Match details 

The Sunday afternoon clash between U.S Lecce and SSC Napoli was not much of a two way battle as the team from Naples came out with a rather easy win. Carlo Ancelotti's squad dominated throughout the match and in the end came out with an impressive but easy 4-1 victory. 

The result moved Napoli into third place in the Serie A standings, behind only Juventus FC in second and Inter Milan in first. 

The loss for Lecce has put them in 18th place, which puts them in the relegation zone with only UC Sampdoria and ACF Fiorentina behind them.

First half

Napoli dominated the first 45 minutes and went up 2-0 thanks to goals from their new striker Fernando Llorente and then received a penalty due to a handball from Panagiotis Tachtsidis. The first penalty by Lorenzo Insigne was saved by Lecce goalkeeper Gabriel but the keeper was off his line and eventually the second penalty was put in the back of the net. 

Young Napoli midfielder Elif Elmas, making a rare start, had an impressive first half, completing many breakout passes. He did although, pickup a yellow card towards the end of the half. 

Second half   

The second half started with a substitution by Lecce who replaced the man who gave up the penalty, Tachtsidis with midfielder Jacopo Petriccione

However, the second half started similarly to how the first half ended, with Napoli dominating play. The Partenopei then scored a third goal through Fabian Ruiz thanks to a wonderful curling strike from outside the box. 

Finally in the 59th minute, Lecce had their chance to get one back through a penalty, as Napoli goalkeeper David Ospina took out a Lecce player in the box. The penalty was scored by Marco Mancosu, making it 3-1. Lecce did start creating a few more chances but nothing came of it. 

Gianluca Lapadula and Romario Benzar both later came on for Lecce replacing Filippo Falco and Andrea Rispoli respectively. Lapadula had a couple of decent opportunities to pull another one back for Lecce but failed to hit the target. 

Hirving Lozano and Jose Callejon later came on for Napoli replacing Arkadiusz Milik and Elmas. 

Llorente scored his second and Napoli's fourth goal in the 82nd minute to put the game to bed, making it 4-1 for the Partenopei. Llorente was later substituted for Sebastiano Luperto with only a couple of minutes remaining in the match.

Man of the Match 

Man of the match would undoubtedly be Fernando Llorente as the Spaniard bagged a brace and linked up well with the rest of his Napoli teammates.

Not to mention he has only been with the team a few weeks now, and will continue to get better. If he and the rest of the Napoli team continue to play like this, they will surely have a good run at the Scudetto and Serie A glory. 

Next match 

Napoli's next match will be on Wednesday as they host Cagliari Calcio. Surely  they will be expecting much of the same in that match and it should be another routine victory for them. 

Also on Wednesday, Lecce play S.P.A.L and they will be hoping for a much better result in that one. Both these teams will be fighting to avoid relegation and hope to stay up in Serie A for next seasons campaign. With that said, Lecce will need to play much better if they hope to keep their Serie A dreams alive next season. 

 

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