Torino thrash 10-man Napoli whose title defence continues to crumble
After a disappointing defeat to Fiorentina last time out, Torino started on the front foot, as Duvan Zapata’s first-time effort from distance was spilt by Pierluigi Gollini inside just five minutes. Nikola Vlasic then wasted a golden opportunity to double his tally for the season by flashing over from close range.
Giacomo Raspadori missed Napoli’s best chance of the half by striking straight at Vanja Milinkovic-Savic after a neat passing move.
The reigning champions are having a tough time defending their Serie A title, and they went behind two minutes before halftime, as Antonio Sanabria pounced on Zapata’s clever flick-on following a free-kick routine to tap home just his third goal this season.
Napoli made a change for the second half, bringing on Pasquale Mazzocchi for his debut in the hope of changing their fortunes around, but he was sent off after just five minutes, with his leg adjudged to be too high as he missed the ball and caught his opponent.
A terrible start turned into a nightmare for the visitors when Vlasic doubled Torino’s lead by firing into the bottom corner from outside the box, with Zapata grabbing himself another assist.
The Colombian almost got on the scoresheet himself when his effort was brilliantly clawed away on the line by Gollini after Sanabria hit the post.
Yet, Torino only had to wait a few moments before adding their third from the resulting corner.
Valentino Lazaro’s wicked delivery was met with a bullet header by Alessandro Buongiorno, with the centre-back netting an impressive third goal of the campaign.
Napoli did not threaten to get back into the game and it was a comfortable victory for Torino in the end, who made it four wins from their last five home league matches to move up to 10th - right on Napoli’s heels.
The hosts also broke their personal head-to-head hoodoo against today’s opponents, with their first win in nine against them, leaving the Neapolitans to ponder over a title defence that has gone so badly wrong.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Duvan Zapata (Torino)