Napoli cement top spot as Lazio's Immobile hits four

Napoli cemented its position as Serie A leader and kept the pressure on champion Juventus with a 2-0 win over Verona Saturday as Ciro Immobile scored four for Lazio in a 5-2 thriller at struggling SPAL.

Bottom club Benevento won just their second Serie A game by beating Sampdoria 3-2 while AC Milan and Genoa also had welcome wins in the final round of games before Italy's two-week winter break.

Both Napoli goals came in the second half against dogged Verona, with Kalidou Koulibaly breaking the deadlock after 65 minutes in Naples and Jose Callejon sealing the win 13 minutes later.

Napoli has 51 points from 20 games — four clear of Juventus which plays at Cagliari later Saturday — with Inter Milan a distant third, nine points behind the leader after a 1-1 in Fiorentina Friday.

Luciano Spalletti's Inter is threatened by AS Roma which could join them on 42 points with a win against Atalanta in Rome, one of its two games in hand. Lazio — also with a game in hand — is just two points behind Inter in fourth after its seven-goal spectacular in Ferrara.

Immobile is having another great season at Lazio after scoring 23 times last campaign, and fired in four to move two ahead of Inter's Mauro Icardi at the top of the Serie A scorers charts, with 20 goals in 19 games.

Spaniard Luis Alberto opened for Lazio after just five minutes with Immobile bagging a brace in either half. Mirco Antenucci had pulled SPAL level twice, the first from the spot on eight minutes and the second after half an hour.

Captain Leonardo Bonucci headed in his first AC Milan goal to see off Crotone 1-0 win at San Siro, further boosting the struggling side after their Italian Cup win over Inter.

Benevento's win was its second in a row after beating Chievo last week, with Massimo Coda's brace giving them a 3-2 win over 10-man Sampdoria, while Andrey Galabinov scored late to move Genoa away from the relegation zone with a 1-0 at Sassuolo.

Earlier, former Watford boss Walter Mazzarri got off to a winning start as new Torino coach with a 3-0 home win over Bologna.

Lorenzo De Silvestri, M'Baye Niang and Iago Falque all scored to give Torino just its second win in its last nine matches.

Torino is tenth, level on points with Milan, with Bologna three places below after its fourth defeat in their last five games.

Mazzarri's predecessor Sinisa Mihajlovic was sacked after a 2-0 Italian Cup defeat to Juventus midweek.

Inter Milan's frustrating Serie A run continued Friday when it was held to a 1-1 draw at Fiorentina by a last-gasp equalizer from Giovanni Simeone.