Napoli had a sluggish start in Poland, but two penalties, Hirving Lozano and an Adam Ounas strike turned it around for the 4-1 victory, allowing them to leapfrog Legia Warsaw at the top of the Europa League group.
The Partenopei made the trip without Victor Osimhen, Lorenzo Insigne, Fabian Ruiz, Kevin Malcuit, Kostas Manolas and suspended Mario Rui. The hosts recently sacked coach Czeslaw Michniewicz and promoted Marek Golebiewski from the reserve squad after nine points in 11 domestic games. It was a 3-0 Napoli win when these sides met at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona.
It was Legia who took the lead when Mladenovic sprung the offside trap and burst down the left, cut back inside Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa and pulled back for Mahir Emreli to fire in first time with his left boot from 10 yards.
Napoli had a double chance to equalise when Piotr Zielinski thumped the crossbar from 12 yards, then the Poland international also blasted the rebound over.
Anguissa’s header from a corner was well held, while Hirving Lozano turned over from a promising position and Eljif Elmas saw his angled drive beaten away by the goalkeeper’s legs at the near post.
Legia were unlucky not to go 2-0 up straight after the restart, as Mladenovic again pulled back from the left, this time for Yuri Ribeiro’s snapshot to bounce off the near post.
Napoli received a penalty when Josue was adjudged to have barged Zielinski over just inside the box. The Poland international converted the spot-kick himself to equalise.
Giovanni Di Lorenzo’s cross was fingertipped off the head of Petagna from close range, but incredibly Josue gave away another penalty with his incredibly clumsy attempted overhead kick clearance, not realising Matteo Politano clearly had the advantage.
Dries Mertens converted the spot-kick with a cheeky Panenka-style chip to turn the game around completely.
There was a third moments later, Petagna sent clear by a Mertens through ball and the striker unselfishly rolled it across for Lozano to tap in relatively undisturbed.
There was also time for Adam Ounas to get some glory on his comeback from injury. His left-foot shot was charged down from 10 yards, so he flicked up the rebound with his left and volleyed in with the right boot.
It was almost a fifth in stoppages, Amir Rrahmani’s header acrobatically fingertipped over the bar.
Legia Warsaw 1-4 Napoli
Emreli 11 (L), Zielinski pen 49 (N), Mertens pen 75 (N), Lozano 79 (N), Ounas 90 (N)
“Take Poland”? Is Football Italia now a Nazi website? Idiots.
@Antifascista…
Ever heard of hyperbole?
You SJW really are intent on censoring speech.
Napoli. Bravo.
Napoli captured the win in Warsaw.
Napoli captured Poland.