Napoli made it five wins out of five games in Champions League as they beat Rangers 3-0 at the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium on Wednesday night.
With qualification to the knockout stage already secured, Luciano Spalletti operated a significant turnover among his lines but that didn’t stop the Partenopei from putting together another impressive performance.
Napoli are inches away from qualifying as first in their group. To get the top spot in Group A, they can afford to lose to Liverpool by up to a three-goal margin at Anfield Road next week in the final match of the first round.
Giovanni Simeone stole the stage with a killer brace that got the job done for Napoli within the first quarter of the game already. El Cholito was served by Giovanni Di Lorenzo on 11 minutes and bested a careless Rangers defense to open the scoring, then doubled the Partenopei‘s lead four minutes later from a Mario Rui cross.
Leo Skiri Ostigard set the score at 3-0 for the home side late in the second half. There was not much else to report at the Maradona as the gap between the two sides appeared too evident. Rangers will welcome Ajax at home next week but the -18 goal difference (!) they accumulated so far makes it virtually impossible for them to at least grab an Europa League slot.
Napoli, on the other hand, will travel to Liverpool with the only goal of not losing by three or more goals. Considering how Spalletti’s band has been performing so far, they shouldn’t have any problems in accomplishing the mission.