Sassuolo and Napoli share points in Mapei thriller

Sassuolo and Napoli played out a chaotic 3-3 draw at the Mapei Stadium on Wednesday evening.

Both sides converted penalties, with Ciccio Caputo levelling for the Neroverdi with the game’s final kick, and both sides lost leads during the night.

Lorenzo Insigne looked to have opened the scoring with a fine strike early on, but VAR intervened and the Napoli captain was seen to have been in an offside position.

Then, Sassuolo broke the deadlock 30 minutes into the first half with an own goal from Nikola Maksimovic, a deflection on Domenico’s Berardi freekick. That strike was cancelled out three minutes later by Piotr Zielinski.

The Pole controlled the ball just outside the box with his right foot and then with his left foot he fired an unstoppable shot to the far post for his sixth goal of the season.

The last of the events before the break saw Elseid Hysaj commit a foul on Francesco Caputo inside the penalty area, and Domenico Berardi converted the subsequent spot-kick.

The goals and chances didn’t stop flowing in the second half.

In the space of three minutes, Sassuolo hit the crossbar with Domenico Berardi and then hit the post with Caputo.

At the other end, Lorenzo Insigne found Giovanni Di Lorenzo inside the six-yard box with a perfect cross that Andrea Consigli couldn’t intercept, leaving the goal open for an easy tap-in.

A draw seemed the perfect result for this game but Lukas Haraslin’s foul on Di Lorenzo with two minutes to go gave Napoli the chance to grab the three points. A chance Lorenzo Insigne didn’t waste, beating Consigli from the penalty spot.

But with the very last chance of the game, the Neroverdi were handed a penalty for a Kostas Manolas foul on Haraslin. Caputo stepped up and, expectedly, converted to tie things up at 3-3 to prompt the final whistle.