Napoli fumbled a lead with Amir Rrahmani and fell apart for a 3-1 Champions League defeat to Villarreal, including a Matteo Politano howler of a back-pass.
The Partenopei lost their opening Champions League fixture 1-0 at home to Arsenal, but were boosted by Saturday’s 3-0 Serie A win over Frosinone. Scott McTominay had his first start five weeks on from heart surgery to correct a mild benign arrhythmia, but Frank Anguissa, Mathias Olivera, Antonio Vergara, Alisson Santos, Costantino Favasuli and Alessandro Buongiorno were out of action. Giovane was added to the UEFA list and thrown straight into the starting XI.
Villarreal lost 3-2 at Borussia Dortmund in Europe and sat 11th in LaLiga going into this game, missing injured Nicolas Pepe and former Inter midfielder Tajon Buchanan. Goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi was expected to start, but withdrew from the squad after it was revealed his home was targeted in an armed robbery late last night with his family present.
See how the game unfolded on the Liveblog.
Former Juventus defender Renato Veiga at full stretch prevented the Giovane roll across reaching Rasmus Hojlund, but the opener came soon after.
Kevin De Bruyne’s short corner was floated to the back post by Billy Gilmour, where the Amir Rrahmani header was sensationally palmed onto the underside of the crossbar, but the Napoli defender was ready to turn in the rebound.
Villarreal fought back, as only a desperate Benoit Badiashile deflection stopped Georges Mikautadze drilling in the equaliser from just inside the area, then on the resulting corner Pape Gueye fired inches wide.
There was a frantic 60 seconds of action, as first Rasmus Hojlund saw his header on the Matteo Politano cross bounce off the frame of the goal.
Moments later, Politano’s horrible back-pass was intercepted by Mikautadze, who drew Vanja Milinkovic-Savic out to score from the tightest of angles into the empty net.
The game turned on its head, as then Villarreal went in front with a screamer from distance by Santiago Mourino that flew past Milinkovic-Savic’s fingertips.
It was end to end, with McTominay’s free header flashing just wide, and dangerous counter-attacks from Mikautadze and Politano.
Luiz Junior was very alert after the restart to rush off his line and push the Billy Gilmour through ball off the feet of Hojlund, while Benoit Badiashile made a decisive interception to stop a tap-in from six yards.
Napoli struggled to break Villarreal down in the second half, then failed to make the most of a good situation when playing against nine men for a few minutes over the new delayed substitution rules.
When Luiz Junior fumbled a free kick, Hojlund volleyed the rebound onto his own face, then on another move he dribbled past three only to make the angle too narrow.
De Bruyne’s cross to the back post grazed both the head of Lorenzo Lucca and the studs of Di Lorenzo, but instead Villarreal added a third late on.
Nathan Saliba’s pass found Ayoze Perez, a heavy first touch turned into an accidental assist for Tani Oluwaseyi to sweep in relatively undisturbed.
Villarreal 3-1 Napoli
Rrahmani 8 (N), Mikautadze 23 (V), Mourino 26 (V), Oluwaseyi 86 (V)
Player statistic
| 8' | Amir Rrahmani | |||
| Georges Mikautadze | 23' | |||
| Santiago Mouriño (Assist: Gerard Moreno) |
26' | |||
| Georges Mikautadze | 33' |
| 55' | Giovane | |||
| 62' | Kevin De Bruyne | |||
| Nathan Saliba | 67' | |||
| 85' |  |
Giovanni Di Lorenzo | ||
| Tani Oluwaseyi (Assist: Ayoze Pérez) |
 |
86' |
