MILAN: Napoli’s Romelu Lukaku and Andre Zambo Anguissa scored in stoppage time to snatch a dramatic 2-1 comeback win over promoted Parma in Serie A on Saturday.

Antonio Conte’s side moved up to fourth in the standings following their second victory of the campaign.

Feisty Parma, who beat Milan last week, looked to be on their way to a second surprise win of the season thanks to a 19th-minute penalty from Ange-Yoan Bonny.

The visitors had chances to extend the lead but Napoli looked more threatening after the break when new signing Lukaku came on to the pitch.

The momentum changed significantly when Parma keeper Zion Suzuki was shown a second yellow card for a foul on David Neres, causing defender Enrico Del Prato to take over in goal with no further substitutions available.

Napoli thought they had won a penalty for a foul on Giovanni Simeone, only for it to be overturned by VAR in the 90th minute.

But Lukaku grabbed the equaliser two minutes later with a low shot from 12 yards from a Leonardo Spinazzolla through ball before Zambo Anguissa’s header sealed the win in front of an ecstatic home crowd in the 96th minute.

“It is an honour to play for this club, these fans and also for these lads, who gave me a really warm welcome,” former Chelsea and AS Roma forward Lukaku told DAZN.

“We worked really hard and the effort we put into training paid off. It is something of a habit that I score on my debut, but we won and that’s the most important thing. I am very happy, but now we need to work and keep winning.”

Meanwhile, AC Milan were held to an entertaining 2-2 draw at Lazio.

Milan coach Paulo Fonseca dropped star players Rafael Leao and Theo Hernandez as he tried to shake things up following two deeply disappointing opening displays.

But both were brought on shortly after Lazio took the lead in the 66th minute following two quickfire tap-ins from Valentin Castellanos and Boulaye Dia which cancelled out Strahinja Pavlovic’s early opener.

And Leao almost immediately levelled the scores after combining with Hernandez and fellow substitute Tammy Abraham, who made his Milan debut less than a day after arriving on loan from Roma.

However Milan sit 14th on two points, hardly the start fans were hoping for after Fonseca replaced Stefano Pioli during the close season.

“We had a good first half. We always managed the game well with the ball. When you control the game like this we have to have more moments to become dangerous, but it’s something we have to work on,” Fonseca told Milan TV.

Published in Dawn, September 2nd, 2024