National champions Napoli are still in free fall after another points loss to Monza, and a penalty miss prevents the worst.

Where was Napoli last season? The Italian national champion dropped to seventh in the world rankings and was again unable to beat Monza tonight. He survived a penalty kick after half an hour but was unable to set anything up after that. The match died a silent death: 0-0.

No goals, no spectacle, but another loss of points for Italian champion Napoli.

It was a 0-0 draw at home against mid-table Monza and it actually came off that way It's still a good approach, because midway through the second half Matteo Pessina missed a penalty kick for the visitors. He weakly kicked the ball at the goalkeeper (watch above).

Due to the suspension of strikers Matteo Politano and Victor Osimhen, the Neapolitans lacked firepower in attack. Substitute Gianluca Gaetano scored the winning goal in stoppage time, but his attempt was blocked by the visiting team's goalkeeper Michele Di Gregorio.

In its last five matches in the Italian League, Napoli won only once, which means the defending champion fell to seventh place in the standings with 28 points.

It seems that a new national title has become almost impossible. Napoli is already sixteen points behind leaders Inter, who have played one match less and will visit Genoa, led by Kuni de Winter, on Friday evening. Monza ranks eleventh with 22 points.

Fiorentina, who proved too strong for Genk in the Conference League, are performing much better this season. Thanks to Luca Ranieri's goal, Laviola narrowly beat Torino and rose to fourth place in the standings with 33 points. Torino is in the middle of the table with 24 points.