Gennaro Gattuso won it with his substitutes as Napoli made a full score in their Serie A Round 11 test to continue chasing table-leader Milan. Goals by Hirving Lozano and Andrea Petagna helped the Partenopei come from behind at the re-branded Diego Maradona Stadium after Jakub Jankto had given Sampdoria a delusive lead.
It is the third win in a row for Gattuso’s boys, who managed to take all the three points on offer despite coming from a testing mid-week European commitment. The Partenopei‘s coach indeed had to resort to some turnover after last Thursday’s clash against Real Sociedad.
Alex Meret retook his spot between the sticks, while Faozi Ghoulam’s came back from the start as right-back instead of Mario Rui. Matteo Politano was the right winger, taking the place of Hirving Lozano.
Claudio Ranieri’s Sampdoria were without Bartosz Bereszynski and Lorenzo Tonelli in defense. They were replaced by Alex Ferrari and Omar Colley, with Valerio Verre being Neapolitan Fabio Quagliarella’s attacking partner.
? | StartingXI: Meret, Di Lorenzo, Manolas, Koulibaly, Ghoulam, Fabian, Demme, Politano, Zielinski, Insigne, Mertens.#NapoliSampdoria
— Official SSC Napoli (@sscnapoli) December 13, 2020
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Verre was the one propitiating Sampdoria’s opener as he released Jakub Jankto on the left flank with a perfectly-timed cross. The Czech midfielder adjusted the ball and fired it past Alex Meret, who was rightly furious at his defense. That was quite an unexpected start as the first 20 minutes had seen Napoli in control, though the Partenopei couldn’t come up with anything more than a couple of Piotr Zielinski shots out of the target.
On 26 minutes, Verre gave another sample of his crossing skills, finding Antonio Candreva in the box, but Kalidou Koulibaly managed to prevent the former Inter man from shooting.
With Napoli struggling in their build-up phase, the only chance for the Partenopei came from a Ghoulam service from the left flank. Dries Mertens tried a tricky head deflection but Emil Audero was alert. Then, in the 44th minute, a razor-sharp shot from Lorenzo Insigne found again Audero’s gloves.
? | LINE-UP
— Sampdoria English ? (@sampdoria_en) December 13, 2020
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Gennaro Gattuso must not have been happy and indeed came up with two substitutions after the restart: Andrea Petagna replaced Fabian Ruiz and, most importantly, Hirving Lozano took Matteo Politano’s place.
Napoli had their equalizer on 54 minutes as Lozano stood over Tommaso Augello and headed the ball home, finishing for the best a brilliant combination between Lorenzo Insigne and Dries Mertens. After a few seconds of suspense, a VAR check confirmed everything to be regular in the build-up.
Insigne’s curling effort a couple of minutes later ended slightly out of the target, showing that Napoli’s mindset after the restart had changed. And if the message wasn’t clear yet, Lozano took care of giving the Blucerchiati another scare as he hit the post from his next shooting effort.
In the 68th minute, the comeback was completed as Lozano had once again the best of Augello, dashing past Sampdoria’s left-back to serve Andrea Petagna an easy chance for another header conversion.
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— Oficial SSC Napoli (@sscnapoliES) December 13, 2020
Ranieri’s side started to lose focus and gaps for Napoli got wider: Kostas Manolas had plenty of space to gallop across the pitch before serving Dries Mertens, but the Belgian squandered his chance to make it three with a central shot that hit Audero.
The score wouldn’t change anymore as the game got tense and referee Federico La Penna had to wave his yellow cards five times to cool things down in the latest stages of the match. Napoli maintained their third spot in the table, while the Blucerchiati also kept their five-point lead over the drop zone unchanged.
MATCH REPORT
December 13, 2020 – Serie A 2020-21 Round 11
NAPOLI-SAMPDORIA 2-1
SCORERS: 20′ Jankto (S), 53′ Lozano (N), 68′ Petagna (N)
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NAPOLI (4-2-3-1): Meret; Di Lorenzo, Manolas, Koulibaly, Ghoulam (59′ Mario Rui); Ruiz (46′ Petagna), Demme (59′ Bakayoko); Politano (46′ Lozano), Zielinski (77′ Lobotka), Insigne; Mertens (Ospina, Contini, Elmas, Maksimovic, Malcuit) Coach: Gattuso |
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SAMPDORIA (4-4-2): Audero; Ferrari, Colley, Yoshida, Augello; Candreva, Ekdal, Thorsby, Jankto (79′ Damsgaard); Verre (64′ Ramirez); Quagliarella (Letica, Ravaglia, Askildsen, Gabbiadini, La Gumina, Leris, Regini, Rocha, Silva, Tonelli) Coach: Ranieri |
REFEREE: Mr. La Penna from Roma
NOTES: Yellow Cards: Di Lorenzo, Insigne, Mario Rui (N), Thorsby, Ekdal, Colley, Ramirez (S); Extra Time: 1st Half 1′, 2nd Half 3′
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