Napoli held to a draw they led for 28 minutes

Good evening, Napoli supporters, this is Napoli Tonight for Sunday 20 September.

Napoli drew one-one at Fiorentina this lunchtime, and the whole game turned on one number: twenty-eight minutes, the time their lead lasted. Billy Gilmour put Napoli ahead in the twenty-third minute, finishing a move started by Matteo Politano. Fiorentina's Jiménez levelled in the fifty-first, five minutes into the second half, and none of Napoli's changes from the bench, Neres, Lucca, Favasuli and Anguissa among them, found a way back before the final whistle.

Matteo Politano was blunt afterwards: "We lack the ruthlessness in front of goal, otherwise you don't take games home." Head coach Massimiliano Allegri echoed him, saying Napoli "have to be nastier in front of goal," and admitted the seven points collected so far "isn't enough to climb the table."

Our view: that framing misses the bigger problem. Napoli sit ninth with seven points from five games, twelve to thirteen points off the pack of Roma, Inter, Lazio and Cagliari, and they own the eighth-worst defence in the league, with eight players missing on Sunday. Talking about finishing chances is easier than talking about why the back line keeps handing points back, and Sunday's national press agreed by leaving Napoli out of the day's top story altogether.

Off the pitch, the away end at the Franchi told its own story. Napoli's organised supporters boycotted the trip over away-ticket restrictions, and only forty-five fans took their seats, behind a banner reading "45 inside for our colours". A second banner outside read "the rest outside for our values".

Sombre news too. Inter and Italy great Sandro Mazzola died in Milan today at the age of eighty-three, and Napoli sent their condolences to his family.

Napoli are next in action against Frosinone in twenty days.

That's Napoli Tonight for tonight. Every story, in full, at arenarete dot com slash napoli slash e n. Back tomorrow evening at eight o'clock CET.