Juventus extended their unbeaten run in Serie A to six matches, but wasted a chance to make further ground on the top four following a 1-1 draw with Napoli in a thoroughly entertaining contest at the Allianz Stadium.
Weston McKennie wasted a golden opportunity to give Juve the lead inside the opening five minutes when he rose highest in the area to meet a corner, but headed wide after ghosting into the box unmarked. The hosts continued their confident start to this contest, as Adrien Rabiot fired wide from Manuel Locatelli’s pass.
Napoli took the lead against the run of play in the 23rd minute thanks to Dries Mertens, who showed a cool head to fire a clinical strike past Wojciech Szczęsny after being brilliantly teed up by Matteo Politano. His importance to ‘I Partenopei’ is clear to see with this his sixth Serie A goal since the beginning of November – at least twice as many as any other Napoli player has managed in that time to give the visitors a 1-0 lead at half-time.
The ‘Bianconeri’ looked for a way back into the contest, and Álvaro Morata summed up their lack of prolificacy in front of goal this season by blazing an attempt over the bar. Federico Chiesa was the man who levelled the scores for the ‘Old Lady’, after the midfielder’s shot took a nick off Stanislav Lobotka before flying past David Ospina into the bottom corner.
It finished all square on the night, with Napoli still sitting pretty in third despite only winning one of their last six Serie A matches, while Massimiliano Allegri’s team sit fifth and five points adrift of Luciano Spalletti’s side.
