Serie A | Torino 1-0 Napoli: Simeone sinks his old squad

A Napoli side decimated by injuries suffered their second Serie A defeat of the season, as Giovanni Simeone was decisive for Torino, along with VAR late on.

The Partenopei were missing Scott McTominay, Rasmus Hojlund, Stanislav Lobotka, Amir Rrahmani, Romelu Lukaku and Nikita Contini, with Matteo Politano and Alessandro Buongiorno not fully fit either, so Billy Gilmour, Juan Jesus, Lorenzo Lucca and David Neres stepped in. Toro had to do without Zakaria Aboukhlal, Tino Anjorin, Ivan Ilic, Zanos Savva and Perr Schuurs, while Ardian Ismajli was only ready for the bench. Giovanni Simeone and Vanja Milinkovic-Savic faced their former clubs.

See how it all unfolded on the Liveblog.

Nikola Vlasic was so unlucky not to give Torino the early lead on 15 minutes, as his angled drive beat former teammate Vanja Milinkovic-Savic only to bounce off the inside of the far post.

Kevin De Bruyne’s free kick tested Franco Israel, then the ex-Manchester City man’s curler was deflected inches wide after a Marcus Pedersen error, while Matias Olivera failed to get the decisive flick on an assist from six yards.

Torino broke the deadlock when Gilmour’s error allowed Simeone to spring the offside trap, but he had more to do when sending Giovanni Di Lorenzo and Milinkovic-Savic to ground, turning in from a tight angle. The former Napoli man waved an apology to his old fans, recently confessing he cried for hours after leaving the club.

It was almost 2-0 moments later, as Marcus Pedersen fired over after a Simeone pass bounced awkwardly, while Sam Beukema blasted not far off target.

Che Adams saw his effort deflected onto the side-netting by Juan Jesus and Israel smothered the Leonardo Spinazzola strike, while Andre Frank Zambo Anguissa’s header was fingertipped over from a Spinazzola cross.

De Bruyne couldn’t keep his volley down on the Noa Lang pull-back and Milinkovic-Savic was right behind the Adams effort, as Napoli started to put together a string of corners.

They pinned Toro back into their own half, but Saul Coco cleared a Spinazzola cross practically off the line, then Eljif Elmas ballooned over the bar first-time on yet another Spinazzola cross.

Duvan Zapata only grazed his head to a Cristiano Biraghi free kick and Spinazzola stung Israel’s gloves in stoppages.

Napoli had wild celebrations in stoppages when Matteo Politano’s curler bounced off the base of the far post, hit Israel in the back, and Noa Lang turned in the rebound from a couple of yards. However, Lang was offside when Politano took the initial shot, so the goal was disallowed.