Napoli off to a flier

Napoli's bid to improve on last season's top-five finish got off to a flying start with a 3-0 victory in Palermo.

Napoli's bid to improve on last season's top-five finish got off to a flying start with a 3-0 victory in Palermo. Marek Hamsik, Christian Maggio and Edinson Cavani all scored as the Partenopei wasted no time in building fresh momentum ahead of another challenging Serie A campaign. Walter Mazzarri took charge of the visitors after seeing his ban for misconduct in the Supercoppa final overturned, and the Sicilians provided precious little to worry the Napoli boss. Both sides exchanged half chances as the match got off to a slow start at the Stadio Renzo Barbera, Fabrizio Miccoli and Salvatore Aronica both dragging shots across goal. With little to cheer about, the spark went further out of the game as an injury to Franco Brienza forced a lengthy delay. But the visitors had bottled some fizz from last season's vintage and laid siege to the Rosanera goal, Lorenzo Insigne blasting high and wide before Cavani rattled the crossbar following good work from Maggio. Palermo tried to weather the storm until the break but were undone by a pearler from Hamsik three minutes into time added on. The Slovakian was well-placed to pick out the top corner as Maggio set him free inside the box. Hamsik nearly had another 10 minutes after the restart, courtesy of Maggio's quick break, but this time his accuracy was lacking. Giuseppe Sannino reorganised his men and nearly saw Edgar Barreto blast home, only for Morgan De Sanctis to smother the effort. Provider turned scorer in the 79th minute as Hamsik broke forward to feed Maggio, the Italy international picking out a low spot in the home net. By now Palermo were beaten, deflated and out of ideas, allowing Cavani to add gloss to the victory with a close-range header following Eduardo Vargas' early cross.