Napoli squeeze past Braga after late own goal drama

BRAGA: Napoli escaped Sporting Braga with a 2-1 win in their Champions League opener on Wednesday (Sep 20) after a Sikou Niakate own goal handed the Italians the points in the final minutes.

Rudi Garcia's side looked to be sharing the spoils in Portugal when Bruma flicked home a perfect header from Rodrigo Zalazar's cross with six minutes remaining after Giovanni Di Lorenzo had opened the scoring for Napoli on the stroke of half-time.

But with two minutes to go Niakate thumped Piotr Zielinski's cross into his own net to give wasteful Napoli a hard-fought Group C win at a soaking Estadio Municipal.

"We could have scored more goals in the first half ... and if you don't score that second goal you always risk conceding an equaliser," said captain Di Lorenzo.

"It was a big win, one that we wanted and fought for. We're happy."

Napoli are level on three points with Real Madrid, who beat Union Berlin 1-0 and travel to Naples in their next fixture early next month.

And the Italian champions will need to be more clinical in front of goal against one of the tournament favourites after missing a host of first-half opportunities and allowing Braga back into the match.

Napoli could have been leading Braga, in the Champions League group stage for the first time since 2012, by three or four goals by the break.

And in the end they had to be thankful that Pizzi's stoppage-time effort somehow stayed out after crashing onto the inside of Alex Meret's near post.

Garcia has a difficult job following on from Italy boss Luciano Spalletti, who quit Napoli in the close season after winning their first league title since 1990.

And Wednesday's win, the only one for an Italian team this week, will be welcomed by the Frenchman after a bumpy start to the