If it nonetheless was not clear, Napoli imply enterprise in Serie A. The Partenopei‘s second half comeback on Saturday resulted in Juventus’ first league loss this season as Napoli defended their prime spot within the desk from Inter’s potential assaults. It ended 2-1 on the Diego Maradona Stadium as André-Frank Zambo Anguissa’s strike and Romelu Lukaku’s transformed spot kick canceled Randal Kolo Muani’s first half objective on his debut day for Juve.
The previous PSG man’s efficiency was the optimistic piece of stories for Thiago Motta as we speak, along with Juve’s aggressive method within the first half. Nevertheless, the Bianconeri paid a hefty value for sitting on their lead after Kolo Muani drew first blood. Napoli turned issues round within the area of 12 minutes after the restart, inflicting the Previous Girl their sixth loss in a row on the Maradona.
Antonio Conte’s facet confirmed they absorbed fairly nicely Khvicha Kvaratskhelia’s surprising departure. As they watch for information to come back from the switch market enviornment, they relied on their common males to catch a key win alongside the way in which of a fourth Scudetto. At this time, on prime of Anguissa and Lukaku’s successful efforts, they benefited from dominating performances by Matteo Politano and goalkeeper Alex Meret, who stored his facet afloat within the early levels with an excellent save from Kenan Yildiz.
It was simply 5 minutes after kick off when Meret stretched his arms to push again the Turkish starlet’s close-range shot. Yildiz was picked by Khéphren Thuram and dribbled previous Leonardo Spinazzola earlier than firing the ball at Napoli’s seemingly untended objective. Meret was down, flat on his facet, however nonetheless managed to defuse the risk displaying some nice reflexes.
Napoli awoke solely on 20 minutes as Giovanni Di Lorenzo despatched the ball in from the left facet, forcing Federico Gatti to clear it nearly on the objective line. Politano pounced on the rebound however his strike went large away.
Juventus’ goalkeeper Michele Di Gregorio risked rather a lot as his move for Manuel Locatelli on the sting of the field was nearly intercepted by Scott McTominay. The Bianconeri captain had to make use of all his expertise to take care of possession and save the day for Thiago Motta. Napoli challenged the Juve goalie twice extra, however Stanislav Lobotka’s effort from lengthy vary sailed previous the crossbar, whereas Anguissa’s header additionally ended off track. Antonio Conte’s facet pushed and pressed rather a lot however their possibilities solely got here from afar.
Juventus, however, had been extra cynical and located the again of the online on 43 minutes. Anguissa tried to anticipate Teun Koopmeiners on the sting of the field however the end result was an unintentional help for Kolo Muani who was lurking in the midst of the world. The Frenchman volleyed the ball previous Meret to open his scoring account in Serie A proper on his debut day.
The second interval opened with 30 seconds of showtime: First, McTominay tried an acrobatic overhead. Then, it was Di Gregorio to steal the highlight as he palmed away a Lukaku header, pushing the ball again a cut up second earlier than it might cross previous the objective line. Nevertheless, he couldn’t do something a couple of minutes later, when Anguissa headed it dwelling with good timing from a Politano cross, making it 1-1.
Politano was on hearth and shortly tried turning from supplier into finisher, discovering his shot deflected in nook by Andrea Cambiaso. However Napoli had been now in management, profiting from Juventus’ tender method within the second half.
On 69 minutes, Lukaku served McTominay in the midst of the field with a scientific move by means of. Locatelli was caught my shock and actually collapsed on the Scotsman, prompting the referee to level on the penalty spot with no hesitation. Lukaku’s conversion was not phenomenal, a central shot after a brief run-up, however it was nonetheless sufficient to ship Di Gregorio the fallacious means and tally his two hundredth objective between the Premier League and the Serie A.
Thiago Motta made us of all his potential modifications, additionally conceding his declining starlet Dusan Vlahovic a couple of minutes of playtime, however Juve by no means got here near discovering an equalizer. Conversely, it was Napoli that risked including a 3rd one to their tally with Giovanni Simeone.
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