Napoli won 2-1 over Udinese, but only after stop-time strike by Arkadiusz Milik and Matteo Politano finished the rebound to defeat Udinese.
Within the first nine minutes, Ilija Nestorovski had the ball in the net but was so obviously offside, that even VAR interference was not needed.
Then, through Piotr Zielinski and Lorenzo Insigne, Napoli had a string of less than encouraging attempts.
But it was Udinese that took the lead on their first true attempt.
No one tried to cut off from the left the Marvin Zeegelaar pass and Rodrigo De Paul rifled in from the edge of the penalty spot.
Mario Rui made a vicious left-foot drive instantly, as Juan Musso fingertipped across the near-post. But Dries Mertens went off after a push backwards.
Also, David Ospina caught a risky De Paul cross at Kevin Lasagna’s feet, when Milik stung the gloves of Ospina from afar.
Zielinski would have scored against his former club, with a rocket from the edge of the box, but Musso fingered it on the underside of the bar. The ball went bouncing off the line and back out again.
To analyse this move, goal-line technology was needed, since the ball was at least halfway in.
De Paul then felt he would definitely score at the 82nd minute.
After an Eljif Elmas mistake, Lasagna sent the ball clear when he dinked it over Ospina but Kalidou Koulibaly got back for an amazing goal-line clearance.
It was lucky too, because he pushed it back to the upright and the hop brought it down.
Instead, as replacement Matteo Politano clustered on the outside of the box and struck a scorcher off the inside of the near post, Napoli stole victory deep into stoppages, leaving Musso no shot.
Napoli – Udinese (2:1):
Goals: De Paul 22 (U), Milik 31 (N), Politano 95 (N)
Napoli: Ospina; Hysaj, Manolas, Koulibaly, Mario Rui; Fabian Ruiz (Elmas 80), Lobotka (Demme 71), Zielinski (Allan 80); Callejon (Politano 70), Mertens (Milik 31), Insigne
Udinese: Musso; Becao, De Maio, Nuytick; Stryger-Larsen, De Paul, Walace (Troost-Ekong 89), Fofana, Zeegelar (Ter Avest 82); Lasagna (Sema 93), Nestorovski
Ref: Chiffi
