Napoli collapse late again as Porto win 4-1 at the Dragão

For more than an hour the game was alive. Then it happened again.

The same script

The problem is not one bad night. It is how closely this game resembled the one three days earlier. At the Allianz Stadium, Juventus scored in the 70th and 87th minutes. At the Dragão, Porto scored in the 71st, 80th and 90th. That is five goals conceded from the 70th minute onwards in two matches. In Turin the shots were 18 to 7, and only one of Napoli's was on target.

The opponents were different, but the story was the same. The team holds on while it has the legs and a clear head, then it switches off. Before the game Politano had said:

"We keep falling back into the same mistakes we made."

Said before a match, a line like that is a warning. Said again afterwards, it is a diagnosis.

There are mitigating factors, and it would be dishonest to ignore them. Napoli started without a single recognised full-back. Di Lorenzo and Olivera stayed in Naples, and Spinazzola and Favasuli were already out. Marianucci is not on List A (the squad registered for the competition), because the only temporary replacement allowed had already been used for Giovane in place of Favasuli. That left three senior centre-backs: Beukema, Rrahmani and Rafa Marín. Beukema, signed for around €30m, made his first Champions League start. It was only his second start of the season.

But mitigating factors only go so far, and responsibility has to be divided precisely. An injury list this long is not bad luck from one week. It comes from how the squad was built and managed, and the people who built it have to answer for that. The collapse in the last half-hour is different. It has happened twice in a row with different line-ups, and that is a team problem. The people who coach and prepare the side answer for that. Massimiliano Allegri arrived on a three-year contract worth €6m net a season and with a stated objective. Every supporter is now asking a simple question: why can Napoli not hold their ground when the game is being decided?

A Europe that does not forgive

The Champions League record now reads 3 points from four games: one win and three defeats, 6 goals scored and 11 conceded. Napoli lost 1-0 at home to Arsenal and 3-1 at Villarreal, scraped a 4-3 win over Bodø/Glimt, and have now lost 4-1 in Porto. Last season they went out in the league phase in 30th place, and nobody in Naples has forgotten a European campaign played without character. This one risks looking a lot like it. Aurelio and Edoardo De Laurentiis, Andrea Chiavelli and Tommaso Bianchini were not in the stand at the Dragão. That is a fact, not an accusation, but on a night like this it counts.

There is no time to get over it. Lazio come to the Maradona on Sunday at 12:30 CET (11:30 UK, 06:30 ET), and Allegri returns to the bench for the league after his suspension. Eleven players are definitely unavailable, among them Di Lorenzo, Olivera, Lobotka, De Bruyne and Neres, with Marianucci also suspended. The next Champions League game is in Manchester against City on Tuesday 24 November at 21:00 CET (20:00 UK, 15:00 ET), and Olivera will miss that one too.

Against the leaders, a burst of pride for one half will not be enough. Napoli need to still be standing in the 70th minute.