NAPOLI. Empoli conquers Napoli 1-0 after P. Cutrone scored just 1 goal (71′). Napoli lost this match even if it was better in terms of ball possession (60%).

The match was played at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona (Napoli) stadium in Napoli on Sunday and it started at 6:00 pm local time. The referee was Livio Marinelli with the collaboration of Alberto Tegoni and Alessandro Cipressa. The 4th official was Valerio Marini. The weather was clear. The temperature was cold at 8.1 degrees Celsius or 46.56 Fahrenheit. The humidity was 68%.​

Match Statistics​

Ball possession

Napoli had a superior ball possession 60% while Empoli was struggling with a 40% ball possession.

Attitude and shots

Napoli was more pushing with 85 dangerous attacks and 31 shots of which 7 were on target. Even so, Empoli succeeded in find the solution to win this encounter.​

Napoli shot 31 times, 7 on target, 24 off target. On the opposite side, Empoli shot 12 times, 4 on target, 8 off target.

Cards

Napoli didn’t receive any yellow card. On the opposite side, Empoli received 1 yellow card (S. Zurkowski).

Standings

After playing this match, Napoli will stay with 36 points to hold in the 4th place. Talking about the opposition, Empoli will have 26 points to hold in the 7th place.

Next matches

In the next match in the Serie A, Napoli will play away against Milan on the 19th of December with a 11-7 head to head in favor of Napoli (11 draws).

Empoli will play away agasint Spezia on the 19th of December with a 2-2 head to head record.

Napoli – Formation

Napoli started with a 4-2-3-1 line-up (4-2-3-1).

The manager Luciano Spalletti decided to play with the following team: David Ospina (7.3), Giovanni Di Lorenzo (7.4), Amir Rrahmani (7.3), Juan Jesus (6.8), Mário Rui (6.6), Diego Demme (7.4), Piotr Zieliński (6.2), Hirving Lozano (6.8), Adam Ounas (7.6), Eljif Elmas (7.2) and Dries Mertens (6.5).

The home team had on the bench: Andrea Petagna (6.8), Kévin Malcuit, Matteo Politano (6.9), André Zambo Anguissa (6.6), Konstantinos Manolas, Alex Meret, Lorenzo Insigne (7.7), Davide Marfella and Faouzi Ghoulam.

Napoli could not rely on the presence of L. Insigne (injured) and K. Malcuit (injured).

Substitutions

Napoli made 5 changes: P. Zielinski for L. Insigne (22′), D. Demme for A. Z. Anguissa (62′), D. Mertens for A. Petagna (63′), H. Lozano for M. Politano (63′) and E. Elmas for K. Malcuit (87′).

Best player: Lorenzo Insigne​

The most impressive player for Napoli was Lorenzo Insigne.

His rating is (7.7) with 40 passes (87% accurate) and 3 key passes. He was won 3 duels out of 7. He performed 5 crosses.

His performance was remarkable also because he started the match from the bench before entering the filed in the 22′.

Empoli – Formation

Empoli started with a 4-3-1-2 line-up (4-3-1-2).

Aurelio Andreazzoli played with: Guglielmo Vicario (8.2), Petar Stojanović (7.8), Ardian Ismajli (7.7), Sebastiano Luperto (7.6), Fabiano Parisi (7.3), Liam Henderson (6.8), Leo Štulac (7.0), Szymon Żurkowski (6.7), Nedim Bajrami (7.3), Andrea Pinamonti (6.6) and Patrick Cutrone (7.8).

These were the players on the bench: Simone Romagnoli, Lorenzo Tonelli, Andrea La Mantia, Riccardo Fiamozzi, Riccardo Marchizza, Mattia Viti (6.2), Leonardo Mancuso, Filippo Bandinelli (6.2), Samuele Ricci (6.8), Samir Ujkani, Nicolas Haas (6.5) and Federico Di Francesco (7.0).

Empoli could not rely on the presence of F. Bandinelli (injured).

Substitutions

Empoli made 5 changes: L. Henderson for N. Haas (63′), L. Stulac for S. Ricci (64′), N. Bajrami for F. Di Francesco (64′), S. Zurkowski for F. Bandinelli (79′) and S. Luperto for M. Viti (82′).

Best player: Guglielmo Vicario​

The player that probably impressed the most for Empoli was the goalkeeper: Guglielmo Vicario. His rating is 8.15. He performed 6 saves.

Results of the day

These are the results of the day in the Serie A.​

• Hellas Verona – Atalanta – 1-2
• Inter – Cagliari – 4-0
• Napoli – Empoli – 0-1
• Sassuolo – Lazio – 2-1
• Torino – Bologna – 2-1