Juventus 2-0 Napoli: Alajbegovic scores stunner as pressure piles on Allegri

Kerim Alajbegovic scored a 70th-minute thunderbolt as Juventus got back to winning ways with a 2-0 victory over 10-man Napoli on Massimiliano Allegri's return to Turin.

Allegri and Luciano Spalletti were both under pressure coming into this crunch clash, but it was the latter who was on the right side of the result on Sunday.

The scoring was opened in style by Alajbegovic, with Jérémie Boga sealing the win in the closing stages after Napoli saw Luca Marianucci sent off for a second bookable offence.

Napoli made a strong start at the Allianz Stadium and only a sensational save from Guglielmo Vicario stopped Lorenzo Lucca's header from finding the net in the eighth minute.

Juan Cabal then hit the left post from Teun Koopmeiners' inviting corner, with Weston McKennie then seeing his appeals for a penalty waved away after Mathías Olivera clumsily stood on the back of the American's foot inside the area.

The visitors then almost punished Cabal's loose pass when Frank Anguissa collected possession and found Matteo Politano, but after he pulled back the ball for Noa Lang to strike, he could only fire his attempt over the crossbar.

Alex Meret then got down low to thwart Alajbegovic in first-half stoppage time, with Vicario then on his toes to challenge Politano after Jhon Lucumí's slip just before the hour.

Spalletti turned to his bench and introduced Edon Zhegrova, and he made the desired impact. His driving run saw him lay off the ball to Alajbegovic, who drove at the Napoli defence before crashing a superb strike into the net off the right post.

Napoli's hopes of a comeback were dented in the 75th minute when Marianucci needlessly chopped down Cabal and picked up his second yellow card, having received his first for pulling the shirt of Nick Woltemade.

And Juventus made their man advantage count three minutes from time through Boga, who cut inside from the left-hand side and bent a glorious shot into the bottom-right corner to seal the victory.

Napoli fail to heed Allegri's Juventus warning

Ahead of kick-off, Allegri described Juventus as being "wounded, not dead" amid their early-season struggles, but it was the Bianconeri who stepped up when it mattered most as Spalletti earned a much-needed victory.

It is just the fourth time this century that Napoli have suffered as many as four defeats in their first 10 matches in the top flight, after losing five of their first 10 in 2000-01 and four in both 2007-08 and 2009-10, leaving them down in eighth in the table and already 14 points adrift of league leaders Lazio.

It was a moment of magic from Alajbegovic that got Juventus rolling. Aged 19 years 41 days, he became the youngest foreign goalscorer to have netted in this fixture in Serie A. Overall, he is the third-youngest, behind Bruno Nicole in 1958 (18y 230d) and Felice Placido Borel in 1933 (18y 334d).

Juventus have now won 12 of their last 16 home Serie A matches against Napoli and have kept a clean sheet in all four of their most recent home games against them.

But it was a match that lacked quality in the final third. Juventus were only able to register an expected goals (xG) total of 0.79 from their 18 attempts, compared to Napoli's tally of 0.52 from their eight shots.