Napoli suffer first pre-season defeat on debut of big new stars

Napoli suffered a disappointing first pre-season 2-0 defeat to Arezzo, despite giving Kevin De Bruyne, Noa Lang, Lorenzo Lucca and Sam Beukema their debuts.

Antonio Conte will begin the defence of his Serie A title and the opening test for the summer was at the Dimaro training camp this evening.

Missing Scott McTominay and Matteo Politano due to slight muscular issues, he set them out in a 4-3-3 formation with De Bruyne, Lucca, Lang and Luca Marianucci in the starting XI.

Former Manchester City star De Bruyne fired over from an Alessandro Zanoli assist, while he combined a few times with Lang.

Arezzo received a penalty when Lang brought down Pattarello, who also converted past Alex Meret.

Conte made 10 changes to the line-up for the second half, keeping in only Andre Frank Zambo Anguissa, as Sam Beukema got his debut.

Napoli should’ve equalised when David Neres had two different shots parried on a Leonardo Spinazzola cross, then the Brazilian hit the woodwork from Romelu Lukaku’s assist.

Neres was very active, firing just over with an acrobatic finish, but Arezzo added a second late on when Varela pounced on a misplaced Pasquale Mazzocchi header to score one-on-one.

Napoli 0-2 Arezzo

Pattarello pen 38 (A), Varela 90 (A)

Napoli: Meret (Contini 46); Di Lorenzo (Mazzocchi 46), Marianucci (Rrahmani 46), Juan Jesus (Beukema 46), Olivera (Spinazzola 46); Anguissa, Hasa (Lobotka 46), De Bruyne (Raspadori 46); Zanoli (Zerbin 46), Lucca (Lukaku 46), Lang (Neres 46)