The Partenopei, who still cannot count on the injured Romelu Lukaku and Kevin De Bruyne, faced a 0-1 deficit after fifteen minutes: Martin Frese (16.) deflected a hard cross with a nice backheel into the goal. A handful of minutes later, the VAR saw hands from Alessandro Buongiorno in the box: former AA Gent striker Gift Orban (28.) neatly converted the penalty. He celebrated it very special afterwards and received a yellow card.
After halftime, Scott McTominay (54.) headed the tying goal against the ropes on a corner. Twenty minutes later, Rasmus Hojlund’s equalizer was disallowed due to handball. The 2-2 came at the end via captain Giovanni Di Lorenzo (82.), who tapped a cross into the goal from close range.
Due to the division of points, the national champion fails to claim a provisional leadership position. Antonio Conte’s troops remain third, level with AC Milan (who have a better goal difference) and one point behind leaders Inter, who are in action at Parma later on Wednesday evening.
In Bologna, the match against Atalanta, with Charles De Ketelaere in the starting line-up, was locked up for a long time. Just past the half hour, Honest Ahanor headed a corner just over the crossbar. Moments later, De Ketelaere started a quick action on the flank and found Nikola Krstovic (37.) in the box, who deposited the opening goal into an empty goal. On the hour mark, Krstovic scored his second of the evening with a low slider. De Ketelaere was substituted in the 84th minute.
The three-pointer vaults Atalanta over Bologna to seventh place in the standings.
