Osimhen’s Napoli in a comeback victory over Benevento

Both Insigne brothers found the net in the Campania derby, as Napoli completed a comeback to beat Benevento 2-1 with Andrea Petagna.

This was a local Campania regional derby, but also the first battle of brothers between Lorenzo and his younger sibling Roberto, as well as old Milan and Italy teammates Pippo Inzaghi and Rino Gattuso on the touchline. The Partenopei had a mixed week, following the 4-1 win over Atalanta with a shock 1-0 Europa League home defeat to AZ Alkmaar.

Lorenzo Insigne’s return to the starting XI pushed Hirving Lozano over to the right and Victor Osimhen had the ball in the net after 17 minutes, but was offside.

Roberto Insigne’s looping header landed on the roof of the net, but Lozano and Napoli were furious when he went down in the box under a Daam Foulon push, the referee and VAR opting not to intervene.

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Everyone was waiting for Lorenzo Insigne, but it was his little brother who broke the deadlock at the Stadio Vigorito. Gianluca Lapadula pulled back from the by-line and Roberto fired into the roof of the net from seven yards at the near post. He was visibly emotional at scoring his debut Serie A goal against his hometown club and his brother.

Lorenzo Insigne tried to get on the scoresheet too with a trademark right-foot curler, but Lorenzo Montipò flew to fingertip it out of the far top corner.

Napoli hit the woodwork twice in 30 seconds on the stroke of half-time. First, Luca Caldirola deflected a Lozano cross on to the upright, then from the resulting corner a Kostas Manolas header bounced off the crossbar.

Straight after the restart, another corner saw Montipò parry the Dries Mertens header. Lorenzo Insigne had the ball in the net on 48 minutes, but his celebration was cut short, as he was offside when Fabian Ruiz robbed Bryan Dabo and made the assist.

Lorenzo Insigne was determined to get on target and forced another save from Montipò, but on the resulting corner his vicious strike from the edge of the box bounced in off the underside of the crossbar. Goal-line technology was needed to confirm it had crossed over for the equaliser.

Benevento added to the nostalgia by introducing former Napoli full-back Christian Maggio, but the Napoli substitutes combined to turn the game around completely.

Matteo Politano got down the right and pulled it back from the by-line for Andrea Petagna to fire in from 12 yards and give the visitors the lead. Curiously, Politano had also assisted Insigne, so had two in a single game.

Tiemoue Bakayoko dived into a sliding tackle and seemed to sprain his knee, so hobbled off in pain. Christian Maggio had a huge chance to equalise for Benevento, his header at the back post on Gaetano Letizia’s cross blocked practically on the line by Diego Demme.

Benevento wasted another golden opportunity on the counter-attack, while Politano grazed the frame of the goal with a left-foot effort.

There was one final scare with the final kick of the game, as Montipò went up for the set piece, but Alex Meret got his gloves to a Marco Sau free kick at the near top corner.

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Benevento: Montipò; Letizia, Glik, Caldirola, Foulon (Maggio 64); Ionita, Schiattarella, Dabo (Improta 64); R Insigne (Di Serio 77), Caprari (Tuia 53), Lapadula (Sau 64)
Napoli: Meret; Di Lorenzo, Manolas, Koulibaly, Mario Rui; Bakayoko (Demme 74), Fabian Ruiz (Lobotka 88); Lozano (Politano 58), Mertens (Petagna 58), L Insigne (Ghoulam 88); Osimhen