It was a tough slog in Salerno, as Napoli scraped a victory with Piotr Zielinski’s goal in a game with a red card apiece and Franck Ribery denied by a goal-line clearance.
This was the return of the Campania Derby, which had been played in Serie A only in the 1947-48 season, and not at all since the Coppa Italia in August 2009. Victor Osimhen had a calf injury and Lorenzo Insigne a stomach bug, so Dries Mertens and Chucky Lozano stepped in for the joint leaders. Salernitana missed Mamadou Coulibaly, Matteo Ruggeri, Lassana Coulibaly and Leonardo Capezzi.
Despite releasing a special edition Halloween kit this month, Napoli were not wearing it when playing on October 31.
Piotr Zielinski fired over, as did Chucky Lozano with his header on Matteo Politano’s cross, but for all the domination of possession in the first half, Salernitana still threatened with Cedric Gondo just unable to get on the end of two dangerous crosses and Federico Bonazzoli testing David Ospina from distance.
Mario Rui smashed wide from the edge of the area and Kalidou Koulibaly charged down the Gondo strike.
The deadlock was finally broken on the hour mark after a chaotic move, as Andrea Petagna’s header bounced off the bar, another shot was blocked before Piotr Zielinski managed to squirm his finish under the goalkeeper from eight yards.
It went from bad to worse for Salernitana, who then saw Grigorios Kastanos sent off for a studs-up tackle on Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa’s ankle. The original decision was a yellow, changed to red after the VAR review.
The drama wasn’t over, as when Ribery on the counter threaded through for Nwankwo Simy, the striker was held back by Koulibaly on the edge of the area and it was considered a clear scoring opportunity, therefore a red card.
On the resulting Ribery free kick, Giovanni Di Lorenzo had to make a decisive goal-line clearance at the near top corner.
Strandberg’s header on a corner was smothered by Ospina, while Vid Belec had his gloves stung by Eljif Elmas. There was a huge chance in stoppages when Ospina fumbled a cross off Simy’s head and Riccardo Gagliolo blasted the loose ball over the bar.
Salernitana 0-1 Napoli
Zielinski 61 (N)
Sent off: Kastanos 70 (S), Koulibaly 76 (N)