Napoli were held 2-2 by Wolfsburg at the Stadio San Paolo on Thursday evening in their Europa League quarter-final second leg to progress to the semi-finals stage 6-3 on aggregate.
Timm Klose and Ivan Perisic cancelled out second-half strikes by Jose Callejon and Dries Mertens as the Partenopei surrendered a two-goal lead in the space of two minutes.
Of all the sides that started in the group stage, the Partenopei went into the game having conceded the fewest goals in their 11 games with just five.
This amounts to one goal every 198 minutes, but Napoli nearly went behind on the night inside the opening minute as Mariano Andujar was forced into a diving save from a Perisic flick that bounced high into the ground.
The Lower Saxony side dominated possession and territory inside the opening 20 minutes with Daniel Caligiuri and Christian Trasch causing problems down the right side, although they were unable to further test the Argentine goalkeeper.
Napoli were content to defend deep and protect their 4-1 lead from the first leg, although they allowed crosses from wide areas with Perisic finding Josuha Guilavogui after the midfielder a well-timed run from towards the back post.
Raul Albiol comfortably cleared his side-footed shot back across goal before Nicklas Bendtner beat the experienced defending making his 70th appearance in European club competition to a header that went wide.
The Dane has the best goal scoring average of any player left in the Europa League this season with a goal scored every 57 minutes, and he nearly improved his record with a left-footed shot across goal that pushed was away by Andujar.
Napoli have had the most shots on target in this season’s competition with 84, but could only manage one attempt in the first-half as a near-post Gonzalo Higuain volley went just beyond the side netting after a deflected Faouzi Ghoulam cross.
No player had attempted more shots for Napoli than Mertens, and the Belgian international began the opening minutes of the second half brightly cutting inside Trasch and curling a right-footed shot that went just beyond the back post.
Callejon almost got on the end of this shot with a close-range header, although the Spaniard would score his first European goal since December 11, 2013 on 50 minutes from a well-worked counter-attack.
Higuain switched play from the left side to find the run of Callejon behind Ricardo Rodriguez and his shot from the edge of the box took a cruel deflection of the Swiss left back to bounce over Diego Benaglio.
Lorenzo Insigne replaced captain Marek Hamsik after 60 minutes and was instrumental for Napoli’s second goal and much-improved performance after the break.
The impressive Neapolitan crossed from the left side for Higuain at the far post and the Argentine cut the ball back for Mertens, who scored on the rebound after Benaglio saved his first attempt.
Wolfsburg responded with Klose scoring from a header on 71 minutes after a Maximilian Arnold corner from the right side, while Perisic equalised on the night just two minutes later.
The Croatia international bravely dived ahead of Giandomenico Mesto at the far post after a run and cross from the right from Guilavogui and required treatment for a blow to the head after the goal.
