Napoli secured a thumping 6-0 win over Bologna on Tuesday night to move back to within six points of Serie A leaders Juventus.
The Partenopei have stumbled in recent weeks, which in turn has allowed the Bianconeri to open up a sizeable gap at the top of the table.
However, two goals from Manolo Gabbiadini, a hat-trick from Dries Mertens and a late effort from David Lopez ensured that they continue to apply pressure on their title rivals.
There was no doubt over the goal of the night though, with Mertens taking the honour with this stunning long-range strike late in the second half to seal his hat-trick.
Watch more brilliant snippets like this with fanatix’s FREE sports video news app.
While few would now pick Maurizio Sarri’s men to win the Scudetto, they will await Juve’s result against Lazio on Wednesday night knowing that any slip up would still give them an outside chance of snatching the title from the Turin giants.
Despite the fact that they were still without Gonzalo Higuain on Tuesday night, Gabbiadini stepped up to ensure that they didn’t miss their prolific Argentine forward on this occasion while Mertens joined in on the act too with three well-taken goals.
Four games remain for Napoli this season, and despite their impressive performance against Bologna, they know that they have a much more difficult test ahead with a trip to Roma next Monday.
Juve travel to Florence to take on Fiorentina the night before, and so wins over Lazio and the Viola in their upcoming fixtures would certainly end all talk of a title race given their straight-forward finish to the campaign thereafter.
Nevertheless, Napoli will be delighted with their display on Tuesday night as they gave the San Paolo crowd a reason to be cheerful with a devastating attacking performance led by Mertens against a woeful Bologna side.