Napoli had to settle for a point after Bologna came from behind in a 1-1 draw at the Stadio Dall'Ara on Monday night.
Frank Anguissa drew first blood when he charged through the Bologna half leaving Rossoblu shirts trailing in his wake before rounding the keeper and scoring
The hosts levelled the scores midway through the second half when Dan Ndoye's backheeled flick went in off the underside of the bar.
Napoli assistant coach Cristian Stellini offered the following analysis after the match:
“In the first half we played with a lot of quality and intensity. Unfortunately we dropped off in the second half and weren't able to maintain the level of the first.
“We need to improve our consistency throughout the game. We didn't keep our shape. We got stretched and they beat us to the ball on a number of occasions. Obviously Bologna deserve a lot of credit for causing us problems but we knew they were a great team.
“We want to keep fighting till the end but we should also remember that we're having an excellent season and we're well within the Champions League spots, which was our goal at the start of the season. If we're able to keep performing at a high level and show the right mindset, we'll see how far we can go at the end of the season."
Juan Jesus felt that ultimately the draw was the right result.
“A point at this ground has to be seen as a good result given the way Bologna have been playing. We both had one better half and the draw is fair.
“We must keep going like this. We're still up there. We'll try to give it everything until the end of the season.”
Simone Scuffet, who produced a decisive save late in the game, looked at the positives.
“We feel a little disappointed because we had an excellent first half and took the lead, but we also have to admit that Bologna came back really well.
“We take a point away from a very tough ground where lots of good teams have lost. We could have got a better result but we have to look at the positive side because we're close to Inter and we picked up an important point for our league position.”
Bologna 1-1 Napoli (HT 0-1)
Scorers: Anguissa 18, Ndoye 65.
BOLOGNA: Skorupski (Ravaglia 25), Holm, Beukema, Lucumì, Miranda, Freuler, Aebischer, Orsolini (Cambiaghi 77), Odgaard (Fabbian 87), Ndoye (Dominguez 87), Dallinga (Castro 77).
Coach: Italiano.
NAPOLI: Scuffet; Di Lorenzo, Rrahmani, Juan Jesus, Olivera, Anguissa, Lobotka, McTominay (Gilmour 70), Politano (Ngonge 90), Neres (Raspadori 74), Lukaku.
Coach: Conte.
Referee: Massa (Imperia).
Booked: Di Lorenzo, Anguissa, Aebischer, Olivera.
