De Bruyne misses a penalty and the worst Naples sinks against the bottom team

The bottom Venice premiered his points locker in the debut ofand Davide Nicola on his bench with a 1-0 victory against Napoli, who wasted a penalty from Kevin De Bruyne after from the bench, and sealed his worst start to the season since 2009.

Philip Stankovic He emerged as Venezia’s great savior in the final minutes. The goalkeeper built a wall under the posts and frustrated Napoli’s attempts to rescue the tie, with decisive saves that allowed his team to resist until the end.

Napoli’s worst start in its history

The Venetian team, which came into the match without points after losing in the first six games, found a boost in Nicola’s debut and beat a Naples team that was in need of a victory after a bad start to the season, the worst for 17 years, with three wins, five losses and a draw between Serie A and the Champions League.

The first half passed with few clear chances, without rhythm and without brilliance. Napoli had more presence with the ball, but did not become dangerous. Both knowing the importance of scoring, they went out onto the field to test each other, to face whiteboards.

Venezia tried to create danger, especially through the former Sevilla player Akor Adams and the Ecuadorian John Yeboah. The match was of vital importance for the whole city of León de San Marcos, mired in a crisis of play and identity, and marked the debut of Davide Nicola on the bench, after the dismissal of Giovanni Stroppa.

Akor Adams beats Meret

The game changed little after the restart. In the 49th minute, Adams took advantage of an action inside the area to set up the shot and beat Alex Meret, with the fortune that the ball touched Amir Rrahmani and diverted its trajectory until it ended up in the net.

The goal forced Massimiliano AllegrI was going to move the bench and put the heavyweights on the field, who came off the bench by rotation. The technician removed to Lorenzo Lucca, Giovane and Billy Gilmour to give entry to Rasmus Hojlund, Alisson Santos and Kevin De Bruyne, looking for a reaction that would get his team back into the game.

De Bruyne enters and misses a penalty

In part they succeeded, because the last half hour of the game was a siege on the local goal. Napoli increased the pressure and found an excellent chance to tie in the 66th minute, when the referee signaled penalty for a foul by Matias Moreno on Hojlund.

De Bruyne took responsibility from the spot, but Stankovic guessed the direction of the launch and stopped the low shot of the Belgian, who looked for the left post. His bad streak continued after an irregular start and he was once again in the spotlight, as happened last season with Antonio Conte, not feeling comfortable in the position in which the technician uses it.

The penalty save sustained Venice, who resisted the rival push. He appealed to his physicality and managed the changes well to end up breathing a sigh of relief and finally provide the first points to his fans. And Stankovic became huge and cleared all the shots he received.

The victory allowed Venice to open its points tally in Serie A and get Nicola’s stage off to a good start. Naples, for its part, once again showed its difficulties, while Allegri is beginning to become the focus of criticism.