Rome (AFP)
Naples lost at home to Parma (2-1) on Saturday on the 16th day of the Italian Championship for the premier of Gennaro Gattuso on the Neapolitan bench, after the dismissal of Carlo Ancelotti in the middle of the week.
The former Lille player Gervinho (90 + 3) crucified the Neapolitans at the very end of the match, after Arkadiusz Milik (64th) had responded to Kusulevski's early goal (4th) for the Parmesans.
With this defeat, Gattuso and Naples begin their union in the worst possible way, the Neapolitans falling 8th (21 pts) in the standings, behind their opponent of the day (7th, 24pts).
Parma had started the match perfectly, opening the scoring quickly: Kusulevski benefited from the gross error of Koulibaly, who was injured on the action, to deceive Alex Meret with a flat foot with the level of the post.
In crying lack of confidence, Naples believed it could rely on Dries Mertens, its Belgian pocket attacker, who came into play in the second half. From a center line, he put the ball on the head of Milik (6 goals this season), who found the net for Luigi Sepe.
But that was without counting Gervinho, untenable on the lawn of San Paolo, who deceived Sepe in additional time.
Naples has not won at home in the league since a victory in mid-October against Hellas Verona (2-0) and is 17 points behind the leader, Inter Milan (38 pts) before his trip on Sunday (7.45 p.m.) GMT) at Fiorentina, deprived of Frenchman Franck Ribéry, operated on for a long time and absent for 10 weeks.
Napoli won 4-0 against Genk (Belgium) in C1 Tuesday evening, but their coach Carlo Ancelotti was still sacked after a complicated first part of the season.
The match, which was scheduled to kick off at 6:00 p.m., started half an hour later due to a storm that damaged the roof of the San Paolo Stadium.
© 2019 AFP