Gennaro Iaccarino converted a penalty to score his first in the UEFA Youth League, but it wasn’t enough as Napoli suffered a 1-2 defeat at the hands of visiting Liverpool FC.
Nicolo Frustalupi rotated heavily for this match, making five changes to the squad he fielded against Frosinone at the weekend.
Liverpool controlled the run of play in the first half, generating eight shot attempts to Napoli’s zero. It was no surprise when the Reds opened the scoring just before the half hour mark. Ben Doak played a give and go with Melkamu Frauendorf at midfield, and the right winger did the rest. Doak carried the ball into the area before slotting a shot past Claudio Turi and into the back of the goal.
Napoli looked like a completely different side in the second half, taking it to their English opponents. Ten minutes after the restart, Pesce got behind the Liverpool back line but was well stopped by Harvey Davies. On the ensuing corner kick, Lamine Gningue, who replaced Domenico Di Dona midway through the first half, won the header but missed the target. Thus, in the span of 30 seconds, Napoli had their first shot on target, first corner kick and first shot off target.
Lamine was Napoli’s most positive player, bursting forward on the right wing. Just before the hour mark he made a darting run down the right wing before cutting in and slipping the ball through for Pesce. The Napoli #9 once again got behind the Liverpool back line and dribbled around Davies, who could do nothing but take the striker down for the penalty kick. Iaccarino stepped up and sent Davies the other way to make the score 1-1.
Unfortunately for the home supporters at the Stadio Giuseppe Piccolo, the lead lasted only eight minutes. Doak, who was Liverpool’s best player on the day, ran past Giannini on the right side of the area before playing a low, hard ball into the danger area. Liverpool centre forward Oakley Cannonier got in front of Susko to direct the ball into the back of the goal.
Frustalupi emptied his bench in an effort to find the equalizer. The Azzurrini pushed forward and created chances, the best of which fell to Dylan De Pasquale in the 80th minute, but Davies did really well to push away the header from the midfielder.
The match finished 1-2 in favour of the visitors, but it was a performance Frustalupi can be proud of. Napoli will be back in action on the weekend to take on Roma.
