Despite two goals from winter signing Malen, AS Roma missed out on overtaking their direct rivals with an away win in Naples on Sunday evening—because Alisson Santos celebrated a dream Serie A debut.
Top matches in Serie A are really exciting again this season. The match at the Diego Armando Maradona stadium on Sunday evening also lived up to its promise. Napoli, who had just suffered a dramatic cup exit on penalties against Como, and Roma, who had recently won 2-0 against Cagliari Calcio, gave each other no quarter from the first to the last second.
In the first half, the home side were the more active team, but they were rarely really threatening in the final third. Roma, on the other hand, were able to rely on their solid defense and keeper Svilar – and repeatedly switched gears at lightning speed. This led to the opening goal after seven minutes: Two simple vertical balls brought Bayern loanee Bryan Zaragoza to the right of the penalty area, where he served former Dortmund player Malen – who finished coolly.
A little later, it was the Dutchman again who made Milinkovic-Savic break out in a sweat for a second time, but he was unable to beat the Napoli keeper (19′). The hosts seemed almost desperate at times, which sums up the equalizer quite well: with no other options available, Spinazzola took a chance from the left side of the box and his shot took a decisive deflection, flying over Roma goalkeeper Svilar and into the net (40′).
Penalty for Roma – and both players sent off
Immediately after the break, it was the Italian international who once again had the chance to make it 2-1. This time, however, Svilar was able to defuse the powerful left-footed shot (47′). Roma had to regroup and once again found their decisive initiator in Malen: the Aston Villa loanee, for whom the Italians hold a purchase option, sent Wesley on his way. He was so unlucky to be brought down by Rrahmani in the penalty area that both players had to be substituted. Malen took the resulting penalty, took a short run-up and coolly converted into the top right corner (71′). Napoli needed to respond again. Coach Antonio Conte indirectly provided that with the substitution of Alisson Santos. The 23-year-old Brazilian, who joined from Sporting at the last minute in the winter, celebrated his Serie A debut. And what a debut it was: in his first few minutes, his teammates kept looking for him before he fired a powerful right-footed shot into the net to make it 2-2 (82′).
In the end, it was a fair result, with Napoli preventing Roma from overtaking them. Now both teams have a week to regroup before Napoli face Champions League participants and BVB opponents Atalanta Bergamo next Sunday. Later the same day, the Giallorossi will face Cremona.