Serie A: Naples relapses at home, Roma and Mourinho reassure themselves

Naples (re)fell from high with a home defeat (3-1) against Fiorentina during the 8th day of the Italian Championship on Sunday which allowed AS Roma and its coach Jose Mourinho to reassure themselves at the expense of Cagliari (4-1).

Napoli stopped at two victories in a row: winners of Udinese (4-1) and Lecce (4-0) during the two previous days, Rudi Garcia's players gave their supporters a frustrating week . Tuesday at the Diego Armando Maradona stadium, they upset Real Madrid in the Champions League before losing 3-2. Rebelote on Sunday where they alternated good and bad against Fiorentina, before conceding their second defeat of the season in the league.

It only took Fiorentina seven minutes to find the fault: Lucas Martinez Quarta propelled the ball with his head onto the left post of Alex Meret, helpless against Josip Brekalo's recovery. Naples equalized in added time on a penalty converted by Victor Osimhen (45th 5th) who remained on a failure in the exercise against Bologna (0-0). The Neapolitans thought they would double the lead when Osimhen found himself alone in front of the Viola goalkeeper (58th), but Pietro Terracciano won his duel against the Nigerian striker.

It was finally Fiorentina, led by the omnipresent Jonathan Ikoné, who took the advantage through Giacomo Bonaventura (63rd) and drove home the point in added time through Nicolas Gonzalez (90th 3rd).

Naples, which returned to the locker room under the whistles of its audience, fell from 3rd to 5th place in the Calcio standings (14 pts), seven points behind the leader, AC Milan, and three lengths behind its opponent of the day (4th, 17 pts) who has won four of his last five matches.

In Sardinia, Houssem Aouar (19th) and Romelu Lukaku (20th) knocked out Cagliari in two minutes. In the second half, Andrea Belotti (51st) and again Lukaku (59th) completely demoralized a team which saved the honor from the penalty spot (87th, 4-1). Jose Mourinho played big during this match: according to the Italian press, his leaders approached Igor Tudor, without a position since his departure from Marseille, and would have taken the plunge during the international break in the event of a setback. After this second consecutive victory, a first this season in the championship, the Romans are now 10th with 11 points.

But they experienced a big setback when Paulo Dybala injured his knee. “We are in the process of finding solidity and consistency, it is a shame for us that there is a truce (...) I am calm on my side, I do not listen to the rumors,” said assured Mourinho, on the DAZN platform.

His counterpart at Cagliari, Claudio Ranieri, dean of Serie A coaches, could pay the price for this sixth defeat in eight matches for a meager record of two points. Another coach in the hot seat, that of Salernitana, Paulo Sousa, notably passed by Bordeaux, whose team is 19th (3 pts) after its defeat at Monza (3-0).