The Partenopei struggled to find their footing in the first half, with Kevin De Bruyne, David Neres, and Pasquale Mazzocchi not fully fit. Genoa, meanwhile, were missing Hamed Traore, Lorenzo Venturino, and Elias Havel, while Franz-Ethan Meichtry was only ready for the bench. Napoli's Alex Meret almost gifted a goal in the opening minutes with a weak pass out from the back, but Vitinha drilled just wide on the rebound.
Genoa threatened when Junior Messias went on the counter-attack and was blocked off by Spinazzola, it fell kindly for Sebastian Otoa to fire onto the side-netting. However, moments later it was Napoli who took the lead amid controversy. De Bruyne completed a give and go with Antonio Vergara's back-heel flick, and Johan Vasquez tried to shield the ball, but wasn't strong enough to resist the nudge in the back, allowing the Belgian to fire in undisturbed from seven yards.
Genoa were furious, feeling it was a foul, but Vasquez seemed to assume the free kick would arrive. Napoli doubled their lead soon after and Vergara was again involved. This time he sparked the counter-attack to send De Bruyne down the right, the roll across went past Lorenzo Lucca, but Vergara was ready to steer it back towards goal from a tricky angle. Otoa tried to clear off the line, but got it wrong and failed to stop the ball entering the net.
The win marks a promising start for Allegri's Napoli, who will look to build on this momentum in their next match.