Serie A | Napoli 2-2 Verona: Fierce comeback not enough for victory

Scott McTominay and Giovanni Di Lorenzo completed the Napoli comeback from 2-0 down, but this was still a disappointing 2-2 home draw with relegation-threatened Verona.

Antonio Conte was forced into rare changes, as David Neres and Sam Beukema were injured, with Pasquale Mazzocchi suspended, joining the usual suspects Andre Frank Zambo Anguissa, Billy Gilmour, Kevin De Bruyne and Romelu Lukaku in the stands. It gave Noa Lang a rare start, while Alessandro Buongiorno was preferred to Juan Jesus. Hellas had Rafik Belghali at AFCON, with Jean-Daniel Akpa Akpro and Tomas Suslov sidelined.

It was the first home game since Napoli won the Supercoppa Italiana in Saudi Arabia, so captain Di Lorenzo presented it to the fans before kick-off.

See how it all unfolded on the Liveblog.

Eljif Elmas got down the right on an inspired pass only to be denied by Lorenzo Montipò at the near post, while Gift Orban’s strike was straight at Vanja Milinkovic-Savic.

Verona took a surprising lead with the move that started from their own half, finishing with Chiekh Niasse’s low cross from the right for Martin Frese to turn in from three yards with a cheeky back-heel flick. It was a very special way to score his first ever Serie A goal.

Orban also drilled wide, then there were penalty appeals as the ball struck Alessandro Buongiorno on the top of the hand. Napoli argued he was being fouled by Lautaro Valentini, but the referee opted for a penalty following the VAR review. Milinkovic-Savic guessed the right corner, but couldn’t keep out the Orban spot-kick.

Rasmus Hojlund nodded the Giovanni Di Lorenzo cross over from close range, then the striker tried to set up Scott McTominay for a shot charged down by Unai Nunez inside the area.

Noa Lang forced a tricky save from Montipò and Napoli scored from the resulting corner, McTominay’s header going in despite a desperate Nicolas Valentini attempt to clear off the line.

Antoine Bernede’s effort was deflected over, but Napoli thought they had completed the comeback when McTominay knocked down a Matteo Politano cross for Hojlund to control and fire in from six yards. However, VAR disallowed the goal for Hojlund’s handling offence.

Moments later, Napoli had the ball in the net again, but this time it was disallowed for Amir Rrahmani’s offside after McTominay knocked down a free kick into his path.

The Partenopei eventually did manage to draw level when Di Lorenzo peeled away into the box and was ready to sweep a Luca Marianucci low cross from the right into the near bottom corner from 12 yards.

It remained wide open, as in stoppages Giovane’s lob was wide when sent through by Bernede, as Milinkovic-Savic was a long way off his line.

Napoli 2-2 Verona

Frese 17 (V), Orban pen 28 (V), McTominay 54 (N), Di Lorenzo 82 (N)