Juventus 2-0 Napoli: two substitutes settle it after Marianucci's late red card
Kerim Alajbegovic and Jérémie Boga scored in the last twenty minutes, both teed up by players who had only just come off the bench, as Juventus beat a ten-man Napoli 2-0 at the Allianz Stadium.
Juventus needed until the 70th minute to break Napoli down, but once they did, the game unravelled fast. Kerim Alajbegovic struck first, Jérémie Boga added a second seventeen minutes later, and Luca Marianucci's dismissal in between left Napoli chasing the game with ten men against a Juventus side that had barely had a sight of goal in the first hour.
For long spells this had the shape of a stalemate. Napoli actually shaded possession, 51.3% to 48.7%, and completed more passes than the home side despite playing almost twenty minutes with a man down. But territory and possession counted for little once the game turned: Napoli managed only one shot on target all afternoon, against Juventus's four, and never looked close to an equaliser after Marianucci's sending-off.
The turning point: a yellow, then a red, eleven minutes apart
Marianucci had already been booked in the 38th minute. He was sent off in the 75th, four minutes after Juventus had taken the lead, turning a tight contest into an uneven one. Napoli's Rafa Marín picked up a late yellow of his own in stoppage time, closing out a disciplinary count that ran firmly against the visitors.
Two substitutions did the damage
Both goals came from players introduced off the bench, even if only one of them actually scored. Edon Zhegrova had been on the pitch for seven minutes when he set up Alajbegovic for the opener on 70 minutes. Andrea Cambiaso had an even shorter cameo before he picked out Boga, another substitute, for the second on 87. Luciano Spalletti's changes did not just hold a lead — they created the goals that built it.
Alajbegovic's breakthrough
Alajbegovic is 19 and arrived from Bayer Leverkusen in the close season, having broken through with Bosnia and Herzegovina at this year's World Cup. He has said he grew up idolising Miralem Pjanic, another Bosnian who wore the Juventus shirt before him. For a player still finding his footing in Turin, scoring the goal that beat Napoli is as good a moment as any to point to.
Form coming in
Juventus arrived on the back of two defeats in their previous three — a 3-0 loss at Lazio and, most recently, a 2-0 defeat at Genoa — either side of a 2-0 win over Lecce. Napoli's build-up had been busier: a Champions League defeat at Villarreal and a league loss at Venezia, before back-to-back results that steadied the ship, a 3-3 draw with Roma and a 4-1 win over Monza in which Kevin De Bruyne scored off the bench. There was no such late intervention for Napoli this time; De Bruyne started but could not force an opening before his side went down to ten men.
What's next
Juventus had gone into the match 9th on 14 points from nine games; the win takes them to 17 points from ten. Napoli had gone in 7th, also on 14 points from nine games, and stay on 14 after the defeat — their focus now turns back to the Champions League league phase, where they sit well down the standings after a win over Bodø/Glimt and defeats to Arsenal and Villarreal.
| Stat | Juventus | Napoli |
|---|---|---|
| Possession | 48.7% | 51.3% |
| Shots on target | 4 | 1 |
| Passes completed | 372/442 (84.2%) | 420/483 (87.0%) |
| Corners | 13 | 4 |
| Fouls conceded | 9 | 12 |
| Offsides | 3 | 1 |
| Yellow cards | 3 | 1 |
| Red cards | 0 | 1 |
Match facts
- 38' — Luca Marianucci (Napoli) booked
- 70' — Kerim Alajbegovic (Juventus), assisted by Edon Zhegrova
- 75' — Luca Marianucci (Napoli) sent off
- 87' — Jérémie Boga (Juventus), assisted by Andrea Cambiaso
- 90'+1 — Rafa Marín (Napoli) booked
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