Venezia stun Napoli 1-0 to earn first Serie A win as De Bruyne penalty miss deepens Allegri pressure

Bottom club shock the Partenopei at the Penzo

Venezia ended a miserable start to their Serie A campaign in the most dramatic fashion on Saturday, beating Napoli 1-0 at the Stadio Pier Luigi Penzo to claim their first points — and first win — of the season. Akor Adams' 49th-minute strike and a stunning Filip Stankovic penalty save against Kevin De Bruyne condemned Massimiliano Allegri's side to a shock defeat against the division's only winless team.

Venezia arrived at the clash having lost all six of their opening Serie A matches — only the second time they have done so after 1949-50 — and under mounting pressure to deliver. They nearly broke through early when Adams' bouncing shot was saved by Alex Meret, before John Yeboah dragged an effort well wide.

Napoli, for their part, had looked short of rhythm. Allegri made five changes from the side that beat Frosinone 3-0 on 11 October — a game in which De Bruyne scored twice — and the alterations produced a disjointed opening. Ridgeciano Haps was alert to clear Amir Rrahmani's effort off the line, while Scott McTominay's deflected shot looped over.

The decisive moment arrived four minutes after the restart. Simon Sohm hoisted a hopeful ball over the top that Rrahmani failed to deal with, and Adams pounced, seeing his strike deflect off the Napoli defender and beyond Meret.

De Bruyne denied as Stankovic stars

Allegri responded with a triple substitution, throwing on De Bruyne, Alisson Santos and Rasmus Hojlund. The latter almost made an instant impact, only for Juan Jesus to brilliantly clear Santos' cross off the line with the Dane lurking.

Napoli were handed a glorious chance to equalise 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, who then produced a string of late heroics to protect Venezia's lead.

The Serbia goalkeeper first clawed Stanislav Lobotka's long-range effort behind, before getting down low to repel Matteo Politano. Santos also saw an attempt cleared off the line by Haps as the hosts held on for a memorable victory.

Allegri under fire as Napoli slide to ninth

The result piles further pressure on Allegri. 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) under Luigi De Canio. They slipped to ninth in the table and suffered their first defeat against a newly promoted side in their eighth such fixture.

For Venezia, the win was historic: their first over Napoli since a 4-1 victory at the Penzo back in March 1942, and the first time they have scored against the Partenopei in Serie A in eight attempts. The statistics, however, told a different story of control — Napoli finished with an xG of 2.44 from 29 shots (10 on target), compared to Venezia's 0.63 from nine attempts.