- Defending Serie A champions Napoli were held to a goalless draw at Lazio on Sunday
- Napoli and Lazio were first and second in the Serie A last season, but have struggled since the start of this campaign
The Lazio vs Napoli Serie A fixture played on Sunday at Stadio Olimpico ended in a goalless draw. Whereas Lazio had the opportunity to get into the top four, Napoli would have jumped to fifth position in their bid to defend the league title they won the season.
A hollow first half was followed by a slightly improved second period that in the end didn’t result to anything. The game missed some prominent names such as Napoli’s Victor Osimhen who is representing Nigeria at the 2023 AFCON and Giovanni Simeone, Jens Cajuste and Kvicha Kvaratskhelia who are still on suspension. On the other hand, Lazio were without Ciro Immobile and Mattia Zaccagni who sat out for bans.
Lazio vs Napoli. Photo/ Eurosport.
Napoli and Lazio were first and second in the Serie A last season, but have struggled since the start of this campaign. The Blues, who scored the most goals last season, have now failed to score in eight of 14 matches since Walter Mazzarri took over.
Lazio vs Napoli
Lazio and Napoli were playing their first games since losing in the Supercoppa Italiana to eventual champions Inter Milan. Whereas Lazio were thrashed 3-0 in the semi-final, Napoli conceded just one goal in the final to the Nerazzurri.
The Lazio vs Napoli game on Sunday provided both sides the opportunity to bounce back from the poor results and fight for their spots in next season’s European competitions. It was the hosts who started on a high note, with Gustav Isaksen firing over from a promising position. Surprisingly, that was the closest that either side came close to scoring in the first 45 minutes as they both played with a lot of caution at the back.
The second half saw Napoli finally get into the game as they created several chances. However, they produced no result in front of goal.
With Napoli playing attacking football, they were caught at the back by the hosts who thought they had opened the scoring through Taty Castellanos. The Argentine brilliantly controlled a long pass with his chest before firing into the top corner and running to celebrate. However, the celebrations didn’t last as the assistant referee raised his flag to signal Taty was in an offside position.
Lazio got motivated and began attacking more than the visitors afterwards. In the end, none of the attacks produced something worth three points. Napoli’s best chance of the game was a free-kick taken by Piotr Zielinski that curved narrowly wide.
Sunday’s Serie A Results
Whereas the Lazio vs Napoli fixture turned out to be a goalless draw, the other Serie A games played on Sunday had goals. Genoa secured a 2-1 comeback victory over Leece after scoring two goals within six minutes towards the end of the match. Nikola Krstovic had missed a penalty in the 18th minute but would make up for it by scoring twelve minutes later.
Genoa’s comeback was started by Mateo Retegui who headed home a rebound from close range in the 70th minute. Six minutes later, Genoa completed the comeback, thanks to Caleb Ekuban who also fired home from a rebound. They moved to eleventh on the standings with 28 points.
Genoa came from behind to beat Leece. Photo/ Eurosport.
Elsewhere in Italy, Monza secured a narrow 1-0 victory over Sassuolo. The only goal of the match was scored in the first half by Andrea Colpani.
Verona were held to a 1-1 draw at home by Frosinone at Stadio Marc’Antonio Bentegodi. Ondrej Duda missed a penalty in the 37th minute but Tomas Suslov made no mistake in converting the one that followed in added time of the first half. Kaio Jorge equalized for Verona towards the hour mark and that was it as the points were shared at full time.
In the final match of the day, Fiorentina failed to continue their unbeaten record at home as they suffered a 1-0 defeat to Inter Milan. Lautaro Martinez scored the only goal of the match.
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