Empoli midfielder Matias Vecino has said that it was "essential" that his side beat Chievo in their Serie A match this afternoon.

The Azzurri boosted their hopes of avoiding the drop by claiming a 3-0 victory thanks to a double from Massimo Maccarone and a strike from Daniele Rugani.

"We knew how important the game was, it was essential for us to beat a direct rival in the table like this," Vecino told Sky Sport Italia.

"We hope to continue in this vein of form and win as many games as possible. We are playing well but there are still many points [to play for], this is the right direction to staying up, which we hope to do as soon as we can.

"We worked hard on dead-ball situations and today we have scored goals from them, it is a strong point of the team. We have to work to improve what we do well and correct what we do wrong."

Empoli have moved up to 14th in the Serie A table following today's win.