Juan Jesus, Hirving Lozano, and Victor Osimhen eventually secured a tenth consecutive win in all competitions with this 3-2 thriller, even though Napoli had to come back twice to defeat Bologna.
Even without Amir Rrahmani and Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa, Napoli are currently in top form in European football. Victor Osimhen is also available on the bench. Bologna had one point from three games under Thiago Motta, but more importantly, they were without their leading scorer Marko Arnautovic, Jerdy Schouten, and Denso Kasius because of a back injury.
After outstanding work from Stanislav Lobotka and Kvicha Kvaratskhelia, Giacomo Raspadori skimmed the base of the far post with an angled drive, and Giovanni Di Lorenzo scuffed a finish that had been set up by Raspadori and Matteo Politano.
Kvaratskhelia put Politano through, and he should have scored when he ballooned over from 12 yards, but Mario Rui clipped the goal frame from a difficult angle. Bologna also had chances to score; Michel Aebischer only scuffed his shot after a corner, and then Aebischer slid in just in time to miss Nico Dominguez’s low, six-yard ball.
Bologna unexpectedly took the lead after the third attempt. In order for Joshua Zirkzee to drill through a sea of legs from 15 yards, Dominguez allowed Andrea Cambiaso to spring the offside trap down the left.
It didn’t last long, though, as Napoli tied the score just before halftime. Juan Jesus was the first to react, scuffing in from six yards after a corner bounced off Gary Medel’s shinpads. The defender became the Partenopei’s 15th different goal scorer across all competitions this season.
Victor Osimhen and Chucky Lozano came on for the restart, immediately proving decisive. Using a left-handed inside cut, Kvaratskhelia’s angled drive was only parried by Lukasz Skorupski; Osimhen was unable to capitalise on the rebound, but Lozano did.
However, only 2 minutes later, Bologna had equalised for 2-2 thanks to Musa Barrow’s hopeful long-range shot that bounced in front of Alex Meret and squirmed through his hands and into the far bottom corner after Meret erred in judgement.
Osimhen’s towering header was hugely saved by Skorupski, Kvaratskhelia’s shot took two deflections and dribbled inches wide, and from the resulting corner, neither Osimhen nor Juan Jesus could find the back of the net.
At the near post, Di Lorenzo stung Skorupski’s gloves, and Napoli regained the lead when Kvaratskhelia expertly weighted the through ball so that it sailed past Kevin Bonifazi and Osimhen dinked it past the advancing goalie.
After a Mario Rui error and Bonifazi’s free header from a corner that went over the crossbar, it was still open, with Meret ready for Ferguson at the back post.
Piotr Zielinski’s scorcher that struck the underside of the crossbar in the far top corner on minute 79 was unfortunate not to result in a goal.
After Skorupski stopped Zielinski from setting up Lozano with a pass with his legs, Meret flubbed at a corner and was incredibly lucky to escape punishment.
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