Hard-fought victory for Antonio Conte’s Napoli, who thanks to Kvaratskhelia’s penalty beat an aggressive and proactive Empoli 1-0 for large stretches of the match. So everyone is once again looking down on the Neapolitan eleven who, after Juventus’ victory – again 1-0 – over Lazio and the Bianconeri’s momentary lead in the standings, regain the solitary top spot with 19 points.
Good start for Empoli, who scare Napoli with a double opportunity: the first, on Esposito’s volley, the second, with Pezzella’s left-footed conclusion from Gyasi’s cross from the right, both defused with a dive by Caprile. As the minutes passed, the pressure from the Azzurri did not increase properly, with Empoli continuing to worry their opponents with quality and pace with their legs and dangerous initiatives.
The offensive presence of Conte’s men was reduced to a minimum, arriving at half-time with a few too many problems in the middle of the pitch, given the effective countermeasures adopted by D’Aversa to block Gilmour and especially Anguissa in the build-up phase. At the beginning of the second half, however, the Neapolitans appeared the same as in the first half, with Conte inserting Simeone for Lukaku in the 59th minute – as well as Olivera for Spinazzola – and on the following action an initiative by Di Lorenzo in search of the Argentine generates the penalty kick for Napoli: Kvaratskhelia goes from the spot and is very clear in wrong-footing Vasquez and putting his team forward.
The inertia of the match was almost completely reversed and the impact of the goal was significant on the attitude of the Napoli players, who entered into management of an Empoli who were no longer so brilliant. D’Aversa will therefore try to shake up his lineup with several offensive changes, but without finding the way to the net and thus surrendering to the first home stop of his championship