Napoli defeats Fiorentina 3-0 to take the lead.

 Napoli defeats Fiorentina 3-0 to take the lead.

Fiorentina vs. Napoli in Serie A soccer football standio Artemio Franch Italy's Florence, January 4, 2025 Amir Richardson of Fiorentina in action alongside McTominay of Napoli Alberto Lingra/Reuters

FLORENCE, Italy: With a resounding 3-0 victory over Fiorentina on Saturday, Napoli took the lead in the Serie A rankings. The visitors had few issues as they won the league for the fourth time in a row. 

Antonio Conte's team made the most of the fact that Napoli's primary Scudetto rivals, Atalanta and Inter Milan, are not playing in the league this weekend since they are both in Saudi Arabia for the Italian Super Cup.

With two games remaining, Inter is one point behind Napoli, who are on 44 points, three points clear of Atalanta, who have a game in hand. With 32 points, Fiorentina fell to sixth place. Leonardo Spinazzola drew a stop from David de Gea of Fiorentina, while Mathias Olivera had the ball in the net for Napoli early on but the goal was disallowed for offside. 

David Neres made a crazy dribbling run into the area in the 29th minute, dribbling past three men before launching a strong shot into the roof of the net to give the visitors the lead.

Finally getting his turn to show off, Fiorentina forward Moise Keam found the net, but Napoli took the lead into halftime after his goal was chalked out for a handball while he was in possession of the ball. 

Defender Mathias Moreno made his Serie A debut under Fiorentina manager Raffle Palladino, and the Argentina displayed his inexperience by bringing down Andre Anguissa in the vicinity.

Nine minutes after halftime, Romelu Lukaku, who had a penalty saved in Napoli's previous match, gave the visitors a two-goal lead with a low strike right down the middle that sent De Gea the wrong way. 

After Napoli keeper Alex Meret denied Rolando Mandragora and Amir Rrahmani blocked Lucas Beltran's goal bound attempt from the rebound, Fiorentina had two quick chances to bring back a goal. Napoli scored a third goal thanks to another defensive blunder. Petro Comuzzo mishandled a cross from Anguissa, and Scott McTominay simply scored his fourth league goal of the year in the 68th minute.

After eight straight league victories, Fiorentina was unable to overcome a Napoli team with the greatest defensive record in Serie A, and now they have lost four straight games.