Billy Gilmour's Napoli return ends in sore defeat as fellow Scotland star Scott McTominay left out of team

Gilmour, 23, has been left on the substitutes’ bench in Napoli’s past two Serie A victories, but was restored to the starting XI for Thursday night’s Coppa Italia last 16 tie away to Lazio at the Stadio Olimpico.

Napoli manager Conte made sweeping changes to his team, including naming Scott McTominay as a replacement as the league leaders tried to utilise all of their squad ahead of a busy December schedule.

However, the move backfired in Rome, with Lazio striker Tijjani Noslin scoring a hat-trick as the hosts cruised to a 3-1 victory and booked a quarter-final clash at home to either Internazionale or Udinese. This was Napoli’s third defeat of the season across all competitions, adding to league losses against Verona and Atalanta.

Lazio were given an early chance to score when they were awarded a penalty on 21 minutes, but Mattia Zaccagni’s effort was saved by Napoli’s stand-in goalkeeper Elia Caprile.

However, the clean sheet did not last long when Noslin opened the scoring on 32 minutes, nodding home Samuel Gigot’s header back across goal from close range.

Napoli responded four minutes later when Giovanni Simeone slid home after David Neres’ effort was saved, only for Noslin to put Lazio ahead at the break after excellent work from Pedro.

Dutchman Noslin completed his hat-trick on 51 minutes when he headed home a cross from Zaccagni and while Conte summoned some of his regular starters such as Scotland star McTominay and Belgian forward Romelu Lukaku from the bench on 72 minutes, the damage had been done.

Former Rangers youngster Gilmour, capped 36 times for Scotland, completed the full match for Napoli in his first 90 minutes since helping Scotland defeat Croatia 1-0 on November 15 at Hampden.

Napoli, who lead Serie A by a point from Atalanta, will be given a swift chance for revenge when they lost Lazio in the league on Sunday. I Biancocelesti currently trail the leaders by four points in fifth place.

Scottish hopes, however, remain alive in the Italian cup after Lewis Ferguson’s Bologna and Liam Henderson’s Empoli progressed to the quarter-finals after victories over Monza and Fiorentina respectively earlier in the week.