Napoli Blow Lead, Lose 3-2 At Inter

Good evening, Napoli supporters, this is Napoli Tonight for Saturday 5 September.

Inter beat Napoli three-two at the Giuseppe Meazza this evening. Matteo Politano put Napoli ahead in the fiftieth minute, and Rasmus Höjlund doubled the lead for Napoli three minutes later. Inter responded: Lautaro Martinez pulled one back for Inter in the fifty-sixth minute, Marcus Thuram levelled for Inter in the eighty-second, and Martinez struck again for Inter in the ninetieth minute to complete the turnaround.

The story of the night was Massimiliano Allegri's team sheet. He left Kevin De Bruyne on the bench and started Antonio Vergara in midfield, with Marín preferred to Beukema in defence. It was a bold call, and before kick-off pundit Zancan had written that Napoli had more to lose than any of the other top sides this round. Two goals up inside an hour and then three conceded, it is hard to call the gamble a success. Napoli went into this game tenth with three points, after a home defeat to Como and a win in Genoa; the reaction Allegri asked for did not arrive, not for long enough.

Off the pitch, the transfer window has closed with Napoli forty-seven-point-five million euros in the red, despite signing almost nobody. The only real attempt of the summer, a loan for Juventus defender Federico Gatti, collapsed. The deficit instead comes from two deals struck back in 2025, for Rasmus Höjlund and Lorenzo Lucca, only now landing on the accounts as permanent transfers. UEFA's monitoring already flagged Napoli's squad cost ratio above the threshold for 2025, covered without sanction by past player-trading profits. The number is a warning, not a crisis, but it leaves a question hanging over what the club's spending power will be used for.

One better note: centre-back Luca Marianucci, still out injured, has agreed to extend his Napoli contract to 2032, his agent Mario Giuffredi confirmed.

That's Napoli Tonight for tonight. Every story, in full, at arenanapoli dot com slash e n. Back tomorrow evening at eight o'clock CET.