The game was barely five minutes old when Yerry Mina and Victor Osimhen appeared to indulge in some MMA-style grappling, with the Nigerian bodyslamming his Colombian opponent into the ground without punishment.
That set the precedent for an opening half-hour high on tension but low on finesse – though with a bit more of the latter, Gianluca Lapadula could have bookended Cagliari’s 14-game streak of first-half H2H blanks, but he could only direct a close-range header straight at Alex Meret.
Shortly after being denied a penalty after going down in the area under pressure from Mina, Giacomo Raspadori found space to arrow a shot towards the far corner of Cagliari custodian Simone Scuffet’s net, before the man himself saved at full stretch.
There would be an even bigger scare at the other end though, with a free kick from Gianluca Gaetano seeing Amir Rrahmani head into his own net under pressure from an offside Lapadula. The Sardinians’ cheers were quickly muted by a VAR screen check that overturned the original call.
The first-half drama wasn’t over there either, as a duel between Lapadula and Meret ended with the Napoli goalkeeper floored, and Luvumbo was gifted a free header towards an open goal that he put wide.
Having looked every inch the league’s worst defending champions for three decades, Napoli needed a jolt at half-time, but Cagliari continued to put the frighteners on after the interval, with Luvumbo passing to Lapadula inside the box, only for his teammate to fire agonisingly wide.
Cagliari would pay for that miss dearly, as Napoli finally struck gold just after the hour mark. After being let off from an Osimhen header moments earlier, a turnover in possession allowed Raspadori to cross from the right flank and find the onrushing Nigerian at the far post.
Osimhen couldn’t miss from the diving header, and finally hit double figures in all competitions this term, while extending his own 100% scoring record against Cagliari to five games – with that strike being the fourth match opener within that impressive streak.
The hosts went through the motions and made several promising forays forward, and they finally struck with the final attack of the game. Having worked tirelessly throughout, Luvumbo benefitted from a through-ball by Alberto Dossena and fired in beyond Meret to send the Unipol Domus wild.
For Napoli, this result encapsulates all that has gone wrong this term. Meanwhile, Cagliari will celebrate a famous result, but their quest to escape danger gets no easier, with March’s action seeing them start on the road against an Empoli side unbeaten in six matches.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Giacomo Raspadori (Napoli)
