It was a cagey start between two sides who showed great promise in the first half of the season, but the added motivation that they could go top of Serie A meant most of the positive play went Napoli’s way.
The Partenopei were unfortunate that Mathias Olivera was offside when he netted on 15 minutes, before Fiorentina’s David de Gea was on top form to turn away Leonardo Spinazzola’s effort.
The visitors continued to push, and eventually the pressure became too much for the Viola to withstand.
David Neres did brilliantly to fend off Fabiano Parisi and enter the box, before unleashing a powerful strike into the roof of the net at De Gea’s near post.
Napoli were unbeaten this season when scoring first, but that didn’t deter Fiorentina from trying to hit back straight away. A dominant spell culminated in the Viola having one disallowed themselves after
Moise Kean netted, which particularly enraged manager Raffaele Palladino given that the slight touch Kean’s hand made with the ball was likely precipitated by contact from Giovanni Di Lorenzo.
More efforts flew in from Rolando Mandragora and Dodo, but Fiorentina found themselves behind at the break for the first time in Serie A since facing Lazio here in September – a match they went on to win.
A repeat of that here looked unlikely though after debutant Matías Moreno scythed down Frank Anguissa in the area, and Romelu Lukaku smashed down the middle from the spot to double Napoli’s lead just after the break.
Sides led by Antonio Conte are notoriously hard to break down, but Fiorentina should have notched one back in a remarkable passage of play which saw a stunning save from Alex Meret and goal-saving blocks from both Amir Rrahmani and Olivera.
Once again, the hosts’ wastefulness proved costly, and Scott McTominay made it three by pouncing on Pietro Comuzzo’s poor clearance of Anguissa’s cross to sweep into the bottom left.
Fiorentina looked completely dejected after that, and Napoli were allowed to play out the final 20 minutes with relative ease.
The absence of Atalanta and Inter Milan, who are in Riyadh for the Supercoppa Italiana, means that Napoli go top of the pile but have played at least a match more than those two closest title rivals.
Fiorentina, meanwhile, are in danger of dropping out of the top six altogether after being as high as third in November, and will look to their next game against 20th-placed Monza to end their longest winless streak since September 2022.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Amir Rrahmani (Napoli)
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