Lobotka gets Allegri's men back to winning ways
Stanislav Lobotka scored the only goal of the game as Napoli scraped past Bologna 1-0 in their Serie A contest at Stadio Diego Armando Maradona.
Antonio Vergara, Kevin De Bruyne, and Rasmus Hojlund all had chances to put Massimiliano Allegri's men ahead in the first half, while Arthur Theate saw a goal ruled out for Bologna.
But it was Lobotka who earned all three points for Napoli, coolly finishing just after the hour to lift the Partenopei to ninth in the still infant Serie A table.
Vergara headed over from De Bruyne's whipped delivery early doors, before Theate nodded in Lewis Ferguson's free-kick for Bologna, only for VAR to intervene after spotting an offside.
De Bruyne whistled one wide of the right-hand post from just inside the box, before Hojlund could only direct Matteo Politano's fizzing ball wide after Torbjorn Heggem and Massimo Pessina made a mess of things.
Shortly after the hour, De Bruyne slalomed his way into the Bologna area and pulled the trigger just as Ferguson slid in to make a brilliant block.
Hojlund then turned sharply in the area, and Heggem made a fine block as the Dane's strike went wide of Pessina's post.
But Napoli did take the lead after 66 minutes. De Bruyne sent Costantino Favasuli free down the right, and he picked out Lobotka to sweep past Pessina.
De Bruyne combined with Lobotka with 20 minutes to go, and the former's clever dink was brilliantly kept out by Messina, who also kept it at 1-0 in injury time when he stood up well to Favasuli's effort.
Stanislav Lobotka
SSC Napoli
