Having ended 2023 on a bad note, the Pertonopei started 2024 in the worst possible way with a humiliating 3-0 defeat to Torino, as Pasquale Mazzocchi got sent off under five minutes into his debut.
Before this clash, the Partenopei ended 2023 on a bad note with one point from two games and a Coppa Italia exit to Frosinone.
Pierluigi Gollini was called into action when he used his chest to parry an early Duvan Zapata strike.
They got another chance, but Vlasic ballooned the Raoul Bellanova assist over after a smart Duvan Zapata dummy.
Napoli almost got a chance to score when Giovanni Di Lorenzo reached the by-line on a Piotr Zielinski through ball and released a pullback for Giacomo Raspadori, only to be denied by a Vanja Milinkovic-Savic’s reaction save.
Raspadori got another chance but fired his effort wide of the near post.
Stanislav Lobotka, with a very risky sliding tackle, stopped Antonio Sanabria from going clear in the box.
Torino continued mounting pressure, but Mario Rui prevented the Bellanova tap-in on Duvan Zapata’s cross at the back stick.
Zielinski could have tried his weaker foot, only for him to move the ball to his stronger foot, failing to make the most of an inspired Raspadori back-heel assist.
Just before the interval, Torino took the lead. Ivan Ilic’s free-kick was flicked on by Duvan Zapata for Antonio Sanabria, who reacted quicker than the Napoli defenders to fire in from 10 yards.
Pasquale Mazzocchi, who completed his move from Salernitana only 24 hours ago, was given his Napoli debut in the second half and immediately tried to find Raspadori at the back post.
However, barely four minutes into the action, Mazzocchi was shown a straight red card for his ridiculous lunge on Valentin Lazaro. The referee initially gave him a yellow but changed it to red after the VAR showed the foot landed above the knee.
Moments later, with a man advantage, the hosts doubled their lead. Vlasic was given a lot of space on the edge of the area to take a touch, look up, and drill into the far bottom corner.
They almost made it three when Sanabria’s sliding shot at the back post thumped the upright. The ball came the way of Duvan Zapata, who was denied by a combination of Gollini’s reaction save and the woodwork.
They eventually got the third from the resulting corner. Alessandro Buongiorno comfortably out-jumped Juan Jesus to nod into the top corner.
Showing their frustration, the Napoli fans who had made the long journey to Turin threw flares and fireworks onto the pitch, causing play to be halted for a couple of minutes.
Despite creating few chances, the Partenopei couldn’t reduce the deficit.
Napoli fans, after the game, hurled abuse and even flares at the players, looking a world away from the side that dominated the title race last season under Luciano Spalletti.
As part of their post-match ritual, after the final whistle, the entire team went to the away end to receive the insults of the traveling thousands, who protested ‘we deserve more’ and ‘go to work.’
This made most of them bow their head, as Kvicha Kvaratskhelia and Gianluca Gaetano were the most visibly upset.
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