Napoli further cemented their place in the top four of Serie A as they thumped lowly Cremonese 4-0 to move up to second in the standings on Friday. 

Antonio Conte's side are now 11 points clear of fifth-placed Como with four games of their season remaining as they ended their two-match winless league run in style. 

Having been denied by Emil Audero a minute earlier, Scott McTominay opened the scoring at Stadio Diego Armando Maradona in the third minute after drilling the ball into the bottom-left corner from the edge of the box after collecting Kevin De Bruyne's pass inside. 

The Partenopei had to wait until the stroke of half-time to double their advantage through Rasmus Hojlund, whose shot deflected off Filippo Terracciano and trickled into the net. 

It got even better for Napoli before the break as they pulled further clear in stoppage time, this time De Bruyne pinched possession off Youssef Maleh inside the penalty area before firing home after McTominay had acrobatically kept Alisson Santos' cross in play. 

Napoli did not let up after the interval and added to their tally seven minutes after the restart when Vanja Milinkovic-Savic rolled the ball to Santos, who ran from well inside his own half before wrong-footing Audero with a well-taken effort. 

Only the fingertips of the Cremonese goalkeeper denied Billy Gilmour's shot from distance, with the resulting corner then headed onto the crossbar by Amir Rrahmani, but Napoli were handed a glorious chance to net their fifth late in the day. 

Giovane's shot towards goal was blocked by the hand of Alberto Grassi inside the box, but after assuming responsibility of the spot-kick, McTominay saw his 83rd-minute penalty brilliantly saved by Audero low to his left. 

Data Debrief: De Bruyne hits 100 in much-needed Napoli win

Napoli may have been looking nervously over their shoulders after falling behind leaders Inter in the race for the Scudetto, but they got themselves back on track in front of their home supporters, with De Bruyne reaching an impressive milestone in the process. 

The former Manchester City midfielder netted his 100th goal in the top five European leagues. Since his debut in the competition in 2012-13, only Marco Reus has reached that landmark among midfielders across those divisions. 

It was a result that also continued Napoli's fine form against newly promoted sides in Serie A. They have won all five of those matches this season by an aggregate score of 12-2, winning that many games against such opponents in a row for the first time since 2020-21 under Gennaro Gattuso. 

And they thoroughly deserved their victory here. They registered an expected goals (xG) total of 2.86 from their 25 shots, 10 of which were on target, while also restricting  Cremonese to an xG tally of 0.27 from their seven attempts.