Fiorentina lost their first three games, and a deflection at the Franchi took two points off Napoli
Billy Gilmour volleyed Napoli in front after 23 minutes, but Alex Jimenez’s deflected shot six minutes into the second half left Massimiliano Allegri’s side ninth and six points off the top.
Sep 20, 2026
Napoli left Florence with a point and a problem. Massimiliano Allegri’s side are ninth in Serie A after five matches, six points behind the three clubs sharing top spot, and on Sunday they were pegged back at the Franchi by a Fiorentina team that had lost every one of its first three games this season.
Two off the bar, then Gilmour’s volley
Fiorentina started the better. Arthur Atta and Nicolo Fagioli both had shots turned onto the bar within two minutes of each other, the sort of opening spell a home crowd remembers all afternoon. Napoli scored instead. In the 23rd minute Billy Gilmour read a ball dropping out of a corner, ran onto it and cushioned a volley past David de Gea. It was the cleanest piece of football either side produced.
Jimenez levels off a deflection
The equaliser arrived six minutes into the second half and owed plenty to luck. Cher Ndour slid the ball to Alex Jimenez just outside the area, Jimenez struck it, and the shot clipped Rafa Marin on its way through. Vanja Milinkovic-Savic had committed one way and the ball went the other.
Both ends had openings after that. Neither side took one.
Vanoli has steadied Fiorentina
Two weeks ago Fiorentina were bottom of Serie A with nothing on the board. Fabio Grosso was sacked after losing the first three games of the campaign and Paolo Vanoli took the job. Since then Fiorentina have beaten Venezia in the league, put Pisa out of the Coppa Italia and now taken a point off Napoli. Three matches, no defeats.
Four points still leaves them 17th, and a goal difference of minus six is the residue of those first three weeks. The form line now reads loss, loss, loss, win, draw. Read it backwards and it looks like a recovery.
Allegri’s start is not what Napoli had in mind
Napoli have won two, drawn one and lost two. Como beat them at home in August, Inter came from two down to beat them in September, and now a draw against a side in the bottom four. Seven points from five games in the third week of September is hardly a crisis. It is not what a club has in mind, though, when it replaces Antonio Conte with a coach who has won Serie A six times and turned up from Milan with something to answer for.
Roma, Inter and Lazio are all on 13. Napoli have played the same number of games as all three.