Roma rescues dramatic 3-3 draw at Napoli as Balerdi scores twice

Napoli went up 3-2 in the 82nd minute and looked to have the game won. But at the Diego Armando Maradona nothing was settled until the final whistle: Roma leveled it at 3-3 with a Leonardo Balerdi header in the 88th minute, confirmed after a VAR review, and walked away with a point from a match that had everything.

Napoli started the better side and it showed on the scoreboard. Frank Anguissa opened the scoring in the 27th minute with a right-footed shot from the center of the box after a free kick rebounded into his path, and right at the start of the second half, in the 47th minute, Scott McTominay made it 2-0 with a close-range header off a cross from Matteo Politano. With that scoreline, Massimiliano Allegri's side looked on course to take all three points.

Roma, though, refused to fold. Matías Soulé pulled one back in the 68th minute with a left-footed strike from outside the box, assisted by Donyell Malen, and five minutes later, in the 73rd, Leonardo Balerdi leveled the match with a close-range left-footed finish off a corner delivered by Santiago Castro. The game had flipped completely in the space of a few minutes.

The late back and forth

Just when it seemed the draw would hold, Napoli struck again. In the 82nd minute, Scott McTominay netted his second goal of the afternoon with a right-footed shot from outside the box, assisted by Mathías Olivera, making it 3-2. But Roma had one more answer in reserve: in the 88th minute, Leonardo Balerdi popped up again, this time with a header off a cross from Wesley, to make it 3-3 for good, a goal that needed VAR confirmation before it stood.

The match stats show Roma dominating possession and the buildup play, though that control did not translate into greater attacking efficiency than its rival's:

Roma had more of the ball, more total shots and far more corners, but it was Napoli that generated more danger with each attempt: 9 of its 15 shots were on target, a conversion rate well above its rival's. Our own expected goals estimate, calculated from the match's shots after the final whistle, gives Napoli 2.63 against Roma's 2.10, a figure consistent with a six-goal game that stayed open for both sides.

Before kickoff, our preview had projected a 33 percent chance of a Napoli win, 30 percent for a draw and 37 percent for Roma, with expected total goals of 2.53. The final result, with six goals split between the two teams, blew well past that goal expectation, though the drawn outcome did end up matching one of the three scenarios that projection covered.

What it means in the standings

In the Serie A table, Roma came into this match in third place with 18 points, the product of 5 wins and 3 draws in 8 matches played, with no defeats. Napoli, meanwhile, sat in tenth with 11 points, with a record of 3 wins, 2 draws and 3 losses in its 8 appearances. The gap between the two sides before this meeting was 7 points, and the draw leaves that relative distance in the table unchanged, even as it adds a point to each team's total.

A six-goal match, two partial comebacks and an outcome decided in the closing stretch, with Napoli watching a two-goal lead slip away and Roma, once again, keeping its unbeaten run in the league intact.