Uruguay striker Edinson Cavani scored a hat-trick as Napoli came back from 2-0 and 3-2 down to beat Lazio 4-3 and cling on to their Serie A title hopes.
Napoli moved up to second and trail leaders Milan by just three points after their 3-0 derby victory over Inter, third at five points, on Saturday.
Goals from Stefano Mauri and Andre Dias gave Lazio a two-goal lead before Andrea Dossena and Cavani, with his first, levelled matters.
A Salvatore Aronica own goal put the visitors back in front but Cavani, from the penalty spot, equalised and then hit a splendid winner for Walter Mazzarri’s team.
The game wasn’t without controversy, though, as Cristian Brocchi had a perfectly good goal for Lazio disallowed and the visitors also finished with 10-men as Giuseppe Biava was very harshly dismissed in giving away the penalty.
Despite the three points, title talk was still off the table for Napoli.
“Our behaviour is always the same, we try to win every game and to do our best and the points will be counted up at the end of the season,” the hat-trick hero told Sky Sport.
“That’s the right way to behave and we’re happy because we deserved to win.
“Lazio are a great team, we know what our limits are but we tried to do our best and now we’ll celebrate.”
The defeat hit Lazio’s Champions League hopes as a win would have put them back into the top four.
Although Napoli dominated early, the visitors took a surprise lead on 29 minutes as Mauri luckily bundled past Michele Pazienza, beat Paolo Cannavaro and then with the outside of his left boot somehow slipped the ball past Morgan De Sanctis.
Lazio seemed to have the game in hand and Napoli’s title hopes appeared to be going up in smoke on 57 minutes when the visitors went two ahead.
Javier Garrido swung over an inswinging free-kick and Dias got behind the ball-watching Napoli defence to poke home.
That, however, began a crazy 11-minute spell that saw the match swing back and forth.
On the hour an Ezequiel Lavezzi free-kick flicked off Giuseppe Sculli’s head and Dossena arrived at the back post to head into the net.
A minute later and another Lavezzi free-kick from the other side this time ballooned off Dias’s head to the back post where Christian Maggio nodded it back into the six-yard box for Cavani to head home and complete a rapid turnaround.
Lazio were back in front as De Sanctis parried a Mauro Zarate strike only for Aronica to inexplicably prod the rebound past his own goalkeeper.
Napoli were awarded a penalty after Cavani tumbled theatrically in the box under contact from Biava who was sent off.
Cavani stroked home the penalty and Napoli had eight minutes to find a winner with a numerical advantage.
That came two minutes from time with a brilliant Cavani lob over Fernando Muslera .
The Serie A title race is now down to three teams after Udinese were beaten 2-0 at Lecce to leave them nine points behind Milan.
Juventus kept their European hopes alive with a 2-0 win at Roma last night.
Milos Krasic opened the scoring and Alessandro Matri beat the offside trap to slot between goalkeeper Doni’s legs for the second.
Serie A
Catania 4
Balzaretti 48 og; Bergessio 61; Ledesma 67; Pesce 77;
Palermo 0
HT: 0-0. Att: 19.136.
Cesena 2
Jimenez 18; Caserta 86;
Fiorentina 2
Gilardino 35; Montolivo 69;
HT: 1-1. Att: 17,876.
Chievo 0
Sampdoria 0
Att: 14,456.
Genoa 0
Cagliari 1
Acquafresca 16;
HT: 0-1. Att: 20,000.
Lecce 2
Bertolacci 48, 65;
Udinese 0
HT: 0-0. Att: 10,200.
Napoli 4
Dossena 60; Cavani 62, 82p, 88;
Lazio 3
Mauri 29; Dias 57; Aronica 68 og;
HT: 0-1. Att: 60,000.
Red card: Biava (L) 80.
Parma 1
Amauri 81;
Bari 2
Parisi 63; Alvarez 90;
HT: 0-0. Att: 18,347.
Roma 0
Juventus 2
Krasic 59; Matri 74;
HT: 0-0. Att: 50,952.
Top scorers
25 goals: Di Natale (Udinese), Cavani (Napoli).
19 goals: Eto’o (Inter), Di Vaio (Bologna).
16 goals: Matri (Juventus).
14 goals: Ibrahimovic (Milan).
13 goals: Pato (Milan).
Next fixtures
Saturday: 18.00 Inter vs Chievo. 20.45 Udinese vs Roma.
Sunday: 12.30 Juventus vs Genoa. 15.00 Bari vs Catania; Bologna vs Napoli; Cagliari vs Brescia; Lazio vs Parma; Palermo vs Cesena; Samp-doria vs Lecce. 20.45 Fiorentina vs Milan.
Prima Divisione B
Cavese 1 - Barletta 0
Siracusa 1 - Foggia 0
Standings: Nocerina 62; Benevento 52; Atletico Roma 46; Juve Stabia, Taranto 45; Foggia, Siracusa 41; Lanciano 40; Lucchese 37; Pisa 32; Cosenza, Ternana 31; Barletta 30; Gela 29; Andria 28; Viareggio, Foligno 27; Cavese 24.