Napoli 4-0 Cremonese: Serie A Match Report

Napoli 4-0 Cremonese was three goals up at half-time and four by the end, without conceding. The interval read 3-0 and the second period 1-0 — a home side that finished the contest inside the opening 45 minutes and then added to the goal difference, which at that point in the season was the more useful of the two things on offer.

Napoli arrived on 66 points from 33 matches, level with Milan and twelve behind Inter, in a three-way argument for the places behind the leaders that was going to be decided by fine margins. Their previous match had been a 0-2 home defeat to Lazio, which followed four wins including 1-0 over Milan and 1-0 at Cagliari. A side winning tight games and then losing one at home.

Cremonese were 17th on 28 with -21, level on points with Lecce and one place above the drop with five rounds to play. Their recent record was two points from three — a 0-1 at Cagliari, a 0-0 with Torino — after a 2-0 win at Parma. Napoli had won the reverse fixture 2-0 in December, and the pattern repeated with two goals added.

Napoli finished on 69 points and a goal difference of +19, moving clear of Milan and applying the kind of margin that matters when clubs finish level. Four goals against a relegation-threatened side is exactly what a team in a tight qualification race is supposed to collect, and after the defeat to Lazio it also restored a run that had briefly looked interrupted.

Cremonese stayed on 28 with the difference sliding to -25 — four goals lost from a number that could decide their survival. Their position did not change and the trip to a top-three side was never one they had budgeted points for, but conceding four when the club immediately above and below them were separated by a handful of goals is a real cost. Four rounds remained and their goal difference was now the worse of the two at the bottom of the argument.

Our pre-match call was Napoli Win at 1.35. It came in comfortably, which is what 1.35 requires but rarely delivers so cleanly. The reasoning was the obvious one: a title-chasing side at home against a team in 17th, with the reverse fixture already won and an opponent who had scored twice in their previous four. The only argument against was Napoli's 0-2 defeat to Lazio in their previous match, and a single result against a mid-table side does not outweigh a thirty-eight-point gap. Verdict: won