Napoli captain Lorenzo Insigne scored to help his side beat 10-man Fiorentina 2-0 and move into provisional third place in the Serie A table on Sunday as it chases a Champions League spot.
The win leaves Gennaro Gattuso’s side on 76 points, one point ahead of AC Milan and Juventus in fourth and fifth respectively, before Milan hosts Cagliari later on Sunday.
Napoli will be guaranteed a place in next season’s Champions League if it wins its final game of the season at home to Hellas Verona next Sunday.
Juve had beaten champion Inter Milan on Saturday to move above Napoli, which therefore travelled to Florence needing a victory to ensure it would go into the final round of fixtures in one of the four Champions League qualifying positions.
Napoli was frustrated by the 13th-placed host in the first half as goalkeeper Pietro Terracciano kept out Piotr Zielinski's strike, and Insigne’s free-kick rattled the bar. Fiorentina striker Dusan Vlahovic had a header ruled out for offside.
The breakthrough came after 57 minutes when Napoli was awarded a penalty for a shirt pull at a corner following a VAR review. Viola substitute Bartlomiej Dragowski was shown a straight red card for protesting the decision.
Insigne’s tame spot-kick was saved, but he fired home the rebound. The Italy winger was close to a second but was denied by the woodwork again with a low shot that struck the post.
Napoli doubled its advantage on the 67th minute when Insigne laid off a pass to Zielinski, whose first-time strike took a big deflection off Lorenzo Venuti on its way in and was awarded as an own goal to wrap up the points.
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