Osimhen resumes penalty duties as Fiorentina stun Napoli
Fiorentina stunned Scudetto holders Napoli at the Stadio Maradona with Josip Brekalo, Jack Bonaventura and Nico Gonzalez, despite Victor Osimhen ending his penalty taboo, and catch Juventus in third place.
The teams went into the weekend locked together on 14 points and with tiring European tests, as the Partenopei lost 3-2 to Real Madrid but, Fiorentina came back from 2-0 down to hold Ferencvaros.
Amir Rrahmani, Juan Jesus and Pierluigi Gollini were still out of action, while Oliver Christensen, Dodo, Yerry Mina and Gaetano Castrovilli didn’t make the trip and Nico Gonzalez was only fit for the bench.
Napoli wore their special edition Halloween kits and it was a sparkling start at both ends, Victor Osimhen clearing a Lucas Martinez Quarta overhead kick practically off the line, then Giovanni Di Lorenzo firing over from a tricky angle.
Fiorentina broke through when Martinez Quarta thumped the upright on a cross from the right, then Josip Brekalo nutmegged Alex Meret from the tightest of angles on the rebound.
Giacomo Bonaventura had his strike charged down, sparking a Napoli counter-attack that culminated with Osimhen bundling over the line, but it was disallowed for an offside position in the chaotic move.
Stanislav Lobotka’s ferocious strike stung Pietro Terracciano’s gloves, but Andre Frank Zambo Anguissa went off with a left thigh problem and was surprisingly replaced by Giacomo Raspadori, who was told to stick to Arthur Melo.
Michael Kayode was ready at the back post to clear a dangerous Giovanni Di Lorenzo low cross, while Osimhen had penalty appeals when he collided with Martinez Quarta on a throw-in, but the referee thought the Napoli man had backed into the defender.
There was a penalty moments later, as Fabiano Parisi chested a cross back to his goalkeeper, not realising Osimhen was ready to pounce and was inevitably brought down by a furious Pietro Terracciano. For the first time since the miss against Bologna and the TikTok video scandal, Osimhen stepped up to the spot and converted.
After the restart, M’Bala Nzola went clear on the Bonaventura pass and laid it off for Jonathan Ikone, who thumped the base of the near post.
Osimhen pounced on another poor back-pass, this time from Kayode, but Terracciano made himself big to deny the Nigerian one-on-one.
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It was wide open with both teams surging forward to attack and Fiorentina restored their advantage. Arthur’s through ball found Alfred Duncan, it bounced off Matias Olivera’s shin and turned into an accidental assist for Bonaventura to sweep in from 12 yards.
Kayode fired over from a tight angle, while Rudi Garcia made some risky changes to inject fresh energy, taking off Osimhen, Lobotka and Zielinski.
Parisi made a desperate interception to stop Raspadori setting up Giovanni Simeone 10 yards from goal, while Simeone’s looping header was pushed over the bar and Gianluca Gaetano fired off target.
Instead, Fiorentina added a third in stoppages when Parisi rolled across from the left and Nico Gonzalez was ready to tap in.