The Malta Independent on Sunday
Insigne ends goal drought
● Parma fight back to hold Juventus 3-3
Lorenzo Insigne ended his goal drought as Napoli beat Sampdoria 3-0 yesterday to keep Serie A leader Juventus within its sights.
Arkadiusz Milik and Insigne scored quickfire goals in the first half and Simone Verdi added a late penalty for second-placed Napoli.
There was to be no record for former Napoli forward Fabio Quagliarella, who was looking to beat Gabriel Batistuta's 1994 feat of scoring a goal in a 12th consecutive Serie A match.
Napoli was looking to recover from a league draw against AC Milan and an Italian Cup exit to the same team, and it took the lead in the 12th minute.
Marek Hamsik floated a lovely ball onto the right flank to Jose Callejon, who rolled the ball across for Milik to smash in.
Callejon set up Napoli's second just 70 seconds later with a throughball for an Insigne snapshot into the bottom left corner.
It was Insigne's first goal in any competition since early November.
The result after that rarely looked in doubt but Napoli extended its lead with a Verdi penalty in the final minute after Joachim Andersen was penalized for handball. The referee initially awarded a free kick on the edge of the area but amended his decision on video review.
Sampdoria remained sixth, ahead of the rest of the weekend's fixtures.
EMPOLI COMEBACK
Francesco Caputo scored twice as Empoli came back from two goals down in a relegation battle against last-placed Chievo Verona.
Empoli remained 17th, four points above the bottom three and nine points above Chievo.
GERVINHO FIGHT BACK
Gervinho scored two late goals to cancel out Cristiano Ronaldo’s brace, as champions Juventus were blocked at home by Parma.
This was another disappointing result for mighty Juventus, who are now in difficulty after their humiliating defeat and elimination by Atalanta from the Coppa Italia