Pre-Season Friendly: Napoli 1 Porto 3

A string of defensive errors saw Napoli fall to a 3-1 defeat at the hands of Porto in the Emirates Cup friendly tournament on Sunday.

The Italian side took the lead courtesy of a Goran Pandev penalty late in the first half, but were pegged back early in the second as Nabil Ghilas finished well to restore parity.

And that goal prompted Napoli to push the self-destruct button, as Federico Fernandez put through his own net before Andrea Dossena became an unwilling provider for Lica to score.

Rafael Benitez’s men had in fact started the game in encouraging fashion, with the pacy trio of Pandev, Jose Callejon and Dries Mertens linking up well on the break having been handed starts.

They would be forced to wait until the 43rd minute to find the breakthrough, but were handed the opportunity to go ahead when Fernando needlessly pushed Pandev in the back as he entered the box.

The Macedonian subsequently brushed himself off before coolly dispatching the spot-kick to hand his side a lead they would take into half-time.

That advantage did not last long into the second half, however, as Ghilas brought Porto level by finishing brilliantly after latching on to a delightful through-ball with seven minutes gone.

Buoyed by that goal, the Portuguese side began to attack with added vigour, and they soon earned a deserved lead as a result.

Silvestre Varela utilised his pace to work space on the right-hand side before putting in a dangerous cross that Fernandez could only direct home with several Porto players lurking at the back post.

The scoring was then completed in equally disastrous circumstances 10 minutes later, as Dossena inexplicably passed the ball to Lica in the box and the 24-year-old passed the ball home.

Porto now top the 2013 Emirates Cup standings, but could be overhauled by Arsenal when they take on Galatasaray.