Tiemoue Bakayoko snatched victory in the final minute for Napoli, as Udinese will rue wasted opportunities.

Lorenzo Insigne fired wide in the opening minute after the ball was given away cheaply in midfield, then Rodrigo De Paul fired over from the edge of the area.

VAR came to the rescue when Kevin Bonifazi clearly wiped out Hirving Lozano, a foul the referee and linesman somehow failed to spot in real time. Insigne converted with a hop, skip and jump to beat Juan Musso.

However, Napoli also lost Kostas Manolas to a muscular problem moments later. Rodrigo De Paul sent Pereyra clear, but the ex-Watford man couldn’t keep his finish down.

Giovanni Di Lorenzo whipped a great cross in from the right for Lozano’s diving header, but Juan Musso flew for an equally acrobatic save. On the resulting corner, Lozano again had a shot deflected, forcing Musso to fingertip over the bar.

However, Rrahmani showed how rusty he is in his first start for Napoli, as his weak back-pass for Alex Meret was intercepted by Kevin Lasagna, depositing into the empty net.

It was almost 2-1, as De Paul threaded through to release Lasagna, denied only by Meret sticking out a trailing boot.

Insigne’s volley from a corner was well smothered, and Napoli finally found the net in the last minute of normal time. A set play was floated into the six-yard box, where Tiemoue Bakayoko made the most of slack defending to turn a free header into the far top corner.

Bakayoko is, however, happy to have scored his first goal for Napoli, but claims the team must regain self-confidence.

“It’s a very important win for us, against a good team, we are going through a tough time, we had to give a signal,” Bakayoko told Sky Sport.

“I hope Napoli will continue to win, we must regain self-confidence, this win is so important for everyone, for us, for the coach and the club.

“I am so happy for my first goal in a Napoli shirt, especially because it allowed us to pick up all three points.”

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