Napoli take stranglehold on Champions League place

Napoli all but locked Lazio out of the final Champions League place by opening a seven-point gap on their southern rivals with a 3-0 victory in Rome on Sunday night.

Jose Callejon scored a trademark close-range goal midway through the first half, with Lorenzo Insigne thoroughly atoning for a poor miss by bagging a second-half brace for Napoli.

While there are still seven games to play and with them 21 points to fight for, the Azzurri look best placed to finish third given their scoring prowess and superior head-to-head record with Lazio.

However, Simone Inzaghi's men will play three of Serie A's bottom five over the run-in, while Napoli's remaining opponents are mostly mid-table outfits including Torino and Sampdoria.

With their vociferous supporters roaring them on at the Stadio Olimpico, Lazio made a lively start.

Six minutes in Felipe Anderson made up ground to cross for Stefan Milinkovic-Savic, whose shot on the volley almost forced Kalidou Koulibaly to score an own goal with his wild, sliced clearance.

Napoli steadily began to take control, though, and come the 25th minute they had an opener.

Dries Mertens slipped the ball through to Marek Hamsik, with the Slovakian schemer delivering a daisy-cutting assist to the far post that Callejon pinged home with a deft touch.

Lazio bit back when Felipe Anderson wriggled into the box to test Jose Reina, but they could not equalise before the break.

Instead Napoli regretted not taking a two-goal advantage into the interval as Insigne managed to fluff a golden chance.

When Mertens' pass put him all alone in front of the stranded Thomas Strakosha, he blasted wide.

Insigne brooded over his miss during half-time and returned to the Olimpico pitch ready to make amends, which he did within six minutes of the restart. This time Allan provided the assist and Insigne did not lose his nerve in front of Strakosha.

Home boss Inzaghi promptly threw on Keita Balde Diao to add some incision and the Senegalese did not disappoint, with Reina keeping him out before Felipe Anderson spurned the conversion.

Keita really livened things up. Reina got a gloved punch to his shot on the turn in the 69th minute and, after substitute Patric worried the Spanish stopper, Keita set up Jordan Lukaku for an attempt.

Romelu's younger brother swung and missed, with forward Insigne denying Patric on the line when the substitute attacked the loose ball.

Then, in stoppage time, Insigne was racing down the field to banish any memories of his poor blunder as he tucked Piotr Zielinski's knock-down into the back of the net for a contest-ending third goal.