Under-strength Juventus endured another horrendous evening despite boasting a half-time lead at the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium against Napoli. Massimiliano Allegri’s nightmarish start to his second stint in Turin continued on Saturday as his side suffered a third consecutive Serie A loss in Naples.
Juventus turned a 1-0 half-time lead into a 2-1 defeat, equalling their worst-ever three-game start to a new top-flight campaign. Alvaro Morata benefited from Kostas Manolas’ epic blunder to put the Bianconeri in front just ten minutes into the match. However, the visitors gave up possession and dropped deep as part of their hopes to defend an early lead.
Though Luciano Spalletti’s side failed to capitalize on their vast ball possession in the first half, they refused to slow down post restart and ultimately managed to break down Juventus’ stubborn defense. Napoli’s unrelenting pressure paid dividends just before the hour mark as Matteo Politano latched onto a rebound to restore the stalemate.
The Partenopei continued to dictate the pace and keep Juventus deep into their own third, creating several decent opportunities to turn the tables on the struggling visitors. The Diego Armando Maradona Stadium faithful had to wait until the 85th minute to see their heroes complete the turnaround.
Kalidou Koulibaly was quick to react to Moise Kean’s poor clearance, hammering the ball into the net from point-point blank range to catapult Napoli to all three points. The hosts have climbed to the top of the table with all three victories, making history by winning the opening three matches in back-to-back Serie A seasons.
In the meantime, Juventus, who remained at a single point from three games, could drop to the relegation zone if the other results don’t go their way. But Allegri refuses to start panicking as of yet.
“I cannot reproach my players for anything this evening. We put in a worse performance against Empoli, but today unfortunately we paid the price for errors,” he said, as cited by TUTTOmercatoWEB.
“We weren’t as precise technically and lost the ball a few too many times in the second half. Napoli played very well, but in football when you don’t win, you can only shut up and work hard.“