Romelu Lukaku made sure that Napoli would remain three points behind the leaders of Serie A Inter Milan with a goal and two assists in the 3-0 Monday victory on Empoli in difficulty. Belgian striker Lukaku scored 12 times and set up 10 others in the best flight in Italy this season and was the key to the battle of Napoli against the champions in title Inter for the title of the League. The 31 -year -old developed his game under coach Antonio Conte and has as much impact with his distribution as with his goals, Scott Mctuminay being the beneficiary on Monday.
Mctuminay made a jump in the other two goals of Napoli, carrying his counting to eight in his first season of Serie A after being brilliantly served by Lukaku, who arrived last summer to replace the star banned Victor Osimhen and exceeded expectations.
“Romelu is obviously a great teammate. He is very demanding, he demands a lot from the whole team, of myself to mark more, to create more opportunities for him to score also,” Mctuminay told Dazn.
“He has two assists and one goal, he is obviously an incredible player with an incredible career and we are so happy to have Rom.”
The Scottish International Mctuminay pierced Napoli’s opening match from Napoli just outside the region in the 18th minute after Lukaku used his strength and control to hold the ball and slide into the Maraude midfielder.
Empoli, who was sitting in the second row and failed to win in 17 games, was in the match and dangerous until Lukaku doubled the advance of the hosts in the 56th minute, collecting the pass of Mathias Olivera and breaking with his left foot.
Five minutes later and Lukaku showed a more delicate touch when Mctominay set up for his splint, floating on a perfect Inswing cross than his former Manchester United teammate returned with confidence.
Mctuminay almost had a hat-trick in the 66th minute when, after being put by Lukaku, he launched a low blow against the head in head with the goalkeeper of Empoli Devis Vasquez.
Monday’s victory maintains the interior pressure on the Inter who will face Bayern Munich in the second stage of their quarter-final of the Champions League, then went to Bologna next weekend before facing local AC Milan rivals in the semi-finals of the Italian Cup.
Napoli does not have any commitment other than trying to win a second Scituditto in three seasons and face a single team of the upper half of the table – 10th placed Torino – by the end of the season.
(This story has not been published by NDTV staff and is automatically generated from a unionized flow.)
Subjects mentioned in this article
