Naples, Italy (SportsNetwork.com) - Duvan Zapata and Marek Hamsik fired home a pair of goals in a span of 11 second-half minutes on Monday as 10-man Napoli eased to a 2-0 victory over Sassuolo at the Staido San Paolo.
Coming off a surprising 3-1 loss to Palermo in league play on Feb. 14, the club entered Monday's tilt looking for a second consecutive win after a comfortable 4-0 thrashing of Turkish side Trabzonspor.
After a scoreless opening 45 minutes, Napoli seized control of proceedings just past the hour mark as Zapata struck to give his side the lead and Hamsik doubled the advantage with 20 minutes to play.
Two minutes later the home side went down to 10 men as Dries Mertens was shown a straight red card by referee Davide Massa.
Despite playing with the extra man for the final 18 minutes, Sassuolo managed only one strike on target and suffered its eighth defeat of the season.
The win moves Napoli to 45 points, but the club remains in third place, three behind Roma for the second spot in the table.
Also in Serie A on Monday, Mateo Kovacic and Mauro Icardi found the back of the net to hand Inter Milan a 2-1 win over Cagliari.
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