Still smarting from their Italian Cup exit at the hands of Juventus in midweek, Napoli travelled to the Stadio Olimpico knowing another reverse could hamper their bid for a third-place finish. But Napoli were unbeaten away to Lazio since a 3-1 league loss in April 2012, and, after seeing Sergej Milinkovic-Savic go close with two early efforts for the hosts, were off the mark on 25 minutes when Spain forward Callejon finished off a great passing move between Marek Hamsik and Dries Mertens.
Insigne was completely unmarked when he somehow fired wide from Mertens’ through ball before the half-time interval. But the Italy midfielder made amends six minutes after the restart when he met Allan’s chipped pass to prod into the far bottom corner from a tight angle.
Amid a late Lazio onslaught, Napoli coach Maurizio Sarri replaced Callejon with midfielder Piotr Zielinski and the move paid off, the Pole cushioning Arkadiusz Milik’s cross for Insigne to sweep home his second in stoppage time. Napoli remain third, and although four points behind Roma in the second automatic Champions League spot, the southerners — who lost their Cup semi to Juve 5-4 on aggregate in midweek — have cast Lazio seven points adrift.
“The lads could have paid for their efforts in midweek against Juventus, but they didn’t,” said Sarri, who was quick to underline they had beaten the champions 3-2 in the Cup last week, days after a 1-1 league draw at the San Paolo. “In three days we held Juve 1-1 and beat them in the Cup, and that’s not too bad. Tonight the lads gave me the right response. Let’s keep going, and get as many points as possible.”
Simone Inzaghi’s Lazio, in fourth, hold a one-point lead on Atalanta, whose unlikely push for a Europa League spot was given a boost when Inter Milan were stunned 2-1 at Crotone.
A week after a 2-1 home defeat to Sampdoria extinguished their Champions League qualifying hopes, Inter’s chances of even qualifying for the Europa League are hanging by a thread after Diego Falcinelli hit a dramatic first-half brace in Calabria, where Danilo D’Ambrosio reduced the arrears in the 65th minute.
Juventus had moved nine points clear with a 2-0 win over Chievo on Saturday, when Gonzalo Higuain hit his second brace in as many outings, but Roma restored their six-point deficit with a confident 3-0 win at Bologna thanks to goals from Federico Fazio, Mohamed Salah and Edin Dzeko.