, who took full advantage and blasted his attempt into the back of the net to make it 1-0.
They doubled their lead near the half hour mark. After the Grifone got forward and won a corner, the Partenopei countered with pace. Marek Hamsik carried the ball and found the run of Dzemaili, who calmly slid it past Frey.
The home side continued their domination early in the second interval when Pandev picked out Cavani and appeared to have fooled Frey on a dummy, but the goalkeeper recovered and stopped the ball on the Uruguayan’s attempt.
Juraj Kucka then conceded a penalty after taking down Hamsik in the box, which he was booked for. However he was bailed out by Frey who got across and stopped Cavani on his right.
Cavani nearly made amends for his miss from the spot with a powerful header, but Frey showed his quick reactions and kept it out.
Fortunately for him, his side held on to the 2-0 victory despite those botched efforts.
