Roma fight back twice to deny Napoli in six-goal thriller

Napoli and Roma shared six goals in an eventful contest at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona on Saturday, with the visitors refusing to surrender despite twice falling behind. Frank Anguissa opened the scoring with a spectacular overhead kick, and McTominay added two goals, but Matías Soulé and Leonardo Balerdi helped Roma recover before Balerdi headed home a late equaliser.

Napoli took the lead shortly before the half-hour mark when Anguissa converted after Matteo Politano’s delivery. The hosts continued to threaten, and McTominay doubled their advantage three minutes into the second half with a header from another Politano cross.

AS Roma responded through Soulé, who reduced the deficit in the 69th minute. Balerdi then levelled five minutes later after a corner created confusion inside the Napoli penalty area.

McTominay restored Napoli’s lead in the 83rd minute with a powerful right-footed finish, but Roma found another response. Wesley delivered from the right, and Balerdi headed home in the 89th minute to complete the comeback and earn his side a point.

Roma coach Gian Piero Gasperini believed the performance demonstrated his team’s ability to compete with one of the league’s strongest sides.

“Without taking risks, you don’t achieve your goals. I don’t know whether our way of playing is particularly risky, especially given the numbers we have defensively. We certainly play matches with the intention of winning them. Facing a very strong team like Napoli is a measure of how good we are. If you can play like that against Napoli, you can compete with many teams.”

Gasperini admitted that Napoli had caused problems early on, but said Roma grew into the contest and felt they could turn it around as the match progressed.

“We had the feeling that we could overturn it by creating our chances. The 3-2 was another blow because there wasn’t much time left, but at one point in the match we felt strong.”

Napoli manager Massimiliano Allegri was frustrated that his team had twice lost a lead, despite being pleased with much of the performance.

“It was a very good match from both teams, but there are moments when you have to defend. Unfortunately, we’ve let teams come back against us too often, and tonight we dropped two points.”

Allegri said Napoli had opportunities to extend their advantage and could not afford to let the result overshadow their overall display.

“The players should stay calm because they produced a very good performance. We had the chance to make it 3-0, and when you don’t score, the game changes.”

The Napoli coach was also sent off late in the contest. He joked that he had been dismissed for saying nothing, adding that he would refrain from even making a simple comment in future.

The draw leaves Napoli to reflect on another lead surrendered, while Roma can take confidence from a comeback that preserved their unbeaten league run.