Bilel Sahli scored his first goal in a Napoli shirt, equalizing early in the second half. The match appeared to be heading for a 1-1 draw but the home side snatched all three points in the third minute of stoppage time.
Lineup
Nicolò Frustalupi made one change to the squad he fielded against Juventus. Daniel Hysaj recovered from the flu and was reinserted into the starting XI, relegating Luigi D’Avino to the bench. Meanwhile, Gennaro Iaccarino remained sidelined due to injury.
(3-4-2-1): Boffelli; Hysaj, Barba, Obaretin; Acampa, Gioielli, Alastuey, Marchisano; Sahli, Spavone; Rossi
Match
The match began with sides making unsuccessful penalty shouts early in the match.
In the 7th minute, Fiorentina’s Napoletano striker Ciro Capasso claimed that Nosa Obaretin blocked his cross in the area with his hand. While the ball in fact hit the hand of Obaretin, the central defender’s arm was sufficiently close to his body for the penalty shout to fall on deaf ears.
Five minutes later, Napoli made a similar penalty shout, but the outcome was no different. Sahli’s shot appeared to hit the hand of Lorenzo Vigiani while the right back was down on the ground. Once again, match official Simone Taricone ruled that the defender’s arm was not in an unnatural position.
Napoli’s first chance of the match didn’t come until the midway point of the half. Hysaj played a vertical ball across midfield to Jorge Alastuey, who spread it out wide to Leonardo Rossi. The Napoli striker, who was arguably Napoli’s best player of the match, cut in onto his preferred left foot but Fiorentina goalkeeper Tommaso Martinelli made a routine save on the effort from outside the area.
Less than a minute later, Fiorentina opened the scoring. Matteo Marchisano’s clearance was headed straight back into the Napoli area. Filippo Distefano did well to get to the ball first and shield it from Marchisano. With his back to the goal, Distefano turned around the Napoli wingback before flashing a shot-cross across the face of the goal. Meanwhile, Eljon Toci read the play and got behind the Napoli back line to redirect the ball into the empty goal.
After two Fiorentina half-chances, the Azzurrini nearly equalized. Alastuey played a high lob forward to Rossi, who plucked the ball out of the air before sending a powerful strike on target. However, the shot was straight at Martinelli and the keeper pushed it away.
Napoli came close again two minutes later. Francesco Gioielli was first to Alessandro Spavone’s in-swinging corner kick but the midfielder’s header bounced narrowly wide of the far post.
That was the final chance for either side in the first half, which finished 1-0 in favour of the home team. Aside from four big moments, the second half was just as uneventful as the first.
The first came ten minutes after the restart, when Bilel Sahli scored his first goal in a Napoli shirt. Once again, the play started with Alastuey playing a long ball forward, this time towards Spavone on the right wing. Rossi got just enough of Spavone’s cross for the ball to fall kindly to Sahli at the penalty spot. The Tunisian calmly shifted the ball to his left foot before slotting it past Martinelli and into the bottom corner.
The second big moment came in the 71st minute, when Marchisano went up for an aerial duel with Fiorentina defender Costantino Favasuli. Marchisano fell hard on his hip and was forced to exit the match.
With the score level at one, Napoli seemed content to play for the draw away from home. Meanwhile, Fiorentina struggled to create anything in the attack. The constant fouls from either side disrupted the rhythm of the match. After the equalizer, Taricone handed out three yellow cards and a straight red card.
That was the third big moment of the second half. Favasuli, who was already on a yellow card for a late tackle on Marchisano in the first half, was dismissed for a violent retaliation on Benedetto Barba. As a result, Fiorentina were forced to play the final six minutes of the match with ten men.
Napoli came close to taking the lead three minutes later. Rossi picked up the ball on the right wing and played an in-swinging cross with his left boot. Somehow the ball bounced through the area and just missed the far post.
Despite playing a man down, Fiorentina responded well and nearly went ahead in the first minute of stoppage time. Luigi D’Avino, who replaced Hysaj in the 72nd minute, stepped in front of the shot of Fiorentina substitute Francesco Presta. The rebound fell to midfielder Federico Vitolo, whose snap-shot on the half-volley finished narrowly wide of the mark.
Presta and Vitolo were back at it two minutes later, when Lorenzo Lucchesi picked out Presta with a pass toward midfield. He carried the ball to the edge of the Napoli area, fending off tackles from the Napoli defenders. The Fiorentina midfielder squared the ball Vitolo in the centre of the area. Vitolo took a touch to steady himself before rolling the ball into the bottom corner.
That proved to be the match winner. For the fourth time in 15 league matches, Napoli dropped points after conceding a goal in stoppage time (after matches against Sassuolo, Frosinone and Milan). Despite the loss, Napoli remain outside the relegation playoff zone. However, both Sampdoria and Udinese reduced the gap with victories over Inter and Torino, respectively.
The Azzurrini will be back in action on Wednesday as they visit Rome to play their Coppa Italia Primavera Quarterfinal.
