Napoli fight back to beat Torino

Posted Monday, October 06, 2014 by PA

Napoli rallied from behind to beat Torino 2-1 and secure their first home victory of the Serie A season despite the best efforts of local boy Fabio Quagliarella.

Rafael Benitez's expensively-assembled team have found results hard to come by thus far, with ambitions towards another title challenge already looking seriously threatened.

Naples-born striker Quagliarella did not help matters at the Stadio San Paolo when rattling a sensational opener past Rafael after 14 minutes.

The Azzurri missed countless chances to level before the break, but regrouped after the interval to pull off a comeback win thanks to goals from Lorenzo Insigne and Jose Callejon.

A third league victory sees Napoli climb to 10th place in the table while stuttering Torino are down in 14th.

Napoli bounced back from a dismal run of results by beating Sassuolo on the road last weekend, but it is at their own stadium where performances have been particularly poor.

Seeking to make amends the hosts pushed hard in the opening exchanges and Gonzalo Higuain went achingly close to finding the target with an early sighter.

But Torino, who caught Rafael napping with a bullet header from Kamil Glik on 10 minutes, would open the scoring in Naples.

It was a goal of rare beauty as Quagliarella controlled Nikola Maksimovic's cross on his chest before twisting his body to volley the ball into the top corner.

How Napoli failed to equalise - or indeed take the lead - before the break is a mystery.

When Insigne hit the post Higuain took two swipes at the loose ball, missing the mark with both efforts and, in the 25th minute, Gokhan Inler's long-range effort shaved a post.

Insigne looked certain to beat Jean-Francois Gillet in a one-on-one when put through by Michu but froze under the pressure.

Then, most improbably, Higuain managed to scoop the ball over the bar from a few metres out.

Their determination had been admirable but their focus was absent. It returned for the second half.

Within minutes of the restart Michu headed Christian Maggio's cross against the bar and, in the 55th minute, Insigne burst into tears of relief after nodding the ball beyond Gillet.

Kalidou Koulibaly emulated Higuain by fluffing his lines when well-placed to score, but it did not matter too much as Callejon turned the game on its head in the 72nd minute.

The former Real Madrid winger, put through by Insigne, got the better of Gillet with a scuffed finish.

Sensibly wary of surrendering their hard-earned lead in the final exchanges, Napoli pushed for a third goal and Inler nearly found it with a swerving shot from 20 metres out.

Alessandro Gazzi then tried to ruin the Azzurri's big night with a daisy-cutter on the stroke of full-time, but Rafael pushed the ball to safety, ensuring all three points would stay in Naples.