Napoli conquers Cagliari, a lightning goal from McTominay decides

One Scott McTominay’s early goal is enough for Napoli to violate the Unipol Domus, beating Cagliari 1-0 in the opening match of the 30th matchday of Serie A. Not a good match for the reigning Italian champions who, however, with minimal effort they take second place (waiting for Milan to play Turin at San Siro tomorrow) temporarily moving themselves to -6 from leaders Inter.

They stay the Sardinians stopped at 30 who suffered their third consecutive defeat. Pisacane finds Esposito again after the disqualification and sets him up as the lone striker with the support of Folorunsho. Conte starts with McTominay and De Bruyne behind Hojlund, Alisson Santos on the bench. Lobotka returned to Napoli and was immediately on the pitch from the 1st minute together with Gilmour.

Immediately scoring

The start of the Azzurri is aggressive and the goal comes at the first useful opportunity: Beukema’s tower on the development of a corner, Buongiorno hits badly but takes the post and on the goal line it is McTominay who puts his foot there to score past Caprile. Politano is also dangerous from a free kick, blocked with his fists by the goalkeeper who then watches McTominay’s header finish not very high over the crossbar in the quarter of an hour.

So many mistakes send Conte into a rage

Napoli’s dominance is beyond question, but there are also many precision errors by the Azzurri for which Conte gets very angry. Just one loss of concentration leads to a bloody lost ball by Olivera with Esposito aiming for the penalty area and kicking diagonally without however hitting the target defended by Milinkovic-Savic. The Neapolitan goalkeeper instead puts his fists on a treacherous cross shot from Zè Pedro while in the final half a combination between De Bruyne and Hojlund is good but the Azzurri don’t find the right time to hit the net.

Second half

The second half opens with a rebound by Caprile from a shot by De Bruyne, then Politano also tries, turning to the far post, with the ball ending up wide. After a while Conte concludes the double play experiment and throws Alisson Santos into the fray in place of Lobotka but it is Politano again who comes close to doubling the lead at the end of a good team effort by Napoli, thwarted by Caprile’s excellent exit. From here on the guests will do very little, while Cagliari will try to raise the center of gravity without ever managing to do any harm. Gaetano kicks out, then also Esposito and the newly introduced Mendy twice. The ultimate thrill in recovery with a very dangerous cross from Mina, removed by Spinazzola who protects the result and the three points for Conte’s team.