Dries Mertens and a Jorginho penalty gave Napoli the 2-0 victory over nine-man Nice, but they’ll regret many missed chances in the Champions League play-off.
See how it all unfolded on the Liveblog.
Dries Mertens and a Jorginho penalty gave Napoli the 2-0 victory over nine-man Nice, but they’ll regret many missed chances in the Champions League play-off.
See how it all unfolded on the Liveblog.
The Partenopei wanted to end the ‘curse’ of only one Italian side in the last seven seasons getting through the Champions League play-offs and had a full squad at their disposal. Lucien Favre missed injured Mario Balotelli and Wesley Sneijder for this first leg trip to the San Paolo.
Jose Callejon should’ve opened the scoring after eight minutes when springing the offside trap from a Marek Hamsik chipped pass, but got too much on the header and turned it off target.
Mertens did not make the same mistake and took full advantage of the Nice defensive frailties when he flicked it past on-rushing Yoan Cardinale with his right foot and steered it into the empty net from a tight angle with his left to give Napoli the lead.
Callejon wasted another golden opportunity, forcing an acrobatic Cardinale save with his volley from close range, and Mertens saw an overhead kick skim the far post. The little Belgian then slalomed through four Nice defenders only for the finish to be beaten away by Cardinale.
Napoli had their usual possession football, but on 35 minutes they were opened up and Vincent Koziello’s angled drive skimmed the far post. Allan Saint-Maximin also ran straight at the defence and they parted, allowing him a shot just off target.
Cardinale palmed a trademark Lorenzo Insigne curler away from the far top corner and on the resulting set play Napoli had penalty appeals, but Raul Albiol pushed Christophe Jallet before the handball.
After the restart, Cardinale flapped at a Mertens finish, but Insigne came sliding in and could only deflect it on to the outside of the far post from point-blank range.
The intensity levels dropped considerably in the heat and Napoli fans started to worry if these missed chances would come back to haunt them.
Nice almost scored a spectacular own goal, Arnaud Souquet’s header bouncing off the crossbar, then Cardinale got down to beat an Insigne strike off the line.
Mertens was brought down clumsily by Jallet at the end of a well-worked one-touch football move for a penalty, although he seemed to be just outside the area. Nonetheless, Jorginho sent Cardinale the wrong way to double Napoli’s lead.
Alassane Plea’s volley from the edge of the box landed on the roof of the net and Insigne again fired straight at the goalkeeper following good Allan pressing work.
Nice suddenly lost their cool completely and went down to nine men. First Koziello was shown a straight red card for a high tackle on Piotr Zielinski’s ankle, then Plea received a second booking for dissent while complaining about that decision.
Arkadiusz Milik missed an extraordinary chance when totally unmarked from eight yards, only grazing his studs to a Callejon assist.
Napoli 2-0 Nice
Mertens 13 (Na), Jorghinho pen 70 (Na)
Napoli: Reina; Hysaj, Albiol, Koulibaly, Ghoulam; Allan (Rog 85), Jorginho, Hamsik (Zielinski 59); Callejon, Mertens (Milik 75), Insigne
Nice: Cardinale; Jallet (Burner 94), Souquet, Dante, Le Marchand, Sarr (Boscagli 59); Seri, Koziello; Lees-Melou, Plea, Saint-Maximin (Walter 83)
Ref: Marciniak (POL)
Sent off: Koziello 79 (Ni), Plea 81 (Ni)