Napoli's faint title hopes have suffered a blow as they fell to 3-0 defeat against Atalanta BC in their Serie A match at the ​Stadio Atleti Azzurri d'Italia.

Giacomo Bonaventura wasted a chance to open the scoring midway through the first half, but powered a header over the bar from a promising position.

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Dries Mertens came close to giving Napoli the lead on the stroke of half time, but saw his curling effort saved by Andrea Consigli.

Within two minutes of the restart, the home side went ahead when German Denis saw his long-range effort find its way past Pepe Reina.

Mertens should have drawn his side level, but after being found at the back post by Jose Callejon, he scuffed an effort wide of the post, before Gonzalo Higuain saw a powerful strike pushed behind.

In the 64th minute of the match Atalanta doubled their lead. A poor clearance from Gokhan Inler fell kindly to Denis, who made no mistake in hammering a strike past the keeper.

The hosts scored a third goal six minutes later. Maximiliano Moralez latched onto a flicked header from Denis, before drilling a shot across Reina and into the far corner of the net.