Napoli continued the form that saw them defeat Juventus 2-1 at the weekend as they came out 4-2 winners over Sampdoria at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris on Monday evening.
Goals from Arkadiusz Milik and Elif Elmas had given the Partenopei an early lead but a wonder strike from Fabio Quagliarella and a Manolo Gabbiadini penalty brought the hosts level. Diego Demme’s late strike settled the contest before a stoppage time goal from Dries Mertens sealed the victory.
The victory was Napoli’s third straight win in all competitions as they continue to improve under the leadership of Gennaro Gattuso.
The Partenopei took the lead inside the first three minutes when Milik met Piotr Zielinski’s cross and guided his header past Emil Audero to silence the Stadio Luigi Ferraris.
Only 13 minutes later things went from bad to worse for the hosts as they failed to deal with Mario Rui’s corner and Elmas arrived at the back post to hammer home the visitor’s second.
Despite the game only being 26 minutes old it appeared that the Blucerchiati were in for a long evening, but then Quagliarella provided a moment of magic to bring Claudio Ranieri’s team back into the contest. His well struck volley from the edge of the box was too strong for Alex Meret and restored some parity to proceedings.
With only five minutes remaining before the break Napoli had once again asserted their authority on the contest but it would be the home side who had the next clear cut chance on goal.
A wonderful sweeping move would see Jakub Jankto’s ball across the Partenopei box eventually find its way to Gaston Ramirez who had a golden opportunity to bring the scores level, but his deft chip would hit the post and send Gattuso’s team into halftime with a slender 2-1 advantage.
The Blucerchiati were in the ascendancy after the break as the visitors looked flustered under constant pressure from Jankto and Manolo Gabbiadini down the flanks.
Jankto and Gabbiadini looked to have combined to create the equaliser for the hosts on 55 minutes as the Czech international’s cross found the striker at the back post and his header back across the box was wonderfully struck past Meret by Gaston. However, a handball in the build up saw the goal ruled out.
Only moments later the Patenopei would also fall foul of VAR as Lorenzo Insigne’s low drive cannoned off the post and Zielinski was on hand to put the rebound past Audero, but he was shown to be offside upon review.
VAR drama would continue to be at the centre of proceedings when Kostas Manolas brought Quagliarella down inside the Partenopei box. Play continued as the penalty claims were waved away but the replays showed that there had been contact between the two and Gabbiadini was given the chance to bring Samp level from the spot.
The striker stepped up and drove his penalty past Meret into the bottom corner to bring the sides level with 15 minutes remaining of what had been a hectic contest.
With the hosts looking the most likely to find a winner the Partenopei’s third came against the run of play with only seven minutes remaining when Insigne’s stinging shot was blocked, but Demme was on hand to fire past Audero to make sure that Gattuso’s side took all three points back to Naples.
Substitute Mertens sealed the victory deep into stoppage time as he fired a long range effort into an open goal after Milik had beaten Audero to the ball outside the box.
