Napoli may have found all three points at the Stadio San Paolo, but the turf had the last laugh -- the pitch in Naples was laughable, with not a blade of grass to be found. It could have been a strategy on the part of the partenopei, but the home side had to struggle to defeat Fiorentina.
Napoli 2-1 Fiorentina: Match Marred By The Dreadful Surface At The San Paolo
The sides went into the break scoreless, probably still trying to adapt to playing on what was, essentially, sand. The deadlock was broken in the 55th minute, when Marek Hamsik got on the end of a Camilo Zuniga free kick, nodding it over Emiliano Viviano. Or, at least, that's what the Slovak thought. He celebrated with the fans, providing a bit of merriment when he got himself caught in the dividers (no, oddly enough, it wasn't by his hair). However, replays showed the goal to have been made by Fiorentina defender Borja Valero.
The partenopei managed a second twenty minutes later, and this one was actually by one of their own, albeit an unusual goalscorer. Blerim Dzemaili took advantage of the Viola's failure to entirely clear a corner, unleashing a sharp shot from the edge of the area that Viviano could do nothing about.
Fiorentina pulled one back in the 87th minute. Stevan Jovetić -- who must have something written into his contract regarding not being able to score in the first hour of a match -- sent in a beautiful, curling shot from outside of the area, bouncing in front of Morgan De Sanctis and into the far corner.
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