MILAN: Napoli clinched a third-place finish in Serie A and a Champions League qualifying spot after they beat Cagliari 3-0 and rivals Fiorentina lost 4-3 at home to Sassuolo on Tuesday.

Teenage forward Domenico Berardi scored a 20-minute hat-trick in the first half to guide Serie A debutants Sassuolo to a win which lifted them two points above the relegation zone with two games to play.

Substitute Giuseppe Rossi was on target for fourth-placed Fiorentina on his Serie A comeback after suffering a knee injury in January.

Napoli and Cagliari played a pedestrian opening half hour before Dries Mertens fired the hosts ahead with a 33rd minute penalty and Goran Pandev added another before halftime.

Marek Hamsik missed another penalty for Napoli in the 56th minute, after Cagliari goalkeeper Marco Silvestri had been sent off, but midfielder Blerim Dzemaili scored the third one minute later.

Rafael Benitez’s Napoli, who won the Italian Cup on Saturday, have 72 points from 36 games and will go into the fourth qualifying round of next season’s Champions League, the final round before the group stage.

Champions Juventus and second-placed AS Roma have already made sure of the automatic group stage places.

Celebrations at the San Paolo, however, were comparatively subdued as fans sung and waved banners in honour of 30-year-old Napoli fan Ciro Esposito, who is in hospital in a critical state after being shot on the fringes of the Cup final on Saturday.

Benitez joined the many calls from Italy to find a solution to football-related violence.

“We should never have to deal with these kinds of problems in football, “the Spaniard told Sky Sport. “The authorities have to come up with solutions. We are coaches and we should be speaking about football.”

Fiorentina (61 points) have qualified for the Europa League leaving Inter Milan (57), Torino (55), AC Milan and Parma (54), Verona and Lazio (53) to battle for the two remaining places.

Sassulo, 16th in the 20-team table, have 31 points followed by Chievo (30), Bologna (29), Catania (26) and Livorno (25).

“It was a positive attitude but we’re not yet safe,” Sassuolo coach Eusebio Di Francesco said. “We have two fundamental games left and we can’t give up.”