Serie A | Monza 1-4 Napoli: Hojlund breaks drought, but Lobotka scare

Napoli ended the positive Monza run of home results with a 4-1 victory and Rasmus Hojlund broke his goal drought, but Stanislav Lobotka was stretchered off with a potentially serious injury.

The Partenopei were feeling the heat after a shock defeat to Venezia and fiery 3-3 draw with Napoli, which saw Max Allegri sent off for dissent, picking up a two-game touchline ban. Assistant Marco Landucci was therefore on the bench, missing injured Benoit Badiashile, Leonardo Spinazzola, David Neres, Alisson Santos, Costantino Favasuli and Alessandro Buongiorno. Amir Rrahmani returned after missing the Roma thriller with flu symptoms, but otherwise there was no squad rotation.

Monza made the most of home advantage this term, winning their last two fixtures here against Sassuolo and Cagliari. Jan Ziolkowski, Matteo Pessina, Yvan Maye and Michael Folorunsho were injured, but Gustavo Varela was on stunning form with nine goals in eight competitive games this season. Exequiel Zeballos nearly joined Napoli this summer from Boca Juniors, but instead was on the Monza bench.

It took just 63 seconds for the first shot on target, as Samuele Birindelli surged forward and stung the gloves of Vanja Milinkovic-Savic.

However, Napoli opened the scoring with Hojlund ending his eight-match goal drought in all competition. Giovanni Di Lorenzo pounced on the ball after a tackle in midfield and immediately placed the through ball to release Hojlund.

There was bad news for the Partenopei, as Ricardo Mangas fell onto Stanislav Lobotka and turned the midfielder’s ankle in a very unfortunate way. Lobotka had to be stretchered off in agony, replaced by Billy Gilmour and taken to the local hospital for X-Rays.

Matteo Politano failed to make the most of a Birindelli error, as he was blocked off by Lucchesi, then at the other end Foe Ondoa’s scorcher flashed just wide.

Hojlund and Matias Olivera couldn’t get the Politano cross on target, but Milinkovic-Savic twice had to be on his toes with Gustavo Varela ready to pounce.

Milinkovic-Savic also flew to fingertip a Varela curler past the far post after Di Lorenzo gave it away, but Monza did equalise before half-time when Jay Robinson stood up a cross from the left for the Varela glancing header from five yards.

Straight after the restart, Varela curled not far over the bar, but Napoli restored their advantage moments later. The Mangas pass out of defence was intercepted by Politano, who cut inside to bend the finish through the legs of Lucchesi into the far bottom corner.

Milinkovic-Savic had to get down remarkably quickly for the great one-handed reaction save at the near post on a Foe Ondoa daisy-cutter from the edge of the area.

Noel Tornqvist also made a great save, rushing off his line and using his body to deny Hojlund, who had turned his marker brilliantly on the Noa Lang assist.

However, Napoli scored on the resulting Politano corner with a Rafa Marin header, confirming Monza’s poor record on defending from set plays.

There was a fourth soon after, as Lang’s intelligent disguised slide-rule pass sent substitute Kevin De Bruyne running down the left to beat the on-rushing goalkeeper one-on-one.

Scott McTominay drilled wide from distance and then stung Tornqvist’s gloves, while Zeballos tested Milinkovic-Savic at the near post.

Monza 1-4 Napoli

Hojlund 10 (N), Varela 43 (M), Politano 48 (N), Rafa Marin 62 (N), De Bruyne 67 (N)

28-10-2026 19:45

MatchDay 9

Player statistic

1st half

2nd half

Match statistic

35 Possession % 65

12 Total shots 16

5 Shots on target 7

4 Shots off target 5

3 Blocked shots 4

2 Corners 2

1 Offsides 4

14 Fouls 6

Monza

Napoli

Starting lineups

Noel Törnqvist Goalkeeper

24 Adam Bakoune Defender

3 Lorenzo Lucchesi Defender 74'

7 Ricardo Mangas Defender

Saba Goglichidze Defender 46'

19 Samuele Birindelli Defender

8 Foe Ondoa Midfielder 60'

21 Leonardo Colombo Midfielder

Cyril Ngonge Attacker 60'

9 Gustavo Varela Attacker

46 Jay Robinson Attacker 69'

32 Vanja Milinković-Savić Goalkeeper

13 Amir Rrahmani Defender 46'

22 Giovanni Di Lorenzo Defender

17 Mathías Olivera Defender

16 Rafa Marín Defender

99 Frank Anguissa Midfielder 63'

8 Scott McTominay Midfielder

68 Stanislav Lobotka Midfielder 17'

21 Matteo Politano Attacker 63'

70 Noa Lang Attacker

19 Rasmus Højlund Attacker 81'

Substitutes

10 Patrick Cutrone Attacker

20 Demba Thiam Goalkeeper

47 Dany Mota Attacker

26 Patrick Ciurria Attacker

Idrissa Touré Midfielder

11 Omari Forson Attacker

60 Eddy Kouadio Defender

43 Aljaz Strajnar Goalkeeper

80 Mathis Mout Attacker

44 Andrea Carboni Defender 46'

28 Andrea Colpani Midfielder 60'

14 Ebenezer Akinsanmiro Midfielder 60'

Exequiel Zeballos Attacker 69'

6 Valentin Antov Defender 74'

1 Alex Meret Goalkeeper

14 Nikita Contini Goalkeeper

31 Sam Beukema Defender

23 Giovane Attacker

6 Billy Gilmour Midfielder 17'

35 Luca Marianucci Defender 46'

26 Antonio Vergara Midfielder 63'

11 Kevin De Bruyne Midfielder 63'

20 Lorenzo Lucca Attacker 81'