Player Ratings: Napoli 2-1 Sporting – De Bruyne & Hojlund shine – Football Italia

NAPLES, ITALY – OCTOBER 01: Rasmus Hojlund of SSC Napoli celebrates after scoring his side first goal during the UEFA Champions League 2025/26 League Phase MD2 match between SSC Napoli and Sporting Clube de Portugal at Stadio Diego Armando Maradona on October 01, 2025 in Naples, Italy. (Photo by Francesco Pecoraro/Getty Images)

Kevin De Bruyne was Football Italia’s Man of the Match as Napoli dispatched Sporting 2-1 in the Champions League tonight.

Napoli 2-1 Sporting – Player Ratings

Napoli: Milinkovic-Savic 6; Gutierrez 5.5 (Olivera N/A), Jesus 6.5, Beukema 6.5, Spinazzola 7; Lobotka 6.5, McTominay 6 (Lang 6), De Bruyne 9 (Gilmour N/A), Anguissa 6, Politano 6 (Neres 6) ; Hojlund 8.5

Best Napoli player: De Bruyne – Whilst I could have easily given this to Hojlund for his brace, the Belgian’s quality and experience in midfield rang true tonight, setting up both of the Dane’s goals. He was a constant presence in the middle of the park and the openness of tonight’s match suited him greatly.

Lowest Napoli rating: Gutierrez – The Spaniard was the weak link in the Napoli side tonight and was caught out a few times by the Sporting attack before being taken off with 10 minutes to go.

Napoli coach: Conte 7.5 – He made some decent tweaks as the game progressed. Allowing Sporting to have more of the ball, whether intentionally or not, was partly responsible for both Napoli’s goals, which came after periods of the visitors growing into the game.

Sporting: Silva 5; Araujo 5.5, Inacio 6, Quaresma 6 (Debast 6), Fresneda 6.5; Simoes 6.5 (Morita 5.5), Hjulmand 6.5; Catamo 6 (Suarez 7.5), Trincao 6 (Goncalves 6), Quenda 6.5; Ioannidis 5.5 (Alisson Santos 5.5)

Best Sporting player: Suarez – The forward came on at half-time and immediately showed more presence than Catamo. He won possession several times in key areas for the visitors and scored the penalty which got them back into the game.

Lowest Sporting rating: Ioannidis – Most of the visitors’ attacking opportunities came from elsewhere in the attack, as the centre-forward struggled to get past Napoli’s strong centre-backs.

Sporting coach: Rui Borges 7 – Not much more the visiting coach could have done. His substitutes were good and injected much needed bite into the team and his side were unlucky in the end to not come away with at least a point.

Read the match report here.