Como had never won at Napoli in Serie A, and they were two up inside 34 minutes

Como went to the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona on Sunday having never won a Serie A match there, and having won two of their previous 26 top-flight meetings with Napoli. They led inside 17 minutes, led again by the 34th, and held on to win 2-1.

Everything that decided the game happened before half-time.

Seventeen minutes, and Napoli were behind

Assane Diao got away from Mathias Olivera down the right and rolled the ball back across the box. Martin Baturina met it, turned in one movement and drilled it low into the near corner from 10 yards past Alex Meret. It was the sort of finish that looks simple only because the turn before it was so quick.

Napoli answered on the half-hour. Rasmus Hojlund collected the ball on the edge of the area, spun and hit it low through a crowd of legs, and for four minutes the home crowd had the game back where it expected it to be.

Then Napoli gave the ball away in their own half. Baturina picked it up, carried it and squared for Tasos Douvikas, who had the goal in front of him and nobody near him. Thirty-four minutes gone, two goals down at home, and Como had not had to do anything clever to get either of them.

Allegri went to the bench and it did not work

Massimiliano Allegri sent Kevin De Bruyne on for Scott McTominay in the second half, and Napoli did get better. They pushed Como deep, worked openings, forced the visitors into the sort of last-ditch defending that usually ends with a home equaliser. It did not arrive.

Some of that is Como’s summer. Trevoh Chalobah and Yan Couto arrived for a combined fee of around 33 million euros plus bonuses, Couto from Borussia Dortmund, and Cesc Fabregas’s back line spent the second half under sustained pressure without breaking.

Two games in, and the table already looks odd

Como have four points from two, having drawn 1-1 at Udinese on the opening weekend. Napoli have three and sit tenth. They had opened with a 2-0 win at Genoa on 22 August, where De Bruyne scored on 82 minutes and Vergara added a second five minutes later, and looked like a side settling quickly into Allegri’s first season.

One home defeat in August decides nothing. But Fabregas has now taken Como to a ground where the club had never won in the top flight and beaten Napoli there, and he did it with a team that spent the second half defending its own box. That is a result worth more than three points to a club at Como’s stage.

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