Venezia stun Napoli 1-0 as Stankovic saves De Bruyne penalty

It is the same script again, and it hurts more this time: the opponent was not Villarreal but a Venezia side that had taken zero points from their first six games, playing under new head coach Davide Nicola for the first time. Venezia won 1-0, Adams scoring in the 49th minute, and Napoli slip to ninth place with 10 points from seven games — three wins, one draw, three defeats.

For the first 25 minutes Napoli did not have a single shot on target. Giovane tried from distance for the first attempt, then Rrahmani's effort from a corner was blocked almost on the line in the 28th minute. Play was halted in between after home fans threw flares onto the pitch.

Venezia's goal came on the counter: Adams got into the box and a deflection off Rrahmani proved unlucky, beating Meret low down. Allegri reacted immediately, taking off Lucca, Giovane and Gilmour in one go for Højlund, De Bruyne and Alisson Santos — a substitution that dismantled his own rotation plan at half-time.

The missed penalty weighs like a second goal

The chance to level the game came in the 66th minute: Højlund shielded the ball in the box and was felled by Moreno, a clear penalty. But Stankovic guessed the corner and saved De Bruyne's spot kick. That was the moment the match was really decided: Napoli had the ball to draw level and did not take it, against a side that had not won a league game all season before this one.

Stankovic's wall did not stop there. In the 59th minute it had been Juan Jesus, a former Napoli defender, clearing off the line from an Alisson Santos header that was goal-bound. Late on, the Venezia goalkeeper saved a Lobotka shot heading for the corner (84'), blocked a Politano volley (89') and parried an Alisson Santos shot from close range (90') — the action in which the striker was injured and finished the game visibly hampered. Højlund, on from the bench, tried a couple of runs in behind but was caught offside each time: his goal drought, running since 5 September, goes on.

The final whistle, in the 94th minute, gave Venezia their first win and first points of the season, on the day of Nicola's debut. It is Napoli's fifth defeat to Venezia in fifteen official meetings, a record that keeps getting worse for the club. But the detail that matters most is different: after a first half low on ideas, Allegri's side missed the one real chance to get back into the game — a penalty — against the weakest opponent they have faced in the league so far. This is not about bad luck: it is the same team that fell apart in Villarreal, with a forward injured late on and Højlund's goal drought stretching further. Bodø/Glimt visit the Maradona in the Champions League on Tuesday 20 October; excuses will be even harder to find there.