It seems to be a hell of a job for Napoli to successfully defend its national title. I Partenopei lost 1-3 to Fiorentina on Sunday evening in their own Stadio Diego Armando Maradona. La Viola played a great match and took an early lead through Josip Brekalo. Victor Osimhen equalized from the spot, but Fiorentina continued after the break. Goals from Giacomo Bonaventura and Nicolás González caused chaos in Naples. Fiorentina is the new number four and puts Napoli in fifth place.
Napoli had the opportunity to open the scoring early in the match. Matteo Politano had a nice ball in the house to Giovanni De Lorenzo, who narrowly put his shot over the crossbar. To the disbelief of the Napoli fans, the goal was scored a minute later at the other end.
Lucas MartÃnez Quarta first headed hard against the post. The rebound ended up at the feet of Brekalo, who shot from an almost impossible angle. Napoli immediately had to give chase and thought they would level through Osimhen, if his goal had not been disallowed for offside.
Not much later, Fiorentina goalie Pietro Terracciano had to intervene on a shot from Stanislav Lobotka. The former Ajax player did not give enough direction to his attempt. A new setback for the reigning national champion was the injury of André-Frank Zambo Anguissa. Yet coach Rudi GarcÃa had reason to laugh before half time. Terracciano committed a foul: penalty. Osimhen ensured that Napoli could go into halftime with a good feeling: 1-1.
Fiorentina, however, offered Napoli excellent resistance and almost took the lead through Jonathan Ikoné. The Frenchman narrowly missed. Once again Ikoné came close to making it 1-2, but again his effort flew just wide of Alex Meret’s goal, Napoli’s closing post. The home team had possession of the ball, but Fiorentina had the bigger chances. It was no surprise that the 1-2 actually fell. The ball fell just right for Bonaventura, who found the far corner: 1-2.
GarcÃa brought on Giovanni Simeone and Jesper Lindstrøm, among others, in the hope of forcing a breakthrough. Shortly after their entrance, Fiorentina had their next big chance, although Michael Kayode killed it by shooting over. Napoli kept trying and came close through Simeone. He headed disappointingly wide from close range.
Another substitute, Gianluca Gaetano, also had a great chance to make it 2-2. From the edge of sixteen he curled the ball over. It turned out to be an expensive miss, as Fiorentina countered to 1-3 through Nicolás González. It meant the end of all illusions for Napoli and its supporters.
Fiorentina back on ????????????????????? ?? Napoli can get back to work, because Bonaventura suddenly gets the ball at his feet and slides in ??#ZiggoSport #SerieA #napolifiorentina pic.twitter.com/FiOmM4WFfP
— Ziggo Sport Voetbal (@ZS_Voetbal) October 8, 2023
| No. | Team | M | W | G | V | +/- | Pnt |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | AC Milan | 8 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 21 |
| 2 | Internazionale | 8 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 16 | 19 |
| 3 | Juventus | 8 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 8 | 17 |
| 4 | Fiorentina | 8 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 7 | 17 |
| 5 | Napoli | 8 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 8 | 14 |
| 6 | Atalanta | 8 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 13 |
| 7 | Monza | 8 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 12 |
| 8 | Frosinone | 8 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 12 |
| 9 | Lecce | 8 | 3 | 3 | 2 | -1 | 12 |
| 10 | AS Roma | 8 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 7 | 11 |
| 11 | Bologna | 8 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 11 |
| 12 | Sassuolo | 8 | 3 | 1 | 4 | -2 | 10 |
| 13 | Lazio | 8 | 3 | 1 | 4 | -2 | 10 |
| 14 | Torino | 8 | 2 | 3 | 3 | -3 | 9 |
| 15 | Genoa | 8 | 2 | 2 | 4 | -2 | 8 |
| 16 | Hellas Verona | 8 | 2 | 2 | 4 | -3 | 8 |
| 17 | Udinese | 8 | 0 | 5 | 3 | -8 | 5 |
| 18 | Empoli | 8 | 1 | 1 | 6 | -15 | 4 |
| 19 | Salernitana | 8 | 0 | 3 | 5 | -13 | 3 |
| 20 | Cagliari | 8 | 0 | 2 | 6 | -13 | 2 |