Napoli clinch Champions League playoff spot

Teenage forward Domenico Berardi scored a 20-minute hat-trick in the first half to guide Serie A debutants Sassuolo to a win which lifted them two points above the relegation zone with two games to play.





Substitute Giuseppe Rossi was on target for fourth-placed Fiorentina on his Serie A comeback after suffering a knee injury in January.

Napoli and Cagliari played a pedestrian opening half hour before Dries Mertens fired the hosts ahead with a 33rd minute penalty and Goran Pandev added another before halftime.

Marek Hamsik missed another penalty for Napoli in the 56th minute, after Cagliari goalkeeper Marco Silvestri had been sent off, but midfielder Blerim Dzemaili scored the third one minute later.

Rafael Benitez's Napoli, who won the Italian Cup on Saturday, have 72 points from 36 games and will go into the fourth qualifying round of next season's Champions League, the final round before the group stage.

Champions Juventus and second-placed AS Roma have already made sure of the automatic group stage places.

Fiorentina (61 points) have qualified for the Europa League leaving Inter Milan (57), Torino (55), AC Milan and Parma (54), Verona and Lazio (53) to battle for the two remaining places.

Berardi, 19, opened his account with a 23rd minute penalty, finished off a counter-attack nine minutes later and scored again from a narrow angle three minutes before the break, taking his tally for his debut top-flight season to 16.

Gonzalo Rodriguez pulled one back just before the hour only for Nicola Sansone to make it 4-1 seven minutes later.

Rossi came on in the 65th minute and needed just seven minutes to make his mark, scoring after a one-two with Borja Valero. Juan Cuadrado pulled another back two minutes later.

Rossi made his comeback this season after being sidelined for nearly two years with a knee injury and scored 14 goals before suffering another, less serious injury, in January.

Sassulo, 16th in the 20-team table, have 31 points followed by Chievo (30), Bologna (29), Catania (26) and Livorno (25).





(Reporting By Brian Homewood, editing by Pritha Sarkar)


Share

2 min read

Published

Source: Reuters


Share this with family and friends


Get SBS News daily and direct to your Inbox

Sign up now for the latest news from Australia and around the world direct to your inbox.

By subscribing, you agree to SBS’s terms of service and privacy policy including receiving email updates from SBS.

Download our apps
SBS News
SBS Audio
SBS On Demand

Listen to our podcasts
An overview of the day's top stories from SBS News
Interviews and feature reports from SBS News
Your daily ten minute finance and business news wrap with SBS Finance Editor Ricardo Gonçalves.
A daily five minute news wrap for English learners and people with disability
Get the latest with our News podcasts on your favourite podcast apps.

Watch on SBS
SBS World News

SBS World News

Take a global view with Australia's most comprehensive world news service
Watch the latest news videos from Australia and across the world