Napoli enjoyed a strong start and didn’t waste time to set the tone of the contest. The pace of their forwards, mostly Hirving Lozano and Dries Mertens, created lots of problems for the opposing defence. The Belgium international was Napoli’s most dangerous player by a wide margin and had at least two clear scoring opportunities midway through the first half.
However, things changed out of nowhere when Spezia opened the scoring late in the first half thanks to an own goal from Juan Jesus. A cross into the box was nodded in by the Brazilian defender, but his header went into an impossible angle for David Ospina to reach. Despite Napoli’s clear attacking intentions and positive approach, the opening 45 minutes ended with a one-goal lead for Spezia — even if they didn’t do enough to deserve that advantage.
Napoli didn’t slow things down to start the second half and Lozano thought he had equalised for the Partenopei squad, but the goal was ruled out due to a previous offside of Matteo Politano. The Mexico international had a golden scoring chance in the 62nd minute following a defensive mistake, but he was denied following a goal-line clearance from Martin Erlić. The hosts attempted in various ways to penetrate Spezia’s defensive line, but their approaches were all unsuccessful.
Despite never slowing things down and creating chances until the dying moments of the game, Napoli had to settle with another loss at home against Spezia — something that had already happened during the 2020-21 season in this same venue. With the loss, Napoli fall to third place in the Serie A standings and their title chances are beginning to evaporate following a blistering start to the season. Meanwhile, Spezia remained in 17th place but created separation from the relegation zone.
