morgan de sanctis saved mario gomez's second-half penalty as the home side recovered from an early setback to earn a share of the group a spoils.
fc bayern münchen were denied a third successive uefa champions league group a win as they were held to an eventful 1-1 draw at ssc napoli.
the german visitors got off to a dream start when toni kroos gave them the lead inside 120 seconds but holger badstuber's 39th-minute own goal levelled matters. bayern regained the initiative, and would have had their reward had morgan de sanctis not saved mario gomez's second-half penalty.
the home fans were packing out the stadio san paolo fully three hours before kick-off but were immediately silenced when kroos, picked out by jérôme boateng's right-wing cross, controlled wonderfully before firing bayern ahead. it was an ominous start from a side that had won 11 of their last 12 competitive matches without conceding.
it proved a sign of things to come, and apart from hugo campagnaro's early shot, redirected past the upright by edinson cavani, napoli struggled to make an impact. at the other end philipp lahm and gomez sent fierce shots wide and the hosts were grateful for paolo cannavaro who, during a rash of corners, crucially poked the ball from under gomez's nose after de sanctis had saved from boateng.
slowly but surely napoli came out of their shell and their effort produced a fortuitous equaliser before half-time. christian maggio got the run on lahm and wheeled away with glee after his low cross was turned in by badstuber – the first goal manuel neuer had conceded in 1,147 minutes.
the start of the second half was almost as dramatic as the first. within four minutes of the restart bayern were awarded a penalty for a handball by cannavaro, already booked and now ruled out of the rematch in a fortnight. gomez, who scored a spot kick at the weekend, went for power over precision and de sanctis, diving to his left, gratefully gathered.
the miss only strengthened bayern's resolve and for the next quarter of an hour they stormed forward at a breathless pace, only last-ditch tackles thwarting the relentless surges of franck ribéry, bastian schweinsteiger and thomas müller.
napoli weathered the storm, maggio, cannavaro and campagnaro integral to walter mazzarri's side earning a draw that keeps them two points behind the section leaders. still bayern will rue missed chances, none greater than four minutes from time when schweinsteiger concluded a lung-busting run with a disappointing finish. it summed up the visitors' night.
