Higuain fires three in Lazio thrashing

Milan: Fiorentina dominated 10-man Verona in an eight-goal thriller while Inter Milan stunned 10-man Sampdoria 4-0 in Genoa as both sides tightened their grip on Serie A’s two Europa League places on Sunday.

Elsewhere Napoli resisted a fightback from Lazio, who also had a player sent off, to prevail 4-2 thanks to an injury-time goal from Gonzalo Higuain which gave the Argentine striker a hat-trick.

In Sunday’s late match captain Riccardo Montolivo struck a first-half missile to earn AC Milan a 1-0 win over basement side Catania.

Napoli, in third, are 12 points adrift of Roma and still nine ahead of fourth-placed Fiorentina.

Higuain, who had not scored since March 17 and had recently been substituted several times by coach Rafael Benitez, told Mediaset: “I’m happy, especially after our defeat to Parma (last week). Luck was on our side but we managed to overturn the score.”