Napoli 4-2 Inter: Higuain and Company Spoil Mazzarri Return

Date: 15th December 2013 at 10:56pm
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Insigne and Higuain - NapoliNapoli defeated Inter 4-2 at the Stadio San Paolo on Sunday evening in Serie A.

Gonzalo Higuain, Dries Mertens, Blerim Dzemaili and Jose Callejon scored for the home side while Esteban Cambiasso and Yuto Nakatomo scored for the visitors from Milan.

The match marked Walter Mazzarri’s return to Napoli where he coached for four years, guiding Napoli and the Tre Tenori of Edinson Cavani, Ezequiel Lavezzi and Marek Hamsik to the Coppa Italia trophy in 2012 and back into the Champions League.

In the ninth minute Higuain volleyed a left-footed rocket into the Inter net after Nagatomo failed to clear a fairly benign lob from Gokhan Inler.

Cambiasso leveled things in the 35th from a Fredy Guarin cross for Inter.

Mertens reclaimed the lead for the home side only a two minutes later after Dzemaili charged forward on a typical Napoli break, held off Ranocchia and left the ball for the Belgian to curve one by Samir Handanovic.

Dzemaili then added Napoli’s third in the first half capitalizing on Handanovic’s failure to handle a Mertens shot. But Inter got back into the match just before the first half whistle when Rafael fumbled a Guarin low pass right inot the path of Nagatomo.

Inter dominated possession and controlled the midfield but simply couldn’t contain Napoli’s pace on the counter attack. And while both sides failed to produce particurly flowing football, there were acres of space leading to the five-goal first half flurry.

Merterns and Lorenzo Insigne continued to threaten the Inter back line with their quickness and technical abilities. Ricardo Alvarez was shown his second yellow in the 71st minute, harshly judged to have handled a ball, reducing Inter to 10 men for the final 20 minutes.

Higuain was substituted for Valon Behrami on 77 minutes, appearing to walk off somewhat uncomfortably. Three minutes later Callejon put things out of reach for Inter, timing his run to find the end of Insigne’s perfectly weighted cross deep in Handanovic’s box.

Goran Pandev came on for Anthony Reveillere in the 90th minute and immediately earned a penalty when he was tripped in the box. However, Pandev’s low shot was pushed around the post by Handanovic.

Napoli have now scored at least three goals in their last three Serie A encounters and with one fixture remaining before the winter break are eight points adrift of league leaders Juventus.

 

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