Scott McTominay saw a right-footed shot from outside the box kept out by Emil Audero as Napoli hosted Cremonese at the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium on Friday, and the moment underlined a night of opportunities that went begging for the home side.
The save came after Kevin De Bruyne supplied the assist, and it was one of several clear Napoli openings that failed to yield a goal. Rasmus Højlund missed a left-footed shot from the right side of the box, Scott McTominay also had another right-footed attempt from outside the box that missed, Miguel Gutiérrez dragged a left-footed shot wide from distance, and Alisson Santos saw a right-footed effort from the left side of the box blocked.
The game was also interrupted when McTominay was involved in a delay because of an injury, briefly halting Napoli’s attempts to turn pressure into a lead. Those incidents left the stadium watching a team that produced several significant efforts but could not convert them into the kind of finish their position in the standings demands.
The stakes are immediate: Napoli sit 12 points behind Inter with five matches remaining, and the margin leaves little room for error if they are to close the gap this season. The club arrived at the Maradona ground still smarting from last weekend’s 2-0 loss to Lazio, a defeat that ended Napoli’s unbeaten run at the stadium and — in that game — saw them fail to register a shot on target. This outing produced chances, but the failure to finish brings fresh urgency.
Nobody on the pitch can escape context. Napoli remain without Giovanni Di Lorenzo, Romelu Lukaku, David Neres and Antonio Vergara for the weekend match, a list of absences that complicates a team already pressed by the title race. Cremonese came to Campania as a club that had not beaten Napoli in Serie A in 32 years — their last win in Lombardy came in 1994 — and had no wins on record against Napoli in the region, yet they arrived fighting for points of their own.
Cremonese are level on 28 points with 18th-placed Lecce and are on a three-match winless sequence, with two of those fixtures defeats. Their away form has been a recurring issue: four of their last five away matches ended in defeat and they have 10 away losses overall, more only than Lecce. Federico Bonazzoli is their leading marksman this season but has not scored from open play since the March 8 loss at Lecce, a drought that has left Cremonese hunting different sources of goals. Youssef Maleh and Jari Vandeputte supplied scores in the club’s first away win since December, a reminder that their results pattern can still produce surprises.
The tension in Naples is simple: chances were created but not finished, and injury disruption to a key forward moment like McTominay’s forces questions about capability and depth just when the calendar leaves no forgiveness. Leonardo Spinazzola captured the mood in two words — "mental energy" — a compact prescription for a side that must recover confidence as much as form in the run-in.
If the title race will be decided over the next five fixtures, the most immediate question after this match is who can provide the goals Napoli are missing. McTominay’s saved effort and the subsequent stoppage left the team's attacking burden clearly visible; how the squad responds, and whether those absences heal in time, will determine whether Napoli turn a series of well-worked chances into the points they need.
