Serie A | Sampdoria 0-4 Napoli: Perfect Partenopei
Napoli maintained their perfect start in real style, flattening Sampdoria 4-0 with a Victor Osimhen brace, Fabian Ruiz and Piotr Zielinski strikes.
The Partenopei were the only side with a 100 per cent record after four rounds and needed a win here to retain top spot alone. Diego Demme, Dries Mertens, Stanislav Lobotka and Faouzi Ghoulam were still out of action, but Piotr Zielinski returned to the starting XI. Samp missed Manolo Gabbiadini and Valerio Verre, but Morten Thorsby and Adrien Silva shook off knocks to start.
Victor Osimhen fired straight at Emil Audero when sent clear on goal, but the Nigerian did score moments later. Samp gave it away in midfield and Osimhen came sliding onto a Lorenzo Insigne cross at the back post, Audero making a total hash of his save.
David Ospina had to fly in order to push an Adrien Silva strike out from under the bar, then on the resulting corner claw a Maya Yoshida header off the line.
Osimhen thought he’d made it 2-0 moments later, but was clearly offside before lobbing Audero.
Samp continued their attacks, Ospina’s gloves stung by an Antonio Candreva rocket and Ciccio Caputo pushing his marker on the rebound.
Candreva also blasted over the bar and Audero parried an Insigne snapshot, but Napoli doubled their lead with a well-worked second.
Lozano down the right found Insigne, who laid it off for a Fabian Ruiz snooker shot into the near bottom corner from outside the penalty area. Curiously, it was Osimhen and Fabian Ruiz who had also scored in this fixture last season.
There were problems straight after the restart, as Amir Rrahmani had a knock to the head in the first half and went down feeling dizzy, so made way for Kostas Manolas.
Napoli added a third goal, Lozano rolling across from the right for Osimhen to peel away from his marker, sweeping home undisturbed from eight yards.
Sampdoria crumbled, Lozano again assisting from the right for Piotr Zielinski to put his foot through the finish into the near bottom corner from just inside the area.
Osimhen should’ve had a hat-trick, but turned wide one-on-one with Audero after a Yoshida error.
Sampdoria had the ball in the net on 73 minutes with Candreva, but the goal was disallowed because Caputo was offside in the build-up before his effort was cleared off the line by Kalidou Koulibaly.
There could’ve been more for Napoli, Audero getting down for a one-handed save on Adam Ounas.
Sampdoria 0-4 Napoli
Osimhen 10, 50 (N), Fabian Ruiz 39 (N), Zielinski 59 (N)