Roma 0-2 Napoli: Mertens scores his 100th Serie A goal to secure all three points for the visitors

Dries Mertens-Napoli

Napoli picked up a 2-0 win over Roma in the Italian League earlier tonight.

Two first-half goals from Dries Mertens were enough to secure all three points for the visitors.

Manager Paulo Fonseca will be disappointed with the performance of his players tonight. Roma lacked quality and desire in the first half and they barely managed to create any chances in the opening 45 minutes.

Roma’s best opportunity came in the second half when Lorenzo Pellegrini rattled the crossbar.

The fans will be frustrated with their side’s performances against the top teams this season and Roma have now failed to win any of their matches against fellow top seven sides this season.

Meanwhile, Belgian striker Dries Mertens is now only the third Napoli player to reach a hundred goals in the Italian League after Marek Hamsik and Antonio Vojak.

The win tonight takes Napoli up to 5th in the League table with 53 points and Roma are 6th with 50 points.

Tonight’s result could be a damaging blow for Fonseca’s side as far as qualification for Champions League is concerned. A win tonight would have put them within 6 points of second place. Instead, Napoli find themselves in a good position now and they will fancy their chances of securing Champions League qualification. 

Napoli are six points behind second-placed AC Milan and they will be looking to build on this win and close the gap in the coming weeks. 

Line-ups

AS Roma

Pau López, Bryan Cristante, Ibañez, Gianluca Mancini, Amadou Diawara (Gonzalo Villar), Lorenzo Pellegrini (Marash Kumbulla), Leonardo Spinazzola, Rick Karsdorp, Edin Dzeko (Borja Mayoral), Stephan El Shaarawy, Pedro (Carles Perez).

Substitutes

Federico Fazio, Javier Pastore, Antonio Mirante, Davide Santon, Bruno Peres, Bryan Reynolds, Daniel Fuzato, Riccardo Calafiori.

Napoli

David Ospina, Kalidou Koulibaly, Nikola Maksimovic (Kostas Manolas), Mário Rui, Elseid Hysaj, Piotr Zieliński (Eljif Elmas), Diego Demme, Fabián Ruiz, Dries Mertens (Victor Osimhen), Lorenzo Insigne (Tiemoué Bakayoko), Matteo Politano (Hirving Lozano).

Substitutes

Nikita Contini, Alex Meret, Karim Zedadka, Antonio Cioffi, Davide Costanzo.