The battle for promotion to the Italian topflight in Serie B is heating up. In a thrilling encounter on Friday night, second-placed, Crotone crushed already promoted, Benevento, at the Ezio Scida stadium.
Forgotten Super Eagles star, Simeon Nwankwo, delivered a man of the match performance as he scored all three goals in Crotone's comprehensive win over Benevento, thereby boosting their promotion hopes.
Benevento had already sealed qualification to the Serie, so the pressure was on Crotone to win, and hold on to second place.
The encounter began with I Pitagorici applying pressure, and it paid off as Simy put the home side ahead in the 14th minute.
Four minutes later, the 28-year-old scored his second and doubled Crotone's advantage to calm all nerves. There were to be no goals again in the opening half, but Simy then sealed his hat-trick in the 71st minute to seal a comprehensive win for the host.
https://youtu.be/w8qg8qMOBDs
Simy, a member of Nigeria's team to the 2018 World Cup in Russia, now has 16 goals and three assists in 32 appearances for Crotone.
With the win, Crotone stay in second place, three points ahead of Cittadella.
