Napoli fall 0-1 at home to Arsenal as Odegaard strikes late

Napoli held out with two goalkeepers until the 75th minute, when substitute Tzolis teed up Odegaard for the only goal — five shots and zero corners all night tell the rest of the story.

by Gennaro SanninoThursday 10 September, 02:30 CET· 6 hours ago

Napoli-Arsenal Zero corner, muro Arsenal: cosa non ha funzionato — Grafica Arena Napoli

Napoli lost 0-1 at home to Arsenal in the Champions League, beaten by a Martin Odegaard goal in the 75th minute. The scoreline understates it. For seventy-five minutes Napoli held out without ever looking dangerous themselves, and the wall broke just the once. This was not a game lost to a fine margin — it was one team in control and the other hanging on for as long as it could.

The numbers tell a one-sided story: 5 shots to Arsenal's 26, no corners to 6, and only 3 shots on target against 8. Napoli barely got out of their own half with any consistency, and when they did, they created nothing of note. Struggling against opposition of this calibre is one thing. Struggling for ninety straight minutes without building a single attack points to a problem in midfield and in the team's inability to push up the pitch — not bad luck.

What kept the score respectable until the 75th minute was goalkeeping: 6 saves to Arsenal's 3. Alex Meret was replaced by Vanja Milinkovic-Savic at half-time, and the change paid off. Without that department, the damage would have arrived much earlier and been far heavier.

The goal came at the worst moment

Bruno Guimaraes and Christos Tzolis came on for Arsenal in the 66th minute to add fresh legs, and nine minutes later it was Tzolis who set up Odegaard for the opening goal. Massimiliano Allegri's own substitutions — Francesco Favasuli and Marco Vergara at the 58th minute, David Neres and Lorenzo Lucca at the 77th — did nothing to change the pattern of the game. Napoli kept ceding territory afterwards too, a sign the problem was not confined to the starting eleven.

It was a quiet night for cards, with just three bookings — Billy Gilmour in the 42nd minute, Lucca in the 85th, Odegaard in the 90th — and no flashpoints to speak of. The verdict sits entirely in the gap between a team that had 26 shots and one that managed 5. Losing to sides of this level is nothing new. Losing while failing to show up going forward for an hour and a quarter is something the team and the coach will need to explain.