Napoli and Roma Draw 3-3 in Six-Goal Serie A Thriller

Napoli and Roma played out a 3-3 draw in Serie A, Italy's top league, on 24 October. Napoli led three times and still could not hold on to a win.

Frank Anguissa opened the scoring for Napoli with an overhead kick, a shot struck backwards over his own head. Scott McTominay doubled the lead in the 48th minute, and for a while the home side looked in control.

Roma came back into it. Matías Soulé struck from outside the penalty area in the 69th minute, and Leonardo Balerdi levelled from a corner five minutes later. A corner is a free kick taken from the corner of the pitch, and it has produced plenty of goals this season.

McTominay then put Napoli ahead again, with a shot from almost 30 yards out. It looked like the winner. Roma were not done. In the 89th minute Balerdi rose to head home a cross from Wesley, and the score finished 3-3.

The Guardian noted McTominay's journey back to form. He was out for the whole of September while he recovered from a procedure to correct an irregular heartbeat, known as arrhythmia. Midweek, he scored twice in Napoli's 4-3 win over Bodø/Glimt in the Champions League, the top club competition in Europe. Two goals in a Champions League game, and then one of the best strikes of the afternoon against Roma.

Napoli came into the match in a difficult spell. They had lost five of their first nine games in all competitions, including defeats to Villarreal and Venezia. Roma, by contrast, were unbeaten. Neither side left with the result it wanted, which makes the draw feel like a point gained for one team and a point dropped for the other.

There was also drama off the pitch. Reuters reported that Lazio went top of the table with a win over Parma in the same round. Napoli coach Massimiliano Allegri was shown a red card during the game, which sent him away from the touchline for the rest of the match. Yahoo Sports carried the story of his anger at the decision.

For a neutral, the match had everything. It had goals from a range of players, a comeback, a sending off and a late equaliser. A 3-3 draw in Serie A is not a common sight, and it kept the crowd on its feet until the final whistle.