Napoli U19 conceded from a later penalty kick en route to a 1-0 defeat to Hellas Verona, despite playing most of the second half with an extra man.
Lineup
Nicolò Frustalupi made one change to the squad he fielded in the Azzurrini’s 1-0 victory over Udinese. Antonio Spavone returned to the starting XI to play as one of the two trequartisti, playing in place of Jorge Alastuey.
(3-4-2-1) Boffelli; Obaretin, Hysaj, Barba; Acampa, Gioielli, Iaccarino, Lamine; Marranzino, Spavone; Rossi
Match
The first half was very competitive, but Napoli created the lion’s share of the chances. Lorenzo Rossi, Pasquale Marranzino, Francesco Gioielli and Nosa Obaretin all had opportunities, but Napoli’s best chance came in the 15th minute, after Rossi won a free kick on the right side of the midfield. Spavone’s cross was cleared, but only to Daniel Hysaj at the first post. However, the defender’s shot from a tight angle crashed off the upright and stayed out.
Hellas Verona’s best chance was from a corner kick just before the half-hour mark. The ball fell to Verona captain Luca Schirone after appearing to bounce off the hand of Hysaj. Schirone tried to pick the bottom corner but Boffelli stretched to keep the shot out.
The match opened up after a wild sequence in the second half. About 10 minutes after the restart, Edoardo Bernardi carried the ball to midfield before picking out Schirone with a long ball towards the right side of the area. Schirone hit the ball first-time on the bounce and thought he scored when the ball bounced off the underside of the bar.
Though the ball appeared to bounce inside the goal, the match official allowed play to continue. Moments later, Davide Bragantini was shown a straight red card for a violent retaliation after taking a slight shove from behind from Benedetto Barba
With the extra man, Napoli controlled the run of play for the final 35 minutes of the match, but failed to capitalize. In fact, Hellas Verona won a penalty kick with only five minutes left to play, after Federico Caia’s shot from just outside the area clearly struck the hand of Hysaj in the area.
The official had a perfect view of the incident and quickly pointed to the penalty spot. Caia took the penalty kick himself and sent Boffelli the other way to put Hellas Verona ahead. Perhaps justice had been served after the missed penalty decision in the first half and the missed goal in the second half.
With only a few minutes remaining, Napoli were unable to find the equalizer. The 1-0 defeat was Napoli’s first loss in Primavera 1 in over a month, after two wins and two draws. With Atalanta, Sampdoria, Udinese and Cesena all losing, and Inter still to play on Monday, Napoli remained three points clear of Sampdoria in the relegation playoff zone.
The Azzurrini will face off against Sampdoria in a week’s time.
