Napoli looked weary and out of ideas as they slumped to a 2–0 defeat against Jose Mourinho’s Benfica, a result that now places their Champions League hopes on a knife-edge.
The injury list remained long for the Partenopei, with Stanislav Lobotka, Billy Gilmour, Kevin De Bruyne, André-Frank Zambo Anguissa, Miguel Gutierrez and Romelu Lukaku all unavailable.
As a result, Antonio Conte fielded the same side that had beaten Juventus at the weekend. Benfica, meanwhile, arrived with renewed confidence after ending their four-game losing streak in Europe by defeating Ajax.
Mourinho was still without Dodi Lukebakio, Henrique Araujo, Alexander Bah and Bruma, and made the bold call to start star striker Vangelis Pavlidis on the bench.
Benfica threatened early when Leandro Barreiro went down under pressure, but VAR agreed with the referee that Eljif Elmas had made a clean challenge.
The hosts should have struck moments later when Fredrik Aursnes broke free and teed up Franjo Ivanovic with a clever back-heel, only for Vanja Milinkovic-Savic to make a superb one-handed save before Aursnes fired the rebound narrowly wide.
Napoli almost gifted the opener when Milinkovic-Savic passed the ball straight to Aursnes, who somehow hit the side-netting from close range.
But the warning went unheeded, and Benfica took advantage soon after: Ivanovic nodded a cross into the box, and Richard Rios pounced quickest to stab the ball home from close range.
Napoli tried to respond, with Giovanni Di Lorenzo sending a header across goal and Scott McTominay colliding painfully with Matias Olivera while challenging for another aerial ball.
At the other end, Nicolas Otamendi saw an acrobatic effort blocked before skying the follow-up.
Conte made changes at half-time, shifting to a 4-4-2, but the adjustment brought little improvement. Benfica doubled their lead with a crisp move down the right flank, ending with Rios sliding a low cross into the box for Barreiro, who darted ahead of Amir Rrahmani to flick in from close range.
From that moment, Napoli’s confidence evaporated. Clear chances dried up as Benfica tightened their grip on the match. David Neres forced Trubin into a fingertip save, while McTominay stretched in vain to reach a Matteo Politano cross.
Milinkovic-Savic prevented the defeat from becoming heavier, denying Pavlidis twice in the dying minutes, first with a strong save from a powerful drive, then by standing tall to block a delicate lob.
With this latest setback, Napoli have now suffered five consecutive away defeats in the Champions League.
