Fiorentina rallies to draw with Napoli in a battle of two struggling sides in Serie A

Napoli jumped ahead early at the Artemio Franchi and looked set to take all three points, but Fiorentina drew level before the hour mark and the score stayed put from there: 1-1 in a Serie A clash that left both sides unable to pull away from the bottom half of the table.

Napoli's goal came in the 22nd minute, when Matteo Politano floated a corner into the box and Billy Gilmour met it with a right-footed finish to put his team in front. It wasn't the first warning from that side: minutes earlier, Mathias Olivera had tried both a header and a left-footed effort from close range without success. Fiorentina, for its part, had chances of its own before the visitors' goal, with a shot from Arthur Atta crashing off the crossbar in the 16th minute and an attempt from Nicolo Fagioli sailing over the bar.

The home side wasted no time responding after the break. Right at the start of the second half, Paolo Vanoli made a change on the bench, bringing on Valde for Viery, and five minutes in came the equalizer: Franco Mastantuono first tried his luck with his left foot, the rebound fell loose, and Alex Jimenez finished with his right foot from outside the box to make it 1-1, off an assist from Cher Ndour's header pass.

From there the match opened up, but neither side found a second goal. Napoli shuffled its lineup with the introductions of Lorenzo Lucca and David Neres, and had clear chances through Costantino Favasuli and Neres himself, both saved by David de Gea. Fiorentina, with Pote and Beto already on the field, pushed for a winner with Mastantuono as the main source of danger, but his shot in the 86th minute was also stopped. The match had its share of tension too: yellow cards for Franco Mastantuono, Luca Ranieri and De Gea himself, plus two injury-forced substitutions for Fiorentina late on, Alieu Njie and Luca Ranieri.

What the numbers say

Napoli controlled possession and was sharper going forward, though the gap wasn't huge. Here are the main figures from the match:

It's worth noting that Fiorentina actually took more shots, 17 to 13, though with less accuracy. According to our estimate based on the shots taken in the match, Napoli generated an xG of 2.187 against Fiorentina's 1.339, a gap that suggests the visitors had the higher quality chances even if it didn't show up on the final scoreboard.

Going into the match, our projection gave Napoli a 42% chance of winning, against 28% for Fiorentina and 30% for a draw, with expected goals of 1.41 for the visitors and 1.13 for the home side. The result ended up closer to the draw we had given the smaller probability to, and the shared points left both clubs in a position similar to where they stood before kickoff.

What the result means in the standings

Neither team comes out ahead in the table. Napoli sits on 7 points from 5 matches (2 wins, 1 draw, 2 losses), in 9th place, while Fiorentina remains on 4 points from 5 matches (1 win, 1 draw, 3 losses), in 16th. The gap between the two in the standings is just 3 points, a margin that makes clear neither club is off to a comfortable start this season. The draw at the Artemio Franchi doesn't change that picture much: Fiorentina picks up a point that stops the bleeding for now, while Napoli lets slip a chance to move closer to the top of the table.