Napoli suffered a massive blow to their Scudetto hopes at the Stadio Artemio Franchi, after losing 3-0 to Fiorentina with Giovanni Simeone bagging his first Serie A hat-trick.
Following Juventus’ late win over Inter on Saturday evening, the Partenopei needed a victory to maintain a one point gap.
That looked highly unlikely after Kalidou Koulibaly was given his marching orders just six minutes in, following a last ditch foul on Simeone.
From there, the youngster was the star. Alert to a long ball, before poking home a rebound in the second half, and adding a third late on to get his hat-trick.
The win was only Fiorentina’s second win over Napoli in the last 16 attempts, and their first at home against the Partenopei since January 2009.
As a result, Napoli now slip four points behind Juventus, with three games left of the season, while Fiorentina stay in eighth place, three points adrift of AC Milan in seventh, with those two playing on the final day of the season.
A frantic start to the game saw Fiorentina initially awarded a penalty as Koulibaly fouled Simeone as he drove into the 18-yard box, or so it seemed. But after consulting VAR, referee Paolo Mazzoleni gave a freekick on the edge of the area and sent the Napoli defender off, as he was the last man.
From the resulting set piece, Cristiano Biraghi forced Pepe Reina to save with his feet, when Nikola Milenkovic had a go, but was unable to hit the target.
The man advantage was telling for La Viola who were much more dangerous when going forward.
Riccardo Saponara shot wide, Jordan Veretout tried to curl a freekick into the top corner, but put it just over, then at the other end Marco Sportiello palmed a Mario Rui corner out from under the crossbar.
Just after the half hour, Simeone latched onto a Biraghi long ball and raced past Lorenzo Tonelli before placing the ball between the legs of Reina and into the far right corner.
Napoli were unable to get control of the ball, and a plethora of mistakes allowed Fiorentina to keep up the pressure.
Marco Benassi flashed a shot across goal, before Saponara drove forward then launched a strike straight at Reina.
Saponara was again the protagonist, and he played in Federico Chiesa, but the youngster was stopped by the onrushing Reina.
As half time approached, Milan Badelj tried to curl one in from the edge of the area, but it went wide.
After the restart, Vincent Laurini raced down the right and his deep cross found Saponara at the back post, though his effort to find the far corner was off target.
Mertens then went close for Napoli, latching onto a delightful Jose Callejon crossfield ball, but Sportiello was equal to the shot.
Veretout smashed a shot from distance inches wide, before Chiesa force a point blank save from Reina.
Napoli risked giving away a penalty after throwing men forward, and being caught on the break, but Simeone’s cross did hit Tonelli’s hand, the referee deemed it involuntary and awarded a corner.
Not that it mattered, as the set piece was flung into the box, hitting Mario Rui on the backside and although Reina saved that initial ball, he couldn’t stop Simeone poking in the rebound just after the hour mark.
Simeone again tried his luck from distance, but couldn’t hit the target. However right at the death he was played in on goal and made no mistake to round off a famous win.
