Milan: Napoli bounced back from a week of turmoil to beat 10-man Hellas Verona 3-0 in Serie A on Sunday and restore some much-needed confidence to the team.
A shock 3-1 defeat at Udinese last weekend saw Napoli fall six points behind league leader Juventus and left it without coach Maurizio Sarri and star striker Gonzalo Higuain for this match as the pair sat out bans.
Sarri will return to the bench next week while Higuain is awaiting the outcome of an appeal against his four-match ban.
Higuain's replacement, Manolo Gabbiadini, opened the scoring and Lorenzo Insigne doubled Napoli's lead from the penalty spot after Samuel Souprayen was sent off in first-half stoppage time.
Both also hit the post early.
Jose Callejon sealed the win for Napoli.
Earlier, Fiorentina lost 2-0 at Empoli to damage their hopes of qualifying for the Champions League. It is seven points behind third-placed Roma, which hosts Bologna Monday.
There are six rounds remaining.
Elsewhere, Udinese lost 2-0 at Sampdoria while Torino beat Atalanta 2-1. Relegation-threatened Palermo hosts Lazio later.
Last-place Verona had a surprise 1-0 victory at Bologna last weekend and was desperately looking for more points.
Napoli hit the woodwork twice within the first 15 minutes as first Insigne's free kick came off the left upright before an effort from Gabbiadini smacked the same post.
Verona goalkeeper Pierluigi Gollini denied Gabbiadini twice with good saves and Callejon also had a goal ruled out for offside shortly before the half-hour.
Gabbiadini finally beat Gollini in the 33rd, heading in the rebound after the Verona 'keeper had parried Callejon's strike from another delightful pass from Marek Hamsik.
Napoli doubled their tally with almost the last kick of the half after Callejon was brought down when he was clear through on goal by a clumsy challenge by Souprayen.
Gollini guessed the right way but could not prevent Insigne's penalty from going into the left side of the net.
Callejon scored Napoli's third in the 70th, tapping in from seven yards after substitute Omar El Kaddouri — who had only just replaced Gabbiadini — cut the ball back from the byline.
Empoli hadn't won the Tuscan derby in nearly 19 years but took the lead four minutes from halftime when Manuel Pucciarelli collected a poor clearance from Facundo Roncaglia, and drew Gonzalo Rodriguez to him before slotting past Ciprian Tatarusanu.
Nikola Kalinic had an equalizer disallowed for offside before Piotr Zielinski sealed the match two minutes from time, firing home the rebound after Tatarusanu had denied Pucciarelli.
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