Super Eagles striker Akor Adams ended a four-game goal drought with the only goal as bottom club Venezia stunned Napoli 1-0 in Serie A at the Stadio Pier Luigi Penzo on Saturday, PUNCH Sports Extra reports.
The result was Venezia’s first win of the season, and it came in their first match under new coach Davide Nicola, who replaced the sacked Giovanni Stroppa. They had lost their opening six league games, scoring five goals and conceding 16, and they had also gone out of the early part of the season without a win in any competition.
Napoli were favourites and had most of the possession, but they created few clear chances in the first half. Venezia had the only shot on target before the break when Adams, after pouncing on a Benoit Badiashile error, tested goalkeeper Alex Meret at the near post.
The game turned four minutes into the second half. A long ball from Simon Sohm, the Switzerland international of Nigerian descent, put Adams through. The 26-year-old used his strength to shrug off Amir Rrahmani, cut inside and hit a shot that took a deflection off the Napoli defender and wrong-footed Meret in the 49th minute.
It was his second league goal of the season.
Napoli, who had rested Kevin De Bruyne and Rasmus Hojlund after a 3-1 Champions League defeat at Villarreal in midweek, threw on both in search of an equaliser. Juan Jesus, who faced his former club, produced a goal-saving block on the line to deny Hojlund in the 59th minute. Venezia then gave away a penalty when Matias Moreno brought down Hojlund, but De Bruyne’s effort in the 68th minute was weak and goalkeeper Filip Stankovic smothered it on the line.
Stankovic was the hero of the night. He made nine saves in all, including a flying stop to push a Stanislav Lobotka curler out of the top corner and another to keep out an Alisson Santos effort round the base of the post.
Adams, who joined from Sevilla in the summer for a reported €17m, now has four goals in nine appearances across all competitions. Venezia remain bottom with three points, one behind Udinese, Monza, Genoa, Parma and Fiorentina. Napoli, who missed the chance to move into the top four, stay ninth with 10 points after their third defeat of the season.