Lazio 0, Napoli 1: Player ratings and Man of the Match poll

Sometimes games just aren't pretty, but as long as they end in three points it doesn't much matter. Lazio dominated possession against Napoli, but the partenopei made the most of the chances they got and came away with the win. Who was their best performer on an odd-played day?

Starters

Rafael Cabral - 7 - One big save at the end, but otherwise, wasn't heavily tested. Did everything he needed to do as far as commanding his box, handling crosses, and just generally helping out his defense.

Christian Maggio - 5 - Not a great day for Maggio. Even before he got hurt late in the first half, he was struggling against Keita, and didn't help out the attack much. After he got hurt, well, he wasn't playing great and couldn't move on top of it.

Raul Albiol - 8 - Maybe his best match of the season so far, and a massive recovery from how poor he was against Juventus. Kept Klose quiet in the second half, and cleaned up a lot of messes in the first half. More of this please, Raul.

Kalidou Koulibaly - 8 - If you were wondering what happened to Lazio's starting striker, Djodjevic, in this match, you should check Koulibaly's pocket. He put the Serbian in there from the first whistle, zipped it shut, then sat on him for good measure. Another absolutely dominating performance for Koulibaly.

Ivan Strinic - 8 - You'd think Strinic had been part of this side for years with how solid and efficient he was today, not making his debut. For more on his performance, read up.

Walter Gargano - 4 - And we're definitely back to Bad Gargano Time. Horrifyingly sloppy in possession, gave up stupid and needless fouls, and whiffed on too many defensive assignments. Bring. Back. Jorginho. Now.

David Lopez - 6 - Had some issues in possession that were uncharacteristic, but was solid defensively, if sometimes overwhelmed because his partner wasn't playing well.

Jose Callejon - 6 - Pretty mixed bag for Ziggy today. Did much better in defense than we usually see, which was neat, but really struggled against Cavanda going forward and was too tired to take advantage of the Belgian getting subbed off.

Jonathan De Guzman - 5 - Didn't link up effectively with, well, anyone. In fact, for the guy who was supposed to be pulling the strings in attack, De Guzman was awfully uninvolved for most of the match, and turned it over too often when he was in the mix.

Dries Mertens - 5 - If Mertens wants to force his way in to more playing time... that wasn't the way to do it. Assisted on Higuain's goal, which was nice, but otherwise, he was ineffective in possession, gave away a few needless fouls, and got booked for an embarrassingly bad dive.

Gonzalo Higuain - 8 - Scored a fantasttic goal, and did most of Napoli's attacking work on his own all match long. Got heated at the end of the match and spent several minutes yelling at the ref, but when you get cleaned out by a defender right in front of the ref and it goes uncalled, you'd be mad too.

Substitutes

Marek Hamsik - 7 - Napoli's attack instantly got more effective, efficient, and dangerous when he stepped on to the pitch. Shocking, right?

Jorginho - n/a - Didn't really have a lot of time on the pitch to do much good, but didn't make any mistakes either, so there's that!

Duvan Zapata - n/a - Same as Jorginho. Also the victim of shoddy playcalling, called for an offsides that wasn't and the fact that he was pulled back and down from behind with two hands from the defender on the same play was completely ignored. Yay.

Who was your man of the match for Napoli against Lazio? Vote in the poll below and talk about the performances in the comments!