He waited since October 29 for a Serie A goal but Dries Mertens followed last week’s decisive strike in Bergamo with two equally important efforts as Napoli came from behind to see off a tricky Bologna on Sunday afternoon.
It was far from comfortable for the hosts, however, and the Rossoblu did in fact lead within 60 seconds before being pegged back immediately and Mertens then took control.
The Stadio San Paolo fell into silence with less than a minute played when Rodrigo Palacio put the Emilia-Romagna side ahead. Federico Di Francesco broke and delivered a cross that found the Argentine who headed home.
Napoli, determined to reclaim top spot, recovered and hit back immediately, but not before the man who all eyes were on – Simone Verdi – was forced off with an injury before five minutes.
The equaliser did then come through the misfortune of Ibrahima Mbaye. A cross from the left was diverted off Palacio and looped up over Antonio Mirante, where it was met by Mbaye who was thrown by a slight touch on the crossbar and could not react quickly enough to clear the ball away.
Mertens had a half-chance on the half hour mark to bring Mirante into action for the first time. A low cross from Lorenzo Insigne was slightly behind the Belgian who improvised well to divert on goal, only for the ‘keeper to react and save the effort.
VAR was called into action as Napoli were awarded a penalty for a slight touch on Jose Callejon’s shoulder and despite Adam Masina and Bologna’s protestations, the Bologna defender was booked and Mertens emphatically converted the subsequent spot-kick.
Napoli looked to find their usual rhythm after taking the lead and into the second half, but their visitors refused to make it easy for them. Marek Hamsik had an effort ten minutes after the restart but it never looked too troubling for Mirante.
It was three before the clock hit 60 minutes as Mertens confirmed his drought was no more than a memory by bagging his third goal in two games. Allan broke up a Bologna attack and Napoli countered quickly. The Belgian eventually got the ball to the left of the Rossoblu’s box, from where he cut in onto his right foot and curled, with power, into the far top corner and leaving Mirante with no hope of stopping the strike.
Allan himself had an effort that he should have done better with. Substitute Piotr Zielinski did well to hold the ball and cut it back to the Brazilian on the edge of the box, who could only fire wayward when hitting the target would have been a minimum expectation.
The game’s final minutes were relatively uneventful, though Bologna did have a chance to make things interesting on 88 minutes, but Masina’s strike in a crowded area was saved by Pepe Reina and turned behind by Vlad Chiriches.
MATCH STATS
- Napoli have gained the most points (18) from trailing situation in the current Serie A (six wins in the seven games they been trailing).
- Napoli fired only 9 shots today, less than in any other match for the Azzurri in the current league.
- Napoli have conceded goal in the first minute of play in Serie A since Hallfredsson (Napoli-Verona) in October 2014.
- Napoli have taken six penalties in the current Serie A, less only than Lazio, Udinese and Sassuolo (7 each one).
- Bologna have conceded goals in all their last 7 Serie A games away from home.
- Mertens have scored 4 goals from he 4 penalties he taken in this Serie A.
- Mertens has scored nine goals against Bologna in Serie A (all in the last four games against rossoblu), his favourite target in the top italian league.
- Palacio has scored his 3 Serie A 17/18 goals away from home: he scored 2 goals in his last 3 league games at San Paolo against Napoli.
