Gonzalo Higuain hat-trick downs Lazio

Napoli remain on course to book a place in the next season's Champions League after claiming a 4-2 victory in their Serie A match against Lazio.

The visitors opened the scoring in the 21st minute through Senad Lulic, who turned Raul Albiol on the edge of the box before drilling a low effort across Pepe Reina and into the far corner.

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Napoli came close to a response when Gonzalo Higuain worked himself some room inside the box and fired in a strike that Etrit Berisha turned around the post.

They threatened again when the ball broke kindly for Valon Behrami on the edge of the box, but his long-range effort went narrowly over the bar, before Lorenzo Insigne blazed an effort wide.

With four minutes of the first half remaining Napoli equalised. Dries Mertens drove through the midfield and lashed a strike into the top corner and out of the reach of Berisha.

Three minutes into the second half Lazio were reduced to 10 men, when Lorik Cana brought down Mertens inside the box and picked up his second yellow card of the afternoon.

From the resulting penalty, Higuain stepped up and made no mistake to calmly score past Berisha.

In the 67th minute Higuain scored his side's third of the afternoon, when he latched onto Insigne's through-ball and fired a strike into the net.

Insigne came close to a fourth goal soon after, but saw his powerful long-range attempt beaten away by the keeper.

With eight minutes of the game left to play, Lazio boosted their hopes of earning a point as Ogenyi Onazi ran through before slotting home from close range.

In the final minute of stoppage time Higuain sealed the win for the hosts, as he found space in the box before lifting the ball over the keeper to complete his hat-trick.