Napoli’s title hopes take a hit with draw against Parma

A frustrating evening for Napoli saw it held to a 0-0 draw at home by lowly Parma as the defending champion potentially lost more ground in the title race. The Wednesday’s result left Napoli three points behind Serie A leader Inter Milan, which was playing against relegation-threatened Lecce later.

Parma, which had lost only one of its past four matches, continued to climb away from danger — moving to eight points above the relegation zone. Napoli had drawn its past two matches 2-2, including Sunday’s title showdown against Inter Milan — allowing it to be caught in third place by Roma and Juventus.

Antonio Conte had been sent off at San Siro and began his two-match touchline ban on Wednesday. Napoli thought it had taken an early lead against Parma but Scott McTominay’s strike was ruled out on video review as teammate Pasquale Mazzocchi was fractionally offside in the build-up.

Parma goalkeeper Filippo Rinaldi was making his senior debut and he pulled off a sensational save in the 27th minute to parry a bullet header from Alessandro Buongiorno at point-blank range. Rinaldi made a number of other saves as a resolute Parma defense managed to fend off a fierce Napoli assault.

The 23-year-old Rinaldi was named player of the match. One of the few positive notes for Napoli was the appearance of David Neres as a second-half substitute after he missed the past couple of matches with an ankle sprain. However, the Brazilian was clearly not fully fit and was taken off shortly before fulltime.