Pre-season: Arezzo hands Napoli first pre-season defeat

Napoli suffered their first pre-season defeat on Tuesday against Arezzo.

Antonio Conte handed Kevin De Bruyne, Noa Lang, Lorenzo Lucca, and Sam Beukema their debuts.

Napoli will begin the defence of his Serie A title next month, and they failed their opening test for the summer at the Dimaro training camp.

Napoli had been without Scott McTominay and Matteo Politano due to slight muscular issues. Conte then adopted a 4-3-3 formation with De Bruyne, Lucca, Lang, and Luca Marianucci in the starting XI.

Although this is expected for a new set of midfielders that are playing together for the first time, they could all gel later and have a fantastic season as the Partonopei begin their Scudetto defence next month.

De Bruyne, who joined from Manchester City as a free agent, had a chance to blast his effort over from an Alessandro Zanoli assist.

There are promising signs of a good midfield as the Belgian combined a few times with Lang.

Arezzo were awarded a penalty when Lang brought down Emiliano Pattarello. The 25-year-old forward converted past Alex Meret to give Arezzo the lead.

As part of the pre-season rest and assessment of his squad, Conte made 10 changes in the second half, leaving only Andre Frank Zambo Anguissa and Beukema.

Napoli had a chance to restore parity when David Neres’ two different shots were parried on a Leonardo Spinazzola cross. The Brazilian later hit the woodwork from Romelu Lukaku’s assist.

Neres, through another opportunity, fired over with an acrobatic finish.

Arezzo then doubled their lead late on when Varela pounced on a misplaced Pasquale Mazzocchi header to score one-on-one.

According to reports, the injuries sustained by McTominay and Politano are only minor fatigue problems caused by Conte’s intensive pre-season training schedule, and no serious damage is expected.

The pair could return for the opening match.