Como arrived at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona as visitors and left with three points, beating Napoli 1-2 in a match decided by a seventeen-minute burst in the first half that Massimiliano Allegri's side never recovered from.

The shape of the game was set before the half-hour mark. Como midfielder Martin Baturina opened the scoring in the 17th minute, finishing with an assist from Como winger Assane Diao. Napoli responded quickly — Rasmus Højlund, the Napoli forward, levelled in the 30th minute from an assist by Amir Rrahmani, a defender pushing forward — and for a few minutes the Maradona seemed to have steadied itself. Then, four minutes later, Baturina turned provider, threading the ball through for Anastasios Douvikas to score what proved to be the decisive goal. The sequence — Como goal, Napoli equalizer, Como lead-taking goal — was compressed into seventeen minutes, and the scoreline at 34' was the scoreline at full time.

Baturina is the natural focus here. The Como midfielder both scored the opener and assisted the winner, and his withdrawal in the 58th minute — replaced by Maxence Caqueret — came with the job already done. That double contribution in the first half defined the contest more than any tactical adjustment either bench made. Fàbregas's Como side, which had drawn 1-1 at Udinese in their previous Serie A outing, showed in this performance that the draw on the road was a floor, not a ceiling.

Napoli's difficulty was structural as much as individual. Allegri made three substitutions simultaneously at the 56th minute — Alisson Santos for Noa Lang, Leonardo Spinazzola for Mathías Olivera, and Kevin De Bruyne for Scott McTominay — a triple change that signals dissatisfaction with what the first hour produced rather than a measured tactical evolution. The problem was that the deficit was already in place. Giovanni Di Lorenzo collected a yellow card in the 37th minute, adding a disciplinary edge to what was already a difficult afternoon. Further changes came at the 80th minute, with David Neres and Lorenzo Lucca introduced, but Como's defence, which had conceded nothing in the second half, held without alarm.

The historical context between these clubs adds a layer of curiosity: across three previous meetings, the head-to-head record shows no wins for either side — three draws. This was Como's first victory in the fixture, and it arrived in a manner that will encourage Fàbregas. His side have collected eleven points from their last five matches across all competitions, and seven from their last three. That form arc — built partly in pre-season cup fixtures but now confirmed with a competitive scalp — suggests Como are not simply surviving in Serie A but building something with genuine momentum.

For Napoli, the arithmetic is blunt. They opened the season with a 2-0 win at Genoa, which gave Allegri's side three points and a clean sheet. This defeat strips away the early optimism. The Partenopei have three points from two Serie A matches, and the manner of the loss — conceding twice in a seventeen-minute window and failing to find a second goal despite five substitutions — raises questions about the squad's capacity to respond when a game turns against them.

A month from now, this match will be remembered as the afternoon Martin Baturina scored and created in the same game to hand Como their first-ever Serie A win at the Maradona, and to remind Allegri that early-season confidence is not the same as early-season resilience.