Napoli lost to Bologna in Serie A© AFP
Napoli is struggling to find goals without Kevin De Bruyne. Antonio Conte’s side lost 2-0 at Bologna on Sunday as it failed to score for a third successive match despite its opponent playing with a teenage, third-choice goalkeeper. Napoli remained level with AC Milan at the top of Serie A but only a point above Inter Milan, Roma and Bologna. Inter played Lazio later Sunday, after Roma’s match at home to Udinese. De Bruyne was injured in a 3-1 win over Inter last month and will likely be out until the new year. Napoli managed a 1-0 win at Lecce in its first match without the former Manchester City midfielder but followed that up with goalless draws against Como and then Eintracht Frankfurt in the Champions League.
After Milan’s draw at Parma the previous day, Napoli knew it could move clear at the top of Serie A with a win on Sunday.
And its chances appeared to grow when Bologna goalkeeper Łukasz Skorupski had to go off in the eighth minute with a muscle injury and the 17-year-old Massimo Pessina was handed his senior debut.
However, Napoli never really tested the ‘keeper and Bologna broke the deadlock five minutes into the second half despite losing another player — Jonathan Rowe — to injury.
His replacement, Nicolò Cambiaghi, set up the opener as he got down the left and then rolled the ball across for Thijs Dallinga to slot in at the near post.
Bologna doubled its lead in the 66th minute with Colombia defender Jhon Lucumí heading in a cross for his first Serie A goal.
New Genoa coach Daniele De Rossi and his Fiorentina counterpart Paolo Vanoli debuted with an entertaining 2-2 draw, that also saw a penalty save by David De Gea.
Fiorentina remained bottom of the table, two points below Genoa and three from safety.
Atalanta was pushed further into crisis with a 3-0 defeat at home to Sassuolo.
It was a seventh league match without a win for Atalanta, which beat Marseille in the Champions League midweek.
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