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Napoli upset Wolfsburg 4-1 in UEFA Europa League

Xinhua, April 17, 2015 Adjust font size:

Napoli's team captain Marek Hamsik donated a brace to crush Wolfsburg 4-1 on the road in the first leg of Europa League's quarterfinals on Thursday.

Wolfsburg suffered a night to forget on home soil as the "Wolves" posed no threat and were unable to stop midfielder Marek Hamsik, who was on target twice. With the high 4-1 away victory Napoli's berth in the last-four is merely a matter of form.

Wolfsburg started highly motivated to lay a foundation for their progression into the semi-finals. However, it were the visitors from Italy who caught a bright start on the road against the run of the game when Gonzalo Higuain opened the scoring from 10 meters following a long ball by Dries Mertens at the 15th minute.

Higuain was again in the thick of things eight minutes later when he passed into the path of Marek Hamsik, who doubled the lead with his first goal of the night. Wolfsburg wobbled and lacked in penetration meanwhile Napoli staged a clinical chance conversion.

After the restart, the visitors started were they left off, as Marek Hamsik tripled the lead to seal his brace when he capitalized on Jose Callejon's square pass into the box following a moment of madness of Wolfsburg's defender Joshua Guilavogui at the 64th minute.

Things went from bad to worse for the "Wolves" as Napoli's substitute Manolo Gabbiadini flabbergasted the hosts with the 4-0 lead, two minutes after his fielding. However, Wolfsburg showed a vital sign when substitute Nicklas Bendtner scored the 4-1 consolation in the closing period. It is Wolfsburg's heaviest defeat on home soil in a European competition.

"Our chances are small to turn around a 4-1 loss on the road. We did not have the best of days but Napoli was clearly better today. Nevertheless, we can learn from this defeat," Wolfsburg coach Dieter Hecking said after the game.

Napoli host Wolfsburg in one week for the second leg of the quarterfinals. Endi