Serie A | Venezia 1-0 Napoli: Ideal Nicola debut, but De Bruyne drama

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Venezia caused a huge upset beating Napoli on coach Davide Nicola’s debut with an Akor...

Venezia caused a huge upset beating Napoli on coach Davide Nicola’s debut with an Akor Adams goal and series of Filip Stankovic saves, including on a Kevin De Bruyne penalty.

The Lagunari made their debut under new coach Nicola, having fired Giovanni Stroppa after losing all seven games this season between Serie A and the Coppa Italia. Gianluca Busio, Armel Bella-Kotchap, Marin Sverko, Bartl Franjic, Thierry Correia and Andrea Adorante missed out, but Juan Jesus and Pasquale Mazzocchi faced their former club.

The Partenopei were feeling the strain after a 3-1 Champions League defeat away to Villarreal , so Kevin De Bruyne and Rasmus Hojlund were rested, with David Neres, Antonio Vergara, Costantino Favasuli and Alessandro Buongiorno injured, plus Alisson Santos, Matias Olivera and Frank Zambo Anguissa only fit for the bench.

Akor Adams pounced on a Benoit Badiashile error to test Alex Meret at the near post, while Giovane blasted just wide from distance, but Ridgeciano Haps threw himself in the way of an Amir Rrahmani strike from 12 yards on a corner.

Lorenzo Lucca getting a rare start failed to connect with the Giovane roll across from the left, then Matias Moreno charged down a Sam Beukema half-volley with his face.

After the restart, Beukema flashed a dangerous ball across the face of goal that Giovane couldn’t get on the end of, but moments later it was Venezia who broke the deadlock.

A long Simon Sohm ball over the top saw Adams use his strength to shrug Rrahmani off, then cut inside and saw his finish deflected off the Napoli defender to wrong-foot Meret.

Max Allegri threw on the big guns and John Yeboah fired over, but Juan Jesus neutralised his former teammate Rasmus Hojlund with an astonishing goal-saving block practically on the line as they slid in to meet the Alisson Santos roll across from the left.

Matias Moreno went in on a clumsy tackle to bring down Hojlund for a penalty, but when De Bruyne stepped up this time without an argument from his teammates, the weak effort was smothered on the line by Filip Stankovic.

Napoli were totally unbalanced and risked going 2-0 down when Albion Rrahmani ran onto a long ball, but Alisson Santos sprinted back to slow him down, allowing Meret to stick out a boot for the save.

Stankovic flew to palm a Stanislav Lobotka curler out of the far top corner, then McTominay accidentally got in the way of an Alisson Santos volley from eight yards.

Another Stankovic save was decisive, getting down to palm the Alisson Santos daisy-cutter round the base of the near post.

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