Following Inter’s win earlier in the evening, the onus was on Napoli to restore their advantage in the race for the Scudetto.
And the Partenopei got off to a fast start, coming close to the opener inside five minutes when Matteo Politano cut in from the right and whipped an effort inches wide of the post.
The home side continued to dominate, and the deadlock breaker duly arrived on the quarter-hour following a slick passing move.
Starting from the back, Antonio Conte’s men sliced through the Genoa defence, with Scott McTominay sliding Romelu Lukaku through, and despite having a lot to do, the Belgian applied a clinical finish with his weaker right foot.
Napoli looked to build on their early lead, and almost doubled it when Giovanni Di Lorenzo picked out Giacomo Raspadori in the box, but the forward’s shot was palmed over by Benjamin Siegrist.
Genoa took a while to get going, but when they did, Napoli’s backline was under pressure. First, Andrea Pinamonti headed against the crossbar from a Vitinha free-kick, before another delivery into the Napoli box wreaked havoc and led to the equaliser.
This time it was Junior Messias doing the damage, with his delivery met by Honest Ahanor, who headed goalwards, causing Napoli goalkeeper Alex Meret to inadvertently palm the ball onto the post and back off his knee into the back of his own net.
Conte’s men came flying out for the second half and had multiple opportunities to restore their lead. Lukaku almost doubled his tally within minutes of the restart after latching onto a long ball and firing from outside the box, but Siegrist managed to turn the effort away to safety.
The Genoa stopper then denied Raspadori at his near post, with the ball astonishingly saved between his legs. The Partenopei weren’t deterred by the resolute stopper, and their perseverance paid off after the hour mark.
Once again, McTominay was the creator, cutting in from the left and picking out Raspadori, who took a touch before powering the ball home to restore Napoli’s lead.
With their lead restored, the home side looked to protect the points, and that encouraged a wave of Genoa attacks. And that came back to bite the hosts as Patrick Vieira’s men levelled the scoreline for the second time on the night.
Napoli failed to deal with a cross once again, with Aaron Martin’s ball headed home by Johan Vasquez.
In the end, that goal proved pivotal as the points were shared after Philip Billing's late header drifted wide, and the result was no doubt celebrated in Milan, with the gap between Napoli and Inter standing at just one point with two games remaining.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Scott McTominay (Napoli)