Napoli had taken the lead after just 11 seconds, but Mario Rui got himself sent off before the half-hour mark, leading to an ill-tempered and chaotic 3-2 home defeat to Spartak Moscow.
There is some good news for Luciano Spalletti, because Legia Warsaw beat Leicester City 1-0, meaning this is going to be a very open Europa League group.
The Partenopei fielded almost a full-strength side for this must-win game, having drawn 2-2 away to Leicester City in their opener. Spartak Moscow lost 1-0 to Legia Warsaw and fielded former Inter man Victor Moses with ex-Roma striker Ezequiel Ponce.
Incredibly, Napoli broke the deadlock within 11 seconds. The goalkeeper made a huge mess of gathering a cross under pressure from Matteo Politano, without any actual foul or contact, and bundled it into the path of Eljif Elmas.
It should’ve been 2-0, but Andrea Petagna’s strike was deflected inches wide of the near post after a Giovanni Di Lorenzo knockdown.
However, the game took a dramatic turn when Mario Rui was booked for an incredibly clumsy and ill-advised tackle on Victor Moses. After reviewing it on the VAR monitor, the referee changed his mind and showed a straight red, reducing Napoli to 10 men for an hour.
Nonetheless, Piotr Zielinski blasted over from 15 yards after a Politano effort was blocked, while Di Lorenzo charged down a Bakaev solo strike.
Spartak were seeing more of the ball, so Lorenzo Insigne was replaced by right-back Kevin Malcuit before half-time.
There was refereeing controversy again during the extended stoppages of the first half. The referee pointed to the spot when Quincy Promes collided with Politano, then had to delay his VAR review of the incident because of a mass shoving match between the squads. When he did finally see that Promes had trodden on Politano’s foot, he revoked the penalty.
During that brawl, Di Lorenzo was shoved by Aleksandr Sobolev, but both of them were booked and the Napoli man will be suspended against Legia Warsaw.
Spalletti took a pro-active approach, introducing Victor Osimhen and Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa for the second half.
However, Spartak did get the equaliser when Moses pulled back from the by-line on a corner, finding Promes to drill in with the aid of a deflection off Kalidou Koulibaly from 12 yards.
Suddenly, the visitors wanted the win and Sobolev couldn’t keep his header down on a Moses cross.
Kostas Manolas thought he’d given Napoli the winner on 67 minutes with a header on Kevin Malcuit’s cross, but it was flagged offside.
Gigot turned a couple of headers off target from corners, while whenever Osimhen or Lozano went on rapid counters, they were wiped out by cynical fouls.
Spartak Moscow turned the game around completely on 80 minutes, as Ayrton burst down the left and rolled across, a dummy letting it through for Mikhail Ignatov to drill into the near bottom corner from the edge of the box.
It remained an ugly and ill-tempered match, Maximiliano Caufriez receiving his second yellow card for hacking down Osimhen yet again.
However, with both teams now down to 10 men, Spartak Moscow added a third goal when Sobolev sprung the offside trap and rolled across for Promes relatively undisturbed.
It still wasn’t over and Di Lorenzo squared the ball from the right for Osimhen to tap in from a couple of yards for 3-2.
Napoli 2-3 Spartak Moscow
Elmas 1 (N), Promes 55, 90 (S), Ignatov 80 (S), Osimhen 92 (N)
Sent off: Mario Rui 30 (N), Caufriez 82 (S)
What a brutal match. The ref was trigger happy with those cards, even handing one out after the game ended when Spalletti went to have word with the officials. Since it seems officiating is so haphazard, let me have a go…I’m sure I can’t mess it up any worse than these clowns.