Nightmare debut for Conte as Verona demolish Napoli

Antonio Conte began his stint with Napoli as the Partenopei suffered a devastating 3-0 loss against Hellas Verona. 

Conte’s men looked toothless and lacking in ideas. The result was shocking, but they deserved to lose as Dailon Rocha Livramento and Daniel Mosquera made dream Serie A debuts. Both teams went into the tie on the back of stuttering form in the Coppa Italia. 

The Partenopei progressed via penalties to get past Modena, while Hellas suffered a 2-1 loss to Cesena. Victor Osimhen, Michael Folorunsho, and Mario Rui were left with transfer rumors surrounding their future, while Alessandro Buongiorno was ruled out with a sprained ankle, and Alessio Zerbin was suspended.

Having been without Juan Manuel Cruz and Tomas Suslov, who were not at 100 percent, Verona lost Serdar after just 20 minutes to an injury. The first chance came the way of Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa in the 3rd minute when he nodded over from a Giovanni Di Lorenzo cross.

The visitors got another chance through Stanislav Lobotka, but the finish was inches over the bar from the edge of the box on a Matteo Politano pullback. 

Napoli couldn’t make use of another opportunity despite Verona conceding a terrible back pass that sent Kvaratskhelia clear on goal. The winger had his eyes only on the goalkeeper, not realizing that Jackson Tchatchoua was flying across to make a result-saving block. 

The Georgian felt dizzy and asked to come off, having received a knock to the back of the head from Pawel Dawidowicz later in the game.

Kastanos was close to opening the goal account after the restart, like when his fierce left-foot curler bent just wide from the edge of the area.

Verona eventually opened the scoring with a well-worked counterattack. Darko Lazovic got down the left and rolled across for Rocha Livramento to just flick it past Alex Meret with his toes, after beating Juan Jesus.

Anguished had another opportunity to level the tie, but his first-time swerving strike from the edge of the area thumped the frame of the goal.

A few minutes after Di Lorenzo’s cross-shot was palmed around the near post,  Verona doubled their lead. Suslov won a midfield battle, and Ondrej Duda swept the first-time pass through the middle for substitute Daniel Mosquera, who kept his cool on his Serie A debut to beat Meret.

Meret stopped the hosts from going three goals up when he flew to palm away the Mosquera volley after Tchatchoua blazed past Pasquale Mazzocchi.

Former Verona player Cyril Ngonge tested Lorenzo Monti, which was their last real chance of the game. 

I Hellas later rounded out the tie for 3-0 in stoppages when Harroui got away from Matias Olivera and pulled back, the scuffed Lazovic finish turning into an accidental assist for Mosquera.