Parma frustrate Napoli in goalless stalemate

Parma were able to hold Napoli to their third consecutive Serie A stalemate, as the tightest possible offside call denied another Scott McTominay goal against Parma.

Partenopei’s coach, Antonio Conte, is serving a touchline ban after his red card in the chaotic 2-2 draw with Inter, which kept the Scudetto race alive. 

The Week 16 fixture was rescheduled from December due to Napoli’s Supercoppa Italiana commitments.

Napoli was without Juan Jesus as well as he was also suspended, while  Alex Meret, Andre Frank Zambo Anguissa, Kevin De Bruyne, Billy Gilmour and Romelu Lukaku are all on the treatment table.

The hosts got a boost as David Neres returned to thebench.

Parma went into the game on the back of a 2-1 victory away to nine-man Lecce. They were without Pontus Almqvist, Vicente Guaita, Zion Suzuki, Abdoulaye Ndiaye, Mathias Lovik and Matija Frigan.

 Carlos Cuesta took a big gamble that worked, lining up a three-man defence and handing a Serie A debut to goalkeeper Filippo Rinaldi.

The Partenopei had the first chance and got the ball into the back of the net when Pasquale Mazzocchi, on his first Serie A start of the season, ran onto the Stanislav Lobotka ball floated over the top and pulled back from the by-line. Noa Lang prodded it onto the upright, and Scott McTominay eventually managed to bundle over the line after a mad scramble. However, the goal was ruled out because Mazzocchi was millimetres offside in the build-up.

Napoli press further for an opener as Alessandro Buongiorno’s bullet header from a Lang cross on a short corner forced a great save out of Rinaldi under the bar.

Parma had a rare counterattack through Jacob Ondrejka, resulting in a shot straight at Vanja Milinkovic-Savic.

 Rinaldi was again called to action when he got down to parry the Rasmus Hojlund chest and half-volley off the line.

Giovanni Di Lorenzo stopped  Patrick Cutrone’s ball across the face of the goal from the left from reaching Oliver Sorensen, who could have tapped in, while Hojlund steered a header wide from Di Lorenzo’s cross.

McTominay’s penalty appeals within moments of the restart were turned down, and replays showed the ball struck Alessandro Circati on the chest rather than the arm.

Circati crashed into his own goalkeeper on a long Milinkovic-Savic pass, but Hojlund was unable to take the advantage as he was in a favourable situation, hesitating and allowing Mandela Keita to clear. 

Moments later, Cutrone again threw himself in the way of a Lang volley on the corner.

Napoli introduced David Neres, who immediately nutmegged Cristian Ordonez to create a dangerous scoring opportunity, but McTominay’s finish was too close to Rinaldi from the edge of the box on an Eljif Elmas lay-off.

Napoli continued the search for a goal when Amir Rrahmani, on a strong run from deep, released a shot deflected over from a tricky angle, but Stanislav Lobotka’s strike was too central to trouble Rinaldi.

Delprato, with a decisive block, prevented Neres from tapping in the Spinazzola roll across.

An unfit Neres was replaced in the final minute.