Goals from Gonzalo Higuain and Dries Mertens secured a deserved 2-0 victory for Napoli against Palermo in the Serie A clash at Stadio San Paolo this evening.
Napoli came into the match on the back of their sixth consecutive victory in all competitions and unsurprisingly it was they who dominated the early proceedings, David Lopez seeing his fierce drive blocked and Marek Hamsik firing wide from the edge of the box.
Higuain came close to adding to his nine goals for the season when his header forced Stefano Sorrentino into a low save, and his strike partner Lorenzo Insigne had two attempts from the edge of the box as the hosts continued their early onslaught.
Jose Callejon's dangerous ball across goal evaded both Higuain and Insigne as the one-way traffic continued, while the visitors' first-half attempts were limited to a blocked Franco Vazquez shot from outside the box as they struggled to get out of their own half.
Five minutes before the interval the home side had the lead that they deserved when Higuain collected the ball on the edge of the penalty area and rifled a low effort across Sorrentino to score for the fourth game in a row.
Palermo looked to respond to the setback from the first whistle in the second half, and Alberto Gilardino headed Oscar Hiljemark's corner over the crossbar as they gave the home side a warning just two minutes after the restart.
It could have been 2-0 on the hour mark as Higuain came within inches of adding his second when he struck the post from 25 yards before Callejon was denied by Sorrentino as the hosts looked to kill the game off.
They did put the match to bed with 10 minutes remaining when, shortly after Mertens had also been denied by the woodwork after he was fed by Hamsik, the substitute found the net from a similar position to seal victory.
Tom Nightingale
