Napoli's stuttering start to their Serie A campaign continued on Saturday as Kevin De Bruyne's penalty miss proved costly in a 1-0 defeat to Venezia at Stadio Pier Luigi Penzo.
Venezia 1-0 Napoli: Hosts earn first Serie A win after De Bruyne penalty miss
The pressure continues to mount on Massimiliano Allegri after his Napoli side suffered a shock defeat to bottom-of-the-table Venezia.
Venezia came into the game as the only team in the division yet to register a point, but they took the lead in the 49th minute when Akor Adams found a way past Alex Meret.
De Bruyne then saw his penalty saved by Filip Stankovic in the second half, and despite dominating the closing stages, they could not find a way past the Venezia goalkeeper.
Massimiliano Allegri made five changes to the team that beat Frosinone last time out, and those alterations made for a disjointed opening as Adams' bouncing shot was saved by Meret before John Yeboah saw his attempt go well wide.
But Venezia needed Ridgeciano Haps to be in the right place at the right time to clear Amir Rrahmani's effort off the line, with Scott McTominay's deflected shot then looping over.
However, the hosts took the lead four minutes after the restart through Adams, who saw his strike deflect off Rrahmani and past Meret after the Napoli defender failed to deal with Simon Sohm's hopeful ball over the top.
Allegri responded by making a triple substitution, with De Bruyne, Alisson Santos and Rasmus Hojlund thrown on, and the latter almost made an immediate impact, but Juan Jesus brilliantly cleared Santos' cross off the line with the Dane lurking in the box.
Napoli were then handed a glorious chance to draw level in the 66th minute when Matias Moreno chopped down Hojlund in the area, but De Bruyne's spot-kick was superbly kept out by Stankovic.
Stankovic provided more heroics to ensure Venezia's first league win since returning to Serie A. He first clawed Stanislav Lobotka's shot from distance behind before he got down low to repel Matteo Politano, with Santos also seeing an effort cleared off the line by Haps as the hosts held on for a memorable win.
Venezia get up and running to pile pressure on Allegri
Coming into Saturday's clash, Venezia had lost all of their first six Serie A matches of the season for only the second time, after 1949-50 while also failing to win their last four top-flight matches at home, but they delivered a battling display to get their first points on the board.
Adams' strike saw Venezia score against Napoli in Serie A for the first time in eight attempts, and it was their first win over the Partenopei since a 4-1 victory at the Stadio Pier Luigi Penzo all the way back in March 1942.
Napoli, meanwhile, suffered their first defeat against a newly-promoted side in their eighth such match. They have now just taken one point from their last three away league games, last having a longer run between February and April 2025 (D4 L1).
It's a result that leaves Napoli down in ninth as Allegri's underwhelming start continues. Napoli have now lost five of their first nine matches of the season across all competitions (W3 D1) for the first time since 2001-02 (W2 D2 L5) when Luigi De Canio was in charge.
The visitors will, however, feel they should have come away with at least a point, but their late pressure amounted to nothing. Napoli finished with an expected goals (xG) total of 2.44 from their 29 shots, 10 of which were on target, compared to Venezia's tally of 0.63 from their nine attempts.
