Raul Albiol emerged as an unlikely hero for Napoli as they struggled to see off Genoa with a narrow and hard-fought 1-0 win at the Stadio San Paolo on Sunday evening as the defender scored his first goal in over two years.
The win puts the Partenopei back to within touching distance of leaders Juventus after the Bianconceri slipped up away to SPAL on Saturday, reducing the gap to just two points.
If Napoli could have chosen any player for their first chance to fall to it would have been Dries Mertens, and the Belgian found himself in the clear on 15 minutes as Jorginho picked him out with a through ball. To the left of goal, the odds were stacked in his favour as he had the option of shooting or squaring to Jose Callejon for a simple tap-in. Mertens opened up his body and shot, but his effort went wide of the far post.
Napoli were uncharacteristically lacking in creativity and cutting edge for the majority of the first half. Lorenzo Insigne found himself on the right side of the Genoa defence only to be pulled up for being offside, before Allan dribbled into a crowded space as their frustration continued.
Genoa then had a huge chance after half an hour was played from a corner. Nicolas Spolli climbed highest on the six-yard line but his header went narrowly wide of the post with Pepe Reina rooted to the spot and the Stadio San Paolo fell into silence as the ball rolled along the back of the net from behind.
The Partenopei showed the first signs of their usual selves five minutes before the break. A patiently built attack seemed to break down before the ball found its way to Mertens. The Belgian got into the box and picked out Allan, who fired over the bar when he should have done better, before turning to the referee and claiming a penalty.
Insigne, with his head, came closest right on half time as he got to the near post and flicked on a Callejon corner, which then looped over everybody and off the back post.
The woodwork was struck again just five minutes after the restart, this time through Mertens. Piotr Zielinski handed off to the Belgian on the edge of the box who then turned and looked to place a curling effort into the bottom corner only to be thwarted by the post, then watching his effort bounce across goal.
An unlikely hero emerged for Napoli in the game’s final 20 minutes. Callejon again delivered a corner to the near post and Raul Albiol got their first and flicked the ball on and into the far corner, giving Perin no chance.
GOOOOOAAAALLLL!!! GOAL GOAL!!! And it’s the defender Raul #Albiol who gets on the scoresheet, one of those games where the attackers just can’t get this in. 1-0 | 72′ #NapoliGenoapic.twitter.com/N4mwkbAFTE
— SerieAchannel (@SerieAchannel) March 18, 2018
Genoa could’ve drawn level immediately as Adel Taarabt found Aleandro Rosi but he headed straight at Reina from close range.
A long pass from Kalidou Koulibaly set Insigne loose on the left in the final ten minutes. The Napoli native centred for Arkadiusz Milik or Callejon, but both got in one another’s way and the ball rolled out on the far side.
Milik then had a chance to kill the game off. A Genoa clearance was turned forward by Insigne, sending the Pole through. Oddly, he looked to lay it off to Insigne when one-on-one with Perin, with the Italian then dinking over the goalkeeper, only for Davide Biraschi to have the time to make it back and clear off the line.
