Soccer Football - Serie A - Napoli v U.S. Sassuolo - Stadio Diego Armando Maradona, Naples, Italy - October 29, 2022 Napoli's Victor Osimhen celebrates scoring their fourth goal to complete his hat-trick REUTERS/Ciro De Luca
(Reuters) -Victor Osimhen struck a hat-trick as Napoli extended their unbeaten Serie A run to 16 matches on Saturday with a 4-0 thrashing of Sassuolo.
Osimhen put Napoli ahead in the fourth minute after latching onto a pass from Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and flicked it into the net.
The 23-year-old Nigerian made it 2-0 in the 19th minute when he connected to another pass from Kvaratskhelia and fired the ball behind Sassuolo keeper Andrea Consigli.
Kvaratskhelia continued the rout in the 36th minute before Osimhen completed his hat-trick in the 77th minute by intercepting a poor Sassuolo pass and lobbed the ball over Consigli.
"Congratulations to the team, I am happy to contribute to this win. Of course it is good to have as many goals as this, I want to keep the momentum going," Osimhen told DAZN.
"This season the coach has given me as much confidence as I can get. I am really happy to rely on him giving me the maximum confidence. I have just returned from five weeks out, which is not easy, and it is important to get really integrated with the team."
Sassuolo ended a miserable day with Armand Lauriente being sent off in the 84th minute after he picked up a second yellow card.
Napoli have a six-point lead in Serie A with 32 points from 12 games. They are six points ahead of second-placed AC Milan, who face Torino on Sunday. Sassuolo are ninth with 15 points.
(Reporting by Tommy Lund in Gdansk, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
