Serie A | Venezia 1-0 Napoli: Ideal Nicola debut, but De Bruyne drama

Venezia caused a huge upset beating Napoli on coach Davide Nicola’s debut with an Akor Adams goal and series of Filip Stankovic saves, including on a Kevin De Bruyne penalty.

The Lagunari made their debut under new coach Nicola, having fired Giovanni Stroppa after losing all seven games this season between Serie A and the Coppa Italia. Gianluca Busio, Armel Bella-Kotchap, Marin Sverko, Bartol Franjic, Thierry Correia and Andrea Adorante missed out, but Juan Jesus and Pasquale Mazzocchi faced their former club.

The Partenopei were feeling the strain after a 3-1 Champions League defeat away to Villarreal, so Kevin De Bruyne and Rasmus Hojlund were rested, with David Neres, Antonio Vergara, Costantino Favasuli and Alessandro Buongiorno injured, plus Alisson Santos, Matias Olivera and Frank Zambo Anguissa only fit for the bench.

Akor Adams pounced on a Benoit Badiashile error to test Alex Meret at the near post, while Giovane blasted just wide from distance, but Ridgeciano Haps threw himself in the way of an Amir Rrahmani strike from 12 yards on a corner.

Lorenzo Lucca getting a rare start failed to connect with the Giovane roll across from the left, then Matias Moreno charged down a Sam Beukema half-volley with his face.

After the restart, Beukema flashed a dangerous ball across the face of goal that Giovane couldn’t get on the end of, but moments later it was Venezia who broke the deadlock.

A long Simon Sohm ball over the top saw Adams use his strength to shrug Rrahmani off, then cut inside and saw his finish deflected off the Napoli defender to wrong-foot Meret.

Max Allegri threw on the big guns and John Yeboah fired over, but Juan Jesus neutralised his former teammate Rasmus Hojlund with an astonishing goal-saving block practically on the line as they slid in to meet the Alisson Santos roll across from the left.

Matias Moreno went in on a clumsy tackle to bring down Hojlund for a penalty, but when De Bruyne stepped up this time without an argument from his teammates, the weak effort was smothered on the line by Filip Stankovic.

Napoli were totally unbalanced and risked going 2-0 down when Albion Rrahmani ran onto a long ball, but Alisson Santos sprinted back to slow him down, allowing Meret to stick out a boot for the save.

Stankovic flew to palm a Stanislav Lobotka curler out of the far top corner, then McTominay accidentally got in the way of an Alisson Santos volley from eight yards.

Another Stankovic save was decisive, getting down to palm the Alisson Santos daisy-cutter round the base of the near post.

Venezia 1-0 Napoli

Adams 49 (V)

Saved penalty: De Bruyne 68 (N)

17-10-2026 14:00

MatchDay 7

Live 1 - 0

Player statistic

2nd half

Venezia

Napoli

Starting lineups

1 Filip Stankovic Goalkeeper

Juan Jesus Defender

2 Matías Moreno Defender 72'

25 Redouane Halhal Defender

5 Ridgeciano Haps Defender 71'

18 Antoine Hainaut Midfielder

10 John Yeboah Midfielder 63'

71 Kike Pérez Midfielder

19 Simon Sohm Midfielder 82'

26 Toma Basic Midfielder 71'

45 Akor Adams Attacker

1 Alex Meret Goalkeeper

13 Amir Rrahmani Defender

5 Benoît Badiashile Defender

22 Giovanni Di Lorenzo Defender

37 Leonardo Spinazzola Defender 82'

31 Sam Beukema Defender 64'

6 Billy Gilmour Midfielder 54'

8 Scott McTominay Midfielder

68 Stanislav Lobotka Midfielder

23 Giovane Attacker 54'

20 Lorenzo Lucca Attacker 54'

Substitutes

55 Simone Panada Midfielder

96 Lorenzo Montipò Goalkeeper

30 Matteo Dagasso Midfielder

20 Richie Sagrado Defender

77 Toni Fernández Attacker

36 Lorenzo Berardi Midfielder

56 Kornel Lisman Midfielder

29 Lion Lauberbach Attacker

95 Ale Gomes Defender

Rufai Mohammed Defender

7 Albion Rrahmani Attacker 63'

70 Pasquale Mazzocchi Defender 71'

21 Thórir Jóhann Helgason Midfielder 71'

3 Joel Schingtienne Defender 72'

8 Lamine Fanne Midfielder 82'

99 Frank Anguissa Midfielder

14 Nikita Contini Goalkeeper

32 Vanja Milinković-Savić Goalkeeper

70 Noa Lang Attacker

35 Luca Marianucci Defender

16 Rafa Marín Defender

11 Kevin De Bruyne Midfielder 54'

19 Rasmus Højlund Attacker 54'

27 Alisson Santos Attacker 54'

21 Matteo Politano Attacker 64'

17 Mathías Olivera Defender 82'