Napoli at the top of the Italian championship

After the unexpected but clear defeat in the opening match of the season away against Verona, the team coached by Antonio Conte was able to react promptly and thus obtained three consecutive victories in the championship that brought them to 9 points and therefore to become the sole leader of Serie A.

The last victory obtained away on a difficult pitch like that of Cagliari was particularly important.
In fact, in the last two away games at this stadium, Napoli had not managed to obtain the victory, stopping only at a draw. The visiting team started off strong with excellent pressing that put the Cagliari players in difficulty in the build-up phase from the back.

Once they won the ball, the Azzurri were able to count on the physical presence up front of the Belgian striker Romelu Lukaku who proved to be very valuable for the game set up by his coach who sees him as a central reference for continuous passes aimed at rewarding the insertions of his teammates.

In fact, it was precisely with one of these plays that Napoli scored the lead with a run by their captain, full-back Giovanni Di Lorenzo, who found the back of the net in the 18th minute of play thanks to a deflected shot that the opposing goalkeeper could do nothing about.

It was the second goal of the season for the full-back of the Italian national team. After the goal, Cagliari reacted promptly with a powerful shot by Paulo Azzi that found a prompt response from goalkeeper Alex Meret. After that, the home team's offensive continued until the end of the first half with attempts by Roberto Piccoli and Gianluca Gaetano, which however did not get past the opposing goalkeeper.

The second half resumed on the same note as the first half. The home team continued to attack persistently, coming close to scoring a possible equaliser with a header from former player Sebastiano Luperto. Once again, there was a prodigious intervention by goalkeeper Alex Meret, who reactively stretched out low to prevent the ball from going into the bottom corner. The home team then hit the crossbar with a fine long-range effort from Romanian midfielder Razvan Marin.

Only in slow motion could it be seen that, once again, Alex Meret touched the ball just enough to change its trajectory, preventing it from ending up in the net. Shortly after, in the 66th minute, Napoli scored the 0-2 goal with Kvaratskhelia who, conveniently served by his strike partner Lukaku, arrived at the edge of the penalty area and thus unleashed a precise shot.

It wasn't long, just four minutes, that the same talented Georgian footballer returned the favor by this time serving the assist for the Belgian striker who, from a close position, easily beat the goalkeeper Simone Scuffet. The latter was certainly to blame for the goal conceded due to his error in restarting the action when he missed a simple pass thus favoring the opponents' rapid recovery of the ball.

In any case, the two goals scored in just a few minutes effectively thwarted Cagliari's hopes of at least managing to snatch a draw, depriving the home team of grit that did not try to raise the pace as they did in the first match.

At the end of the match, Napoli also found the fourth goal with a header from defender Alessandro Buongiorno on a corner kicked by the new entrant David Neres. In conclusion, the result was decidedly more rounded than what the match actually showed. Note the defensive solidity and concentration shown by the Napoli players who were able to resist the continuous attacks of Cagliari and then seized the opportunities created on the counterattack, punishing in every favorable situation.