Matteo Politano canceled out Alvaro Morata's early goal before Kalidou Koulibaly score a 85th minute winner to earn three points for Napoli.
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Napoli beat Juventus 2-1 on Saturday to continue their unbeaten run in Serie A courtesy of Kalidou Koulibaly’s late winner. Meanwhile Juventus’ misery continues, as they are winless after three games. Juventus struck the first goal of the match at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona after Alvaro Morata capitalised on a defensive error. Matteo Politano then leveled the score after the break. Five minutes from time, Koulibaly nodded in from close range to seal the three points for the home side. It is only the second time in 52 years that Juve begin their Serie A campaign with three losses.
Massimiliano Allegri’s side were without many of their key players because of late returns from international break and injuries. However, in the 10th minute, Napoli defender Kostas Manolas’ careless back pass was stolen by Morata and the Spanish striker curled in a fine finish.
After the goal Napoli had the majority of ball possession but struggled to convert into goals.
Napoli goalkeeper David Ospina reacted quickly to deny Juve the second goal after Lorenzo Insige’s poor back-pass-header nearly fell to Juve forward Dejan Kulusevski inside the box.
Three minutes from the hour-mark, Juve goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny didn’t do enough to control a curler from Insigne and Politano squeezed the ball in.
Shortly after Politano’s equalizer, at the other end, Weston McKennie nearly scored with a long, low shot that went just wide.
Luciano Spalletti’s side kept pushing for the winner and were rewarded with five minutes remaining. Szczesny did well to prevent an own goal from Juve substitute Moise Kean’s headed back-pass from a corner. But that left Koulibaly with a simple tap-in.
“I saw all the fans celebrating and wanted to take a picture as it was so beautiful,” said Koulibaly to DAZN.
“The win is for them as we were without them for a year and when we see them like that we’re all happy.”
Napoli are now unbeaten under new boss Spalletti. They are also three points clear of Lazio, Inter Milan, Roma and AC Milan in the Serie A table.
“I’ve got to thank Spalletti for making the team solid,” Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis said of the former Roma, Zenit St. Petersburg and Inter coach. “I chose Spalletti because he’s diligent, orderly and handles things firmly, just the way I like it. You can talk to him and he doesn’t get offended if you ask for an explanation, because he isn’t haunted by his ego.”
After the win, Napoli are top of the points table with a maximum nine points from three games. Juve are struggling at 16th spot with just one point.
“That’s the way things are going right now. I couldn’t have asked more from the players tonight,” insisted Allegri, whose team travel to Malmo in the Champions League on Tuesday.
“We put in a worse performance against Empoli but today unfortunately we paid the price for errors,” Allegri said. “In soccer, when you don’t win, you can only shut up and work hard.
In the other match of the day, Fiorentina earned a hard fought 2-1 victory at Atalanta. The Lillies are also unbeaten after three games and have accumulated six points.
Dusan Vlahovic scored from the penalty spot in each half. Although Duvan Zapata pulled one back with a spot-kick of his own on 65th minute it wasn’t enough. Vincenzo Italiano’s side managed to escape with three points and a second consecutive win.
