David Neres helped Andre Frank Zambo Anguissa’s stoppage-time winner, and Romelu Lukaku scored on his Napoli debut to turn an astonishing 10-man Parma around in the last moments.
Emanuele Valeri was sidelined by Parma due to a suspected adductor strain after just seven minutes. But they went very close to taking the lead when Ange-Yoan Bonny’s header from the edge of the box struck the upright after Mateusz Kowalski’s header first struck the underside of the bar.
After Simon Sohm made a strong move from midfield, he was boxed out, and Bonny got to the loose ball before Alex Meret for a penalty, giving the Ducali their breakthrough. Bonny gave Parma the shock lead by converting it himself.
A strong Khvicha Kvaratskhelia volley was bravely blocked by Delprato, and Adrian Bernabé’s shot went just wide of the near post.
As Matteo Politano parried back a ball that flew over the top from Stanislav Lobotka, Giacomo Raspadori failed miserably in his first touch, under pressure from Norbert Balogh.
After a back-and-forth with Matias Olivera, Suzuki had to move swiftly to deny the Kvaratskhelia strike from the edge of the box. The Georgia international then stung the goalkeeper’s gloves after the restart.
Romelu Lukaku made his debut for Napoli as they surged forward in the second half. However, Alessandro Buongiorno was unlucky not to equalize after hitting the crossbar with a free kick.
Zion Suzuki rushed out to clear and clattered with David Neres, changing the course of the game. Although he maintained that he had the ball first, VAR was unable to step in even if it had wanted to because it was the second yellow card.
Delprato was handed the gloves since Parma was unable to substitute another goalie after making their fourth and fifth changes just seconds before.
When Pontus Almqvist and Giovanni Simeone rushed after the ball simultaneously in the 88th minute and the Argentine went down, the referee gave Napoli a penalty. When the referee was summoned back to the VAR screen, it was evident that Almqvist had gotten his toes on the ball before Lukaku did.
That made no difference though, as Lukaku scored on his debut moments later, evading a defender to seize Leonardo Spinazzola’s through ball and drill from 14 yards.
A corner kick was cleared as far as David Neres for a cross that found the soaring header of Andre Frank Zambo Anguissa as Napoli made the most of the 11 minutes of additional time against 10 men. In as many substitute appearances, it was Neres’ second assist of the game.
It was far from over, though, as Meret had to pull off a spectacular close-range stop on Almqvist to save the points for Napoli on what was effectively the final kick of the match.
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