Juventus 0-1 Napoli: Player ratings as Raspadori winner puts Napoli on brink of Scudetto
SSC Napoli are just one win and an Inter favour vs. Lazio away from winning their first Scudetto since 1990 thanks to Giacomo Raspadori's late winner against Juventus at the Allianz Stadium.
A frantic and thoroughly entertaining affair in Turin was eventually won by the substitute in the 93rd minute, meaning that Napoli are now 17 points clear atop of the Serie A table with just 21 points left to play for.
As expected, Napoli largely dominated possession in the first half while Juventus were happy to attempt to catch the visitors on the break when they overcommited in the final third.
There were a few incidences of this early on in the game, with Adrien Rabiot coming close to capitalising around the half-hour mark when he stormed into the right-hand side of the penalty box. His cross/shot attempt, however, lacked accuracy and span out for a throw-in on the opposite side of the pitch.
Despite having 69% of the ball, Napoli were likely disappointed by their inability to test Wojciech Szczesny in the Juve goal, having failed to hit the target with any of their measly four efforts on goal.
Luciano Spalletti began to look a bit more dangerous at the start of the second half, and Giovanni Di Lorenzo really should've opened the scoring for his team when he rose above Juan Cuadrado to win a header at the back post. His subsequent headed effort, however, lacked any real conviction and was comfortably gathered by Szczesny.
Napoli would come even closer to opening the scoring in the 70th minute after some stunning inter-play around the penalty box. Some quick exchanges between Eljif Elmas, Piotr Zielinski and Victor Osimhen would culminate in the latter fire a low effort off the foot of the post from 15-yards out.
A few minutes later, Osimhen came close again, this time latching onto a fabulous ball in behind the Juve defence from Di Lorenzo to half-volley just over the crossbar.
After seeing these two chances spurned by the visitors, Juventus went up the other end in the final 10 minutes to almost snatch all three points. Surprising defensive inclusions Federico Gatti and Daniele Rugani would combine to almost win the game for La Vecchia Signora in the 81st minute, but the latter's attempted overhead kick (yeah, genuinely) flew over the bar.
A few moments later, Angel Di Maria thought he had snatched all three points for Juve.
After latching onto a quick ball over to the Argentine from Manuel Locatelli, the World Cup winner stormed into the box before firing past Alex Meret, but a lengthy VAR review would lead to the goal being chalked off thanks to a foul from Arkadiusz Milk in the build-up.
In the added time at the end of the game, Napoli bagged an all-important late winner through Giacomo Raspadori to put them on the brink of their first Scudetto since 1990.
The substitute was found brilliantly by an Elmas cross from the right flank to volley home with precision into the bottom left corner of the net.
The goal and win means that Napoli can win the title next weekend when they face off against lowly Salernitana at the Diego Maradona Stadium.
Juventus player ratings
GK - Wojciech Szczesny (6), CB - Federico Gatti (7), CB - Daniele Rugani (6), CB - Danilo (7), RM - Juan Cuadrado (7), CM - Fabio Miretti (6), CM - Manuel Locatelli (6), CM - Adrien Rabiot (6), LM - Filip Kostic (7), AM - Mathias Soule (6), ST - Arkadiusz Milk (6).
Substitutes:
Angel Di Maria (6), Federico Chiesa (6), Nicolo Fagioli (6).
Napoli player ratings
GK - Alex Meret (7), RB - Giovanni Di Lorenzo (7), CB - Kim Min-jae (7), CB - Juan Jesus (7), LB - Mathias Olivera (8), CM - Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa (7), CM - Stanislav Lobokta (7), CM - Tanguy Ndombele (6), RW - Hirving Lozano (7), ST - Victor Osimhen (7), LW - Khvicha Kvaratskhelia (7).
Substitutes:
Eljif Elmas (7), Piotr Zielinski (7), Giacomo Raspadori (8), Amir Rrahmani (N/A).